"The 4th Post"

How does your philosophy now differ from your attitudes toward leadership at the beginning of the course?

First I would like to say, Matt thank you for your genuine leadership, encouraging words and inspirational leadership. At the beginning of class I definitely didn’t expect the class setting to be so open to ones ideas, opinions or personal experiences. At first the class setting was uncomfortable because personally it takes me a while to open up to people about my thoughts, ideas, opinions and personal experiences. I know that I am not always totally accurate about things and that low confidence in myself of not knowing holds me back. At the beginning of the course I learned that some people will listen and some people will stick to their own “right” opinion. I was thinking the class would be more book base lectures in relation to our lives, experiences and personality but it was different. I think it was just enough lecturing moments to open our perception of understanding leadership and relations with others. The book was a great reading source, helping me to see the break down structure of what type of leader I am, where I stand as a leader, strategies to use to be an effective leader, advantages and disadvantages of my leadership skills currently.

At the beginning of the course I thought my weakness was being an introverted person more than an extroverted person. I thought because I had some traits of an extrovert I needed to be a loud out spoken person. I needed to have more characteristics of an extrovert person because I was always battling the fence of an extrovert or introvert. I did learn that I was more of an introvert overall and I feel that introverts are great listeners. I feel that I am a great listener, listening most of the time to students personal experiences which helped me realize why we have such strong opinions. I feel that the classroom setting made me a great listener and understanding everyone’s view point in multiple perceptions. My philosophy at the beginning of the course was that everyone can’t be a leader. Now my philosophy is that everyone can be a leader rather you’re an extrovert or introvert because everyone takes a leadership role somehow and it doesn’t always have to be the traditional way. One thing that I think is funny is our interview questions about leadership. When interviewing the Leah I couldn’t imagine myself answering those questions about managing stress, developing relationships, and that "Ah-Ha" moment. Now I can imagine myself answering those questions because everyone has so many different stories to tell but they all relate to concepts of leadership.

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Leadership Stories in relation to the Ohio State University

1. What is one or more of your most inspirational stories of leadership at the Ohio State University?

2. What are the most important decisions you made as a leader of your organization?

3. How did you manage stressful decisions or situations?

4. How did you establish or develop healthy relationships with your patients and co- workers?

5.  How did your leadership actions play a role in your accomplishments?                     

"What is a comment, thought, or action from one of your classmates this semester that has re-framed your perspective on leadership in some way?”

"What is a comment, thought, or action from one of your classmates this semester that has re-framed your perspective on leadership in some way?”

The pipe class exercise really re- framed my perspective on leadership, questioning the role leadership. The goal was for everyone to work together if you were on team A or B for the class exercise, which was successful the first time and everyone was excited to get the golf ball in the cup. Before team A was successful in the exercise, one of the B team members had to come up with a great plan and communicate the plan thoroughly to both teams, than make an attempt to get the golf ball in the cup. Before I get into more detail I would like to share my perspective of being on the B team and what made me question the roles of a leader. Other B team members had ideas how to successfully get the golf ball in the cup before I could speak up.

I feel that it was best and respectful to make suggestions on how to perfect their idea or if the ball was picking up to much momentum in a certain area. I addressed B team members one on one so they could hear me clearly since have a soft spoken voice and wouldn’t be able to yell across the room. One of the B team members came up with a great plan that seemed to be working and both teams worked together to make his idea successful. After the first successful run, everyone was motivated to come up with new ideas to complete the next goal. I threw some ideas out there to both team A and B but I don’t think I was heard. so I went back into pyshically helping position the height of the pipes or letting team A know where we needed 1 or 2 pipes to continue the motion of the golf ball to the cup. When both teams started to yell about strategies, talking over one another, cutting each other off, and not listening to one another I started to question the role of a leader.

I thought a leader had to be loud and have an out spoken voice in order to be heard but that wasn’t the case in this situation. I feel in most situations such as this one, it depends on the audience, peers, or associates they have to listen, hear, and be respectful of others. I realize that my weakness is my voice; I have to speak up first before someone else comes up with the same idea that I have or comment but we all must listen attentively with respect.

In our textbook Exploring Leadership it talks about “I”-“You”-“We” and I bring this up because the company I work for just started to us this leadership strategy but now I have a greater understanding of it. For us as students, to be an effective leader we must understand when to use these to have a greater understanding of self and others. In this method “I” focuses on the individual, “you” emphasizes on listening/engaging and “we” puts attention on equals/ community. In chapter 5 it defines pluralism groups which mean a “plethora of differences that need to be understood to accomplish shared goals”. I think if everyone of us would applied this to the exercise and pluralistic leadership we would of made our second goal successfully. But I will always try to remember this quote to be an effective leader, “communication requires one to listen with empathy listening with your ears, eyes, and heart”.

"How are values critical to leadership and what are my own personal values?"

"How are values critical to leadership and what are my own personal values?"

   

 Being a leader values are critical and personal values make you into the leader you are today.  I think motivation is important to express when learning critical values in leadership and being a cognitive thinker. When an individual has motivation they feel they can overcome anything and be successful. With motivation those critical values of leadership such as purpose, empowering, ethical, inclusive and process-oriented will become internal in you. These five components will help you have knowledge of self, conscious of your environment, open-minded, sensitive to others, seeing clearly, respecting others and being aware. I think before having knowledge of critical values we must have self-awareness. Self-awareness helps identify your strengths, weakness, self-concepts, self-esteem and personal identify. In leadership it is critical to be responsible because everyone has self-control, internal motivation and is responsible for their own actions; so blame yourself before blaming others.

 One of the most important personal values to me is honesty. Having a healthy honest relationship also starts with knowledge of self and openness to appreciate and respect others. Most people cannot be honest because they are thinking what someone else is thinking about them or being social ably acceptable. We have to find out who we are by listening to ourselves, identifying satisfaction of accomplishment, knowing what you find easy to grasp, studying your mistakes, acknowledging your success and labeling them can help with confidence and self-esteem. Honesty or being trustworthy helps individuals feel comfortable and confident having moral conversations with others. Moral conversation is another way of being aware of the different views of others by sharing stories, religion, politics, social class, ethnic, and cultural content. In the text it states that the “Golden Rule” was to listen to others as we would want to be listened too. But having moral conversation and listening we always should “only have conversational starter’s not conversational stoppers” leaving the person with integrity.

  Some other personal values other than I mentioned like trustworthy or responsibility are fairness, caring, citizenship and faith.  These values help me understand my personal preferences and how I will function in the real world and how I am perceived by others being introverted. Some of my values are so resilient I am uncomfortable with psychological study of individuality because focusing on my own needs or on myself is considered selfish in my family and culture. Personal preferences and psychological types are supposed to tell you about yourself such extravert, introvert, sensing, intuitive, feeling, thinking, judging, or perceiving helping you become more self-aware. We all have different grouping preferences to leadership and it’s important to have knowledge of others personality preference’s to avoid conflict having a more open-mind and understanding of others.

I wasn't planning on taking this class but it had become an interest. When I saw that it was available for the second session I jumped right on it .I was wanting to take a class that was different but also beneficial as a individual and my major. Before registering for Team and Organizational Leadership (ESHESA) I was currently in a particular class that I did not like as much and thought it was needed for my major.I went to the advising office to possibly switch the class that I was currently in for something more interesting. Well I was trying to find another interesting class my advisor told me that the current class was not required for my major. At the moment I was relieved but still needed to find a class available during the second session.That's when I came across ESHESA, which I thought was perfect to learn more about the important perspectives of leadership.

I am  taking this class wanting to better my leadership skills, collaboration skills, knowing whats appropriate and inappropriate for a leadership role. I feel that I am working up to be a great leader but there are some aspects of leadership that I need to work on such as being more demanding and out spoken about my own ideas or view point. I want to be able to disagree and agree with out any conflict  or being equally fair without my own mind set interfering.I want to be able to review concepts and situations effectively making the right decisions. I want to be able to lead others in multiple valuable ways and not just one right way. A leader to me is innovator, motivator, inspiring, honest, creative, great decision maker, extroverts well, productive, a team player and has good personality traits.