"I'm starting with the man in the mirror"

This week's topic in class was change. I love this topic! The only constant in life is change, and it is up to the leaders to direct the change in the direction it will go. It takes a good leader to utilize people around him or her to get people excited about change. Often times, it is difficult to get people to support change because it is different and the outcome is usually unknown. What i liked best was we have to change the people around us first and create a domino reaction of sorts. There needs to be an change agent to come up with the idea, but it also takes people that are respected and listened to in order to spread change. In our discussion, we talked about changing groups for a little bit, but more importantly we talked about changing ourselves. Much effort is required in order to change ourselves. I have many obstacles that i need to tackle and now i understand some ways to change us. Habits lead to character, so this week i focused on making better habits. Some things are easier now because I've practiced them. I still have a long way to go though.

Leadership in the home

This week we talked about leadership in the home and how important it is. This was very intriguing to me. Recently I have felt that as a leader I may not be the best out there. I have many flaws and problems that I feel are limiting my ability. Since I like to see things in "big picture" terms I feel discouraged at times because I don't make a large impact. After the lecture I realized that I need to change my approach to leadership. Instead of going from the top down, I need to work from the bottom up. There are so many friends and peers and classmates around me that I only know on a simple relationship. I need to improve these in order to become an effective leader. Each person that I can impact on an individual level can eventually impact a lot more people. The 20x20x20 rule was interesting because it shows the impact I can make if I start with the people close to me. One way to do this is to become the best person possible in the home so that my example can wear off on others. It is important as a leader to integrate good morals and values into the private life so it will reflect on the public. Obviously there is a certain line between private and public affairs that leaders need to be aware of. It takes some practice and skill to be able to speak your mind without offending others. Good leaders know how to change peoples perspective and persuade them to do certain things. To do this I need to be able to know the people who surround me better. Understanding is vital to be understood. I am focusing on listening to everybody and trying to relate to them. During my experiences in the past I know that my influence can be more effective if I know my crowd. Constant reminders are helpful because it's only natural to put myself before others. Gandhi said that "you must be the change you wish to see in the world". Now I know what he meant by that.

Integrity

While pondering leadership this week I took some time to think about integrity. We talked about it on our Monday lecture and it inspired me. Integrity is more than just character, but it is how we would act in any situation regardless. One thing that I know is that I'm not perfect but I should strive to. In order to do this I have been trying to keep the good qualities about me and eliminating the bad. I find that i need to be honest with myself as well as others. I find that often I'll tell myself little fibs in order to cover something up or just to make me feel better, but this can lead to trouble down the road. If i can be honest with myself then my dealings with my peers and the people i lead can be even more effective. This is what integrity is about. Clear perception is vital in order to succeed. Our thoughts control our actions, so when we condition our minds to have integrity, then our whole self will change. People respect integrity because it is a difficult trait to gain and maintain. If everybody had integrity then it wouldn't be such a big deal, but the fact is... people need somebody to lead them towards integrity and these people are often called to be leaders. Another thing i focused on this week is to be more genuine with my peers. I've taken more time to listen to others and to see all sides of things. In doing this I've learned so much about others and I find that people will build trust faster. Well those are my thoughts for this week

Divine Centered Leadership

The topic for this week was divine centered leadership. I've really learned to love this theme. As I gain understanding of what it is, my leadership can grow. Christ wasn't only the perfect example, he was the ideal leader. Learning about the life of Jesus has helped me understand the idea of situational leadership. Certain forms of leadership are required for different situations and Jesus knew this. What the most important part of divine centered leadership is service. I find that the times when I do service to others I can be a more effective leader. It brings humility and fosters trust in my peers. I also find that i need to allow others to help me as well.... if I show my weaknesses to others, they will be more willing to show theirs. Service is what unites people and keeps us humble. I plan to always look to Christ's example and see how i can better serve and lead others.

Teamwork

This week's topic was about teamwork which was pretty helpful for me in my activities. I really loved the comparison of types of people in the world. There are fire starters and fire fighters. The starters are the ones who are optimistic and help get a goal accomplished while the fighters are the ones who bring others down. As a pyro I love the comparison. I've always seen myself as a fire starter amongst my peers and hope I always will be. I think a great leader is somebody who can inspire all those around them to accomplishing a common goal. Not only do they get the goal finished, but they get everybody to be excited and cooperative in reaching it. This week I tried to get people to become excited about common goals and bring teams together to accomplish our dreams. I found that if I found the "fire starters" the success happened much faster. Happiness and optimism is way more contagious than negativity. Another thing that I liked about the presentations were the levels of relationships. At first I thought it would be best to have a significant relationship with everybody, but as I ponder this I've come to a conclusion that every level of relationship is important. If everybody were your best friend it would be a little hard to be a good leader. When we strengthen others they in turn strengthen us. Teams are important and I hope that I can always be the best team player that I can be so that my team as a whole will prosper.

Somehow friday went by real fast

So I forgot to post this by friday last week, but I thought I'd do it anyways. Last week we learned about leadership styles. There were many kinds of leaders, but there is one that is most important. This style is the situational leader. This person must know how to act in different circumstances, because sometimes one style won't work as well as others. One thing i've been trying to do is look at circumstances and think about what I'd do if I was in charge. It has helped me see things differently and brought me to a realization that I'm not always right. I can't be perfect, but I can try to be. My weakness is trying to work with details and actually making things happen. I'm great at the big ideas and creativity which is my dominant trait. This is great in some instances, but not as much in others.

Strengths and Weaknesses Dam

This week we focused a lot on our personalities and how we can become more effective leaders by analyzing our strengths and weaknesses. One question that came up was "What should we focus on and improve... our strengths or our weaknesses?" After lots of frustration in our class on what we need to work on, I came up with a great metaphor to better answer this question.

Think of life as a dam. Not just any dam, but one made of rocks and sticks and mud. We don't have an unlimited supply of resources, only the materials given to us or that can be found in the surrounding area. The dam represents our personality... it has strong spots and it has weak spots, but regardless of how good it is, a dam is a dam. The water in this case represents certain challenges or scenarios. Like life, times change and different obstacles come our way. Spring, for example, has stronger currents from melting snow. This could represent a difficult period of our lives. Often this spring can be related to our young adult life where many different paths face us and we have many choices to make. Here we must strengthen our weak spots in order to protect ourselves from being washed away. The seasons change and so do our challenges. Fall for example has slow currents and is a perfect time to fortify our strong spots to prepare for the future.

The most important thing that we should realize is that we must have moderation in all things. Focusing on the extremes is rarely effective in the long run. As we observe ourselves we must always be aware of our pros and cons in order to progress. Not only should we learn from ourselves, but from others as well. Learn from mistakes from history, learn from the successes of our ancestors, learn what works and what doesn't so you don't have to get in difficult positions that have happened before.