"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.

ENTP

Recently, I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to learn a little bit more about my personality. The outcome of this test was Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving (ENTP). This result wasn't much of a shocker to me. Personally I don't think that these tests are a revelation, but more of a tool to help us understand our personality better and how to associate with people who have different characteristics The description of ENTP says "Quick, ingenious, stimulation, alert and outspoken. Resourceful in solving new and challenging problems.Adept at generating conceptual possibilities and then analyzing them strategically. Good at reading other people. Bored by routine, will seldom do the same thing the same way, apt to turn to one new interest after another." This nailed my personality right on the head. After putting to words what I probably would have had a hard time doing I am now able to look at my strengths and see where I must improve. This will also be effective in teams and on projects by helping me find what types of people I need to get multiple views and strategies to complete a task. Hopefully I might be able to improve on my personality and can use it to become a more effective leader. No personality type is better than another, and each have their own set of pros/cons. If we can realize that we're all different from another and that we are children of God and are striving to be like him we will have great success in dealing with our fellow men (or women).

Servant leadership

This week we talked about servant leadership. I felt that this is important because you must be a servant before you can be a leader. A quote that really caught my attention was

“A servant-leader is a servant 1^st... it begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” –Robert Greenleaf

I decided to focus on giving service to others this week and see how it benefited my leadership. Some things that I did included helping a friend with a broken car, computer support for a kid in my hall, and just being there for people when they need somebody. In doing these basic things I found that the amount of influence I had on others increased. People were more open to asking for my help and were more likely to come and talk to me. I think this is necessary to being a good leader. When you win over the hearts of the people being a leader is much easier. Service is a great way to gain the trust and strong relationships from others. I'm trying to be like J. Willard Marriott and doing MWBA... or management by walking around. This happens by opening up myself to others and even basically walking door to door and seeing what I can do to help everybody. Service also brings humility and can direct motives in the right direction to lead others in the good way.

Weekly Reflection

This week in class we talked about traits that effective leaders need, and the one that I decided to focus on was "Taking Action". I spent some time trying to put my ideas and dreams into action and learned some interesting things. First off, I realized that without action nothing can be accomplished. Infinite dreams do no good without somebody to pursue them. Many times i find myself wanting to talk to a new person or help somebody out, but most of the time I don't take action. This mentality is common to almost everybody and it can limit leadership greatly. This past week I tried as hard as I could to meet new people and follow my thoughts. In doing so I have made many new friends and learned some cool things about others. If I had never taken action I wouldn't have met these people. On the large scale I realize that there always needs to be someone or something to drive the project to its final goal. One thing that I find effective is setting deadlines and short-term goals so there is motivation to reach the end. Imagine a world where nobody did anything, but just made ideas... it wouldn't be a very great place! I encourage everyone to become involved so that they can progress as effective leaders. We all should learn how to become an effective task manager... even the people with the big ideas. It's the devil in the details, and action is a big detail.

Leadership Role

After my leadership interview I decided what my leadership role is that I'll focus on this semester. I had never realized that leadership can have many definitions. The idea that a leader is somebody who influences others to perform at higher levels was very interesting to me. In order to become an efficient leader in this sense requires lots of effort in personal relationships and individual levels... therefore my leadership role that I'll work on this term is being a "Leader amongst my peers, friends, and fellow classmates." I don't think I can be a good leader if my personal relations aren't personal. I guess I'll see how it works out... wish me luck!

Interview w/ Kirk Strong

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Kirk Strong, the director of admissions at BYU, about leadership. We had quite a discussion on what leadership is, what leaders do, and how people come about being effective leaders. The first question we discussed was "What is a leader?" Obviously there are lots of different ways to answer this, but the way this question was answered really hit me. Leadership was defined as "somebody who inspires others to perform at higher levels." Kirk seems to demonstrate this leadership in his daily life. He and his staff help reach out to students across campus and around the world to come to college and excel. The few times that I have met him he is always open and willing to talk with me, which is important. Creating relationships and effective communication are vital to successful leadership. What really struck me was the idea that leaders don't always hold a position or calling, but are just living their lives. It's not about the title, but about the actions people perform that compose a leader. Often the effective leaders, according to Mr. Strong's definition of leader, aren't always the popular leaders. These are the ones who can step back and direct their followers in the direction that is necessary, but may not be very popular. I am inspired to build a strong character, because that's what a leader works from… not the ideals of a party or others. Kirk mentioned that the best leaders aren't in congress, but in the homes. He seems to know that leadership builds off the personal level and over time that influence grows. Effective leaders know how to identify, implement, and internalize correct principals in others. The position that Brother Strong holds provides him with chances to influence others to live the honor code and worthy lives every day. I hope that one day I may be able to do this effectively amongst my peers and colleagues.