What I've Learned

This is my final blog. Class ended today and it is time to reflect on what I have learned from Dr. Feinberg.

Dr. Feinberg has told us many times, that CSR 309 Leadership Strategies will change our lives, if not today maybe in 10 years. I can honestly say this is the best class I have ever taken at Purdue University.

This class has opened my eyes to leadership and the importance of it in our lives. I look at practically everything trying to find the leadership meaning behind it. I have also learned that although we think we have a lot of time to become leaders, we really don't. If we sit around and say "Oh, next time I'll stand up and take the initiative," we will never do it. Our time here is really short and it is true that we never know when our last day it will be. We must always be willing to stand up and take a larger role.

Since this class started, I have wanted to get more involved in the clubs and activities I am in. I am running for a position currently in my Financial Planning club. I want to be able to make a difference in this club so that it will make a difference in its members lives.

I also now look at the different commercials and movies trying to see if there are any hidden meanings and finding the sexism. Many times these things are so oblivious that they will go over looked by most people. It is all about opening your eyes and paying attention to the smaller details. The small details are the things that can change the world. It can be as simple as smiling at an employee, but that smile lets the employee know that you noticed them. A good leader will be able to realize these small details and make any necessary changes to improve an organization.

Although leadership is often times referred to mainly in organizations it is also very prevalent in our lives. Like in the previous paragraph, we must pay attention to the small things. If we make little improvements we will become better people.

Overall from this inspiring class, the 3 main things I have learned are: pay attention to the small things, take the initiative, and keep your eyes open. Leadership is key to living a successful life and happy life. It may take some time to get use to but, after paying attention to it, it will just come naturally. I took the initiative to make sure I learned from this class. I learned more than I could have imagined. This class will stick with me for the rest of my life and I will make sure to recommend this class to everyone. Thank you Dr. Feinberg!

Pain

Monday's class was about pain. The pain we live with, the pain we feel daily. This was a depressing class. Dr. Feinberg read a lot of peoples statements about pain. It was amazing how many had lost siblings, hate themselves because of their looks, and have had drug addictions. This class really made me open my eyes and see that the things I have gone and am going through other people have been through it as well.

I know what my pain is. I am forced to live with it everyday. There are a lot of things that have caused me pain. Whether it being my dad divorcing my mom, not really being close with my dad, losing a grandfather, who was the only grandfather I knew, not being very close to my grandfather, having been stabbed in the back by people I thought were my friends, being cheated on, feeling left out, names I have been called, dealing with an older brother's drug addiction, and poor decisions that I must live with. The list can really go on forever. I have been through a lot in 21 years. However, I do not look for people to feel sorry for me. Instead, as I have gotten older, I have learned that you can take the pain you feel and become a better person. I take each event that has caused me pain and analyze it. I try to find if there were any warning signs that could have braced me for the pain I was about to feel. After analyzing the situations, I look at myself in the mirror and find ways that I can better myself and not feel that pain again. As a result, I have been able to deal with situations when they arise.

I have also hurt myself with this pain. Not physically, but I have come to the point where I have built walls up around myself so that I really don't let anyone in. This has affected my ability to reach out. I have been trying to let some of my guard down, but it difficult. As pretty much everyone can relate, once you've been hurt, you never want to feel that way again.

I have also hurt myself in a way that I cannot really let things go. I have been stabbed in the back by "friends" many times, and it is hard to even look at that person. Whenever I see them, I become filled with anger and rage. I really do hate that feeling. Even thinking about the situation, causes the same reaction. Trying to let go of pain is pain in itself. I feel like it will take many years in order for me to get over the events. With letting go you must feel the pain again and channel it outwards reminding yourself that it was in the past and only the future matters. Although I struggle letting things go, I have learned to recognize the people I do and do not want to surround myself with. Through this pain I can pick out more loyal and better friends. As Dr. Feinberg has said, "You need to get rid of the black holes of negativity in your life." That quote sticks in my mind everyday and is something I always remind myself of.

I try to live by my grandfather's ways. He always forgave those that harmed in, even his own son who spoke badly of him and hated him. This is something the world must attempt to do.

Pain is a learning experience. It is something that sticks with you but how you deal and overcome it is what really matters. You may never get over some of your pain but you can learn to deal with it and make it small enough, you can live life without letting it take over your life.

Movies and Men vs. Women

In Wednesday's class Dr. Feinberg started class talking about how much he loved movies. He stated that movies show incredible examples of leadership and that he also loves all kinds of movies, good or bad. He also went on to talk about how our Individual Memo 2, movie analysis of leadership, was his favorite assignment. Through out this class Dr. Feinberg has drilled into our minds that we must keep our eyes open and see the leadership in everything around us. This is very true in movies. Even in movies that I have seen in the past, before taking this class, I now look back and tell my friends when talking about movies, "Yeah, that is a great leadership film...I really recommend it." Granted they all look at me like I'm crazy, but when they do watch the film, they see where I am coming from. From this class, I look at things a lot differently than I use to. I look for the leadership in the movies, TV shows, books, and everyday lives. It is quite amazing how leadership affects everything. Dr. Feinberg, you stayed true to your objective and made me see the leadership in everyday life!

The second part of class was men vs. women. Dr. Feinberg started off with a commercial that aired in England about abuse. He went on saying that no woman should be so desperate to stay in a relationship that is abusive. He also went on about how Rihanna was stupid for not pressing charges on Chris Brown. This made me think of a song that recently came that clearly states, "Chris Brown should get is @$$ beat." Here's the link to the song, for your enjoyment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW_MoEe5ryQ

It is quite sad how many women put up with abusive relationships. I am the type of person who puts up with very little disrespect. In fact, usually at the first sign of disrespect...I'm out of there. My philosophy is that the amount of disrespect you put up with shows the amount of respect you have for yourself. In leadership, a good leader will respect their followers no matter their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. A leader should have no tolerance for disrespect or sexual harassment within their group.

The clips that were shown in class on Wednesday also showed how gender differences are subtly shown in TV commercials. For example, the clip for FedEx, a group of all men meeting in the men's bathroom to make a decision. There were no women involved. What is with that!? The world is still showing young women that they are not capable of being in upper management, high position jobs. Women are constantly needing to prove themselves that they are just as good as men. This all can be changed with women being more outspoken about getting into leadership positions. We need to stand up and take on the position and run it better than any man could. The glass ceiling is starting to get small cracks, but that is not good enough. Women will one day break through that glass ceiling much like Barack Obama did for African Americans. The thing standing in our way is not just men and their beliefs we cannot do the same things but ourselves and lacking the leadership to go ahead and take control.

Decision Making (continued)

Monday's class picked up where last Wednesday's left off. Dr. Feinberg continued to talk to us about the importance of decision making and the affects it has on others. Dr. Feinberg also told us how to conduct a great meeting. He gave us the essentials to what it takes to have a great meeting. Go figure, that it only takes simple things like starting right on time, providing an agenda, and letting the meeting out about 3 minutes early. As this course progresses on in the semester, I have come to realize that in leadership it only takes doing the little things and doing them correctly that make you a great leader. It is definitely a theme in this class. Although, it is the little things that can make the largest impact, like in the Trim Tab example, these are sometimes the most difficult things to change.

Changing the little things can be difficult because the little things can sometimes go unnoticed. There are times that the changes can be so oblivious and minute that we don't even recognize that they are causing problems. Or we can think that it is such a little problem that fixing it will make no difference. This can be a common problem in organizations, groups, and life. However, it only takes a few times fixing that "minor" problem and seeing the impact that we will learn to look at the little things first.

In decision making and leadership, it takes experience and the ability to pay attention to the little details in order to notice the small changes that need to be done. With being able to recognize leadership in everyday life, like Dr. Feinberg has been teaching us, one will be able to gain the experience to notice effective and noneffective leadership. After further analysis, one should then be able to see the little changes that need to be made.

Decision making is an important aspect of leadership, that takes seeing the entire picture, big or small, to make a well-thought out decision. It is hard to know if you are making a good/right decision until you see the outcome. Therefore, it is important to make a well-thought out decision. By making this type of decision, you will know that you looked at all the different aspects and thought through the situation thoroughly.

Decision Making

Two very important aspects of communication are decision making and changing. Decision making was shown in Wednesday's class through the Wilderness survival game. In this game we were to rank in order the items we felt were the most important to being able to survive if stuck in a desert. I have done a game similar to this before so I was somewhat familiar with the experiment. I felt that the decisions my group made were pretty cohesive. In leadership, you want to make sure the group comes to a general consensus as to the final decision. However, an area where my group lacked was finding the people who ended up scoring lower than the group as a whole. We did not ask if anyone had did something similar before or if anyone had any experience in the military or was an outdoor type of person. This would have been a good way to start the process. Our failure to do this is something that a lot of groups may fall victim to. In decision making, it is important to find out the people who have experience in a certain area. This will ultimately give your group a "specialist" in that area. Decision making in general ties into communication. The better the communication, the better the decision, which directly contributes to better leadership.

The second important of aspect of leadership is changing. Changing was shown in Wednesday's class through watching a video that talked about trim tabs and leadership. A trim tab is a small piece on a boat that changes the boat's direction. The main relation to a trim tab and leaders is that a small change can make a large impact. The movie went on to talk about how in life if you focus on what you can do and then make small changes along the way. This is a great point because it goes a long with what Kirk Weisler talked about and focusing on your strengths and making small improvements along the way. Being able to make small changes is crucial in leadership. One does not have to make a huge change in the way things are done to create a large impact. I believe that this is the best way to be an effective leader. Why waste money and time trying to make that one huge change in a company, government, or life when if you just make a small adjustment in multiple areas you can end up with a large impact. This was talked about in the video with the New York Police Department. They were concerned with the rising crime in NYC and instead of focusing on the whole city, they put more focus on the subways and it ultimately decreased the general crime rate by substantial amounts.

In leadership, it is best to make cohesive, educated decisions and to make small changes than large ones. Great leaders will be able to do both of these things and lead their group in a positive way.

Communication

Monday's class was about the importance of communication and active listening. These two things are extremely important in leadership. Without communication, it is hard to be able to direct your followers to success and to provide them feedback on their progress. Being able to communicate with your followers also know what is suppose to be done and how to do it. Communication is something that I believe goes overlooked. I believe that a lot of people do not realize the importance of it. A lot of conflicts whether they are personal, in the community, or internationally could be solved if there was better communication. A lot of the mishaps that go on in the world are started by lack of communication between countries. I know that there are a lot of leaders in the world that are difficult to communicate with because of their beliefs, however, it takes effort on both sides to prevent conflict.
The other point in communication that is essential is active listening. Feinberg was telling us the importance of clarifying the facts of questions and making sure you understand what is being told to you. I have heard this time and time again. The thing I hate about active listening was the experience I had over the summer. I was working as a summer intern in the Wealth Management Department of a local bank and they would give me a long list of verbal directions and when I would reiterate and clarify what they said, they looked at me as if I was retarded for repeating what they basically just said. It really made me feel small. I was just trying to clarify the directions and I guess they just don't understand active listening.
I do know that active listening is important and I really think lectures and classes in general would be much better if it was easier to communicate with the professor during the actual lecture rather than waiting until the end or through e-mail.
Communication and active listening should be part of our everyday lives and the more we practice it now in college and our early years in the workforce, the better leaders we will be.

Let's Fix This

Today in class, Feinberg did not show up. Instead, it was just our President and Group Leaders. We all got into our groups and worked together to see how we can improve our individual groups. I really think we needed to do this oh...about like 4 weeks ago. Actually, we needed to do this right away. Finally, my group will start sitting together and getting to know each other.
I was beginning to feel like these groups were pointless. I didn't know anybody in my group and felt that I barely knew who my group leader was. I was beginning to wonder what the point of even having the group was.
I do know that if I was a group leader, I would have had my group sitting together since our first class in groups and had people getting to know each other right away. It is the little things that make groups work and create cohesiveness.
I know now that we had today's class that things will be different and we will begin to mesh together as a group. I want to get as much out of this class as possible and am hoping that happens.

Lessons learned from Spring Break

So, I spent the last 8 days without any internet access in beautiful Naples, Florida. Oh it was absolutely amazing. The weather was 82 and sunny basically the entire time! Anyways, I stayed with my sister in the condo she rents during the "season" as she works as a seasonal Physical Therapist.
I went on Spring Break to relax and to get away from it all. I didn't think I would end up thinking about different examples of leadership I had experienced. I observed many different types of leadership over the past 8 days, however, two of the experiences really stick out.
The first one was on Thursday. My sister is a member of a Young Professionals Association in the Ft. Myers/Estero area. There she had met, a couple weeks ago, a financial planner from Ameriprise Financial Services. On Thursday, we went to one of the association's social events and the financial planner was there again. Being a financial counseling and planning major, once my sister introduced me, I took full advantage of the opportunity to network. I talked to her about the field and within twenty minutes I was offered an internship to work for her in Ft. Myers this summer. I unfortunately had to decline because I am taking two summer courses at a local college and living in Florida would get expensive. However, I must have impressed her enough because she wants me to e-mail her with my resume and cover letter so she can refer me to some advisors she knows in the Chicagoland area.
I did not go down to Florida expecting to come across this amazing opportunity. Actually, on my way to the Airport on Friday, the 13th, I listened to my mom lecture about how I was wasting my time going to Florida instead of staying home to look for an internship.
The interaction I had with the advisor really demonstrated to me how important it is to come across appropriately when you first meet someone. It also showed me the importance of making a good impression. Without the advisor seeing a resume, she was willing to hire me as an intern and when I was unavailable to work in Ft. Myers, she offered to help get me something closer to home.

My second interaction with leadership came on Friday, the 20th. I went out to dinner and to a bar with my sister and one of her co-workers to watch the NCAA tournament games. My sister's co-worker is a very aggressive person and lives her life to where she will go up and talk to anyone and not care if they say "no" to her. She has the mentality of, "I just brush myself off and move on." I really admire this in her. My sister's co-worker approached several random guys and struck up several conversations with them.
I am not a very assertive person where I just go up and talk to people, I admit it is a very difficult thing for me to do. I am always afraid of the rejection. However, my sister's co-worker showed me that being assertive, confident, and not being afraid of the rejection can pay off. Whether it be receiving a phone number or even a free drink. I carefully observed how she approached people and how she dealt with a person who was not interested. It was amazing. I learned a lot from just those few hours of being out with her.
Although, I have taken mental notes and learned her tactics, I must put that into play.

Spring Break was relaxing and filled with different types of leadership. I learned a lot on Spring Break and did not expect to. Thank you Dr. Feinberg for lecturing about constantly observing leadership in everyday life and taking advantage of situations. I got much more out of Spring Break than I bargained for and I thank CSR 309.

Monday 3/9/09

Monday's class was the one that could change your life...if you didn't blink. How exactly was it suppose to? I personally didn't find it to be anything life changing. However, maybe it was and I just haven't realized it yet.
The class found out who our president would be. It ended up being someone who was a group leader during last spring semester. He really didn't come off as being really remarkable. I was actually disappointed at how he spoke to the class. He had everything written down, however, he was looking back at his notebook and not speaking directly to the class. That irritated me a little. If you are going to be our president talk to us, not away from us. His experiences and everything gave him the credentials to be our president. He seems like a stand up individual, 6 years in the Marines, made it to being a sergeant, brought all of his troops back home safely. He has my respect. He just needs to working on talking to us.
So the class now has a structure and Dr. Feinberg says that the class will start to turn around and real progress will be made. I have learned so much already, it will amaze me how much more I will be able to learn in the next five weeks.
I feel like I have been doing pretty well in the class considering Dr. Feinberg being a bad leader and not really knowing 100% what he expects out of our assignments. I'm going to take the credit of my own leadership, that I have been doing well. I set out at the very beginning of every semester to try hard in every single class. I'm not saying I try to do my best because I do not have time to do my best in every class. There's simply not enough hours in a day. I know I am selling myself short, however, I know that me selling myself a little short in a class or two is someone else trying their best.
So Dr. Feinberg had up on a slide, "You are 90, What did you do wrong? What did you do right?" I'm going to answer that from a 21 year olds standpoint.
What did I do wrong? I just mentioned it. I sold myself short in some classes. Why did I do that? Let's just say going out to parties and hanging out with friends was much more important than put all my effort into studying and completing assignments.
Let's see what else did I do wrong in my life so far? ....Oh the one thing I will regret for the rest of my life, not applying to Notre Dame for undergrad. I know I would have gotten in, I had the grades, extracurriculars, and the connections. I did not take advantage of my opportunity that I had.
My final one is transferring high schools after my sophomore year. I started high school at a tremendous private school called Marian Catholic in Chicago Heights, IL. However, I started to take things too seriously and became extremely stressed out and decided to transfer to my hometown public high school, Munster. Had I just sucked it up and dealt with my problems instead of running away from them, I would probably be a much better student and at a different school, not that Purdue is a terrible place to end up at.
What did I do right?
I currently have a 3.15 GPA, which I am hoping after this semester and summer school, to be up to be up around a 3.5. I am also this summer going to prepare to study for my GMAT. I am hoping to make up for the mistake of not applying to ND for undergrad by applying there for my Masters. I know it will be difficult by I am working hard to establish myself so I can get in. I have also done right in recognizing and admitting in areas that I have been wrong. Whether that be with little tiffs with friends or choices I have made in the past. I continue to work so that my future is bright and I can become the best person I can possibly be.

Communication

As the semester continues to move along, it is easy to see how much improvement has come from ourselves, our group leaders, and Dr. Feinberg. The biggest improvement has come in the form of communication. It makes everything so much easier. Our class has now established a chain of command. We ask our group leaders, they discuss amongst themselves, then ask Dr. Feinberg, and Dr. Feinberg responds with either an e-mail to the whole class or to just the group leaders.
Most of the questions that we come up with on assignments are answered and that leaves us feeling a lot less frustrated with our assignments.
Good communication skills are very important to have in a leader. It makes everything so much easier for all that are involved. It is also refreshing for your followers to be able to have a leader that will fill them in on anything that will affect them. Could you imagine what it would be like to not have any communication? It would be much like our first few days of class...chaos! Sure things would get done but they definitely would not be done properly. With communication everyone is able to know exactly what is expected of them to do and then they can lead themselves by either just doing what is expected of them or going above and beyond to standout.
I am anxious for the semester to be over so I can see how much we change we can make in Dr. Feinberg and how much I have changed as a leader. I hope it wows me!

Opportunities

Opportunities to become a leader are all around us. Whether we take advantage of those opportunities is another thing. As the semester is half way through, a lot of club organizations are beginning to send out e-mails about officer positions. Usually I just ignore those e-mails and just stay content doing minimal effort in being a member. However, since taking CSR 309, I now am reading those e-mails and trying to find a position I would like to take.
Another reason for my sudden interest in leadership positions is I need a story. I have plenty of leadership stories from high school, but what about college? I have held a position in my sorority, although it was a very minor one, one that no one really paid attention to. I need to have a position that I can be proud of. I only have one year left at Purdue and I feel like I have become mediocre and lazy since I came here. I am definitely not the same person I use to be. I feel like I am letting my ability to lead fall dwindle and not be an important factor in my life.
In Monday's class, Dr. Feinberg had two recruiters, from JcPenny's, come in and talk about what makes for a strong intern candidate. They specifically said the one that showed some leadership in their outside activities or their work positions were the ones that would get the interviews. That got me wondering how can I be the one that gets all of the interviews. I need to make the most of the opportunities that are coming my way. I have spent the past three years sitting on the sidelines and now it is time to step up and take charge.
Making the most out of your years in college is not only important for education and social purposes but also leadership. This is the time we are to be going out and taking charge of our lives and becoming active members is groups that mean the most to us. We cannot waste the valuable four or five years sitting on the sidelines. Opportunities are all around us in college. We just have to open our eyes and take advantage of them.

Leadership taking form

On Monday we took our exam in CSR 309. Challenging? Not really. However, how it will be graded is another story. In any other class as long as you put the material learned from the reading or had the gist of the idea, you would receive full credit. I honestly do not believe that is possible in this class. We did not even receive a study guide, which is the fault of the team leaders, not Dr. Feinberg's.
Our team leaders are starting out kind of like Dr. Feinberg, bad leaders. I believe this is happening because they do not really know what they are doing and Dr. Feinberg may not be giving them any kind of direction. However, how are you suppose to learn about leadership if you, yourself, do not form from a bad leader into a good leader? This is the whole purpose of the class. This method is much like on-the-job training that occurs in the workforce. People are just thrown into the position and are expected to learn on the fly. I believe this is the best way to learn, mainly because you make mistakes and learn from them.
I have also started to see leadership outside of the classroom and have begun critiquing it. My main example comes from my sorority. At the end of the fall semester we elected new officers. All of our executive officers are in the sophomore pledge class or have never held an executive office before. I have now realized where my chapter made a huge mistake. The power trip has begun. I have people you are younger than me and less experienced in the house talking down to me like I do not know what is going on. It is ridiculous. Now, I don't want you to think, "Well, you should have ran for a position," because I did. Unfortunately, I was not elected. I believe this is part of the younger pledge class's plan to rid of the older pledge classes from power. Whether that be the case or not, they are all on a power trip.
What exactly do I mean by a power trip? Well, let's just say they believe everything they do is right, they are never wrong and they are refusing to listen to girls in the house. When people will approach them, they become extremely defensive and later will hold a grudges against the people who question what they are doing. This is right out of the readings from It's Your Ship and The Leadership Challenge. You have to be able to listen to your followers and put them first. You must adapt to the needs of your followers.
It is very frustrating being a "follower" and experiencing this. You feel like you are worthless and not important. This is the type of feeling that will make people quit the sorority. I have tried to discuss this with a few of the executive officers however, they look at me like I do not know what I am talking about. Hello! I am only taking a class and reading 2oo-almost 400 page books on this stuff.
I am taking this leadership style that has been put in place by both Dr. Feinberg and the executive council of my sorority and using it as a major learning experience in leadership. I know exactly how I will not treat any of my followers and what to do when these situations arise. I have learned a lot from the sorority especially in dealing with difficult situations. I will just add this one to the sheet.
I really believe this class needs to be a required course for all majors. It would do a lot of good.

Self-Deception

Dr. Feinberg stressed in class on Monday, how we are all very self-deceptive. He told us about how we rarely ever have people in our lives that will straight up tell us, that we suck at something. We surround ourselves with people who "boost" us up. They tell us something looks good, even though it doesn't or continuously tell us that we are good at something we are not. So, as we grow up we think we are "God's gift to the green Earth," so we think... It will not be until later in life, usually college, that we get the rude awakening. Then, we feel like our life is in shambles. How does this affect leadership? In leadership, if you have a leader who thinks that they are perfect, and the best leader there is, most likely your group will fail. No one is perfect and for a leader to think such a think is ridiculous.
A good leader will be able to realize that they have their flaws and are not good at everything. A good leader will also know how to tell others when they are not good in an area and how they can improve themselves.
Today, I feel that so many people are guilty of self-deception, including myself. Everyone is guilty of it at one time or another. I feel that it can be alright to be self-deceptive at times, but knowing where you struggle is an important part of bettering your life and becoming a better leader.
We need people in our lives to knock us back down to reality every once in a while. As much as it would hurt to hear something you once thought was true, it can be very humbling and allow for us to make differences in our lives. We need these type of people, who will tell us the outright truth.
Another point Dr. Feinberg made in class was that job recruiters make the assumption that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. I agree and disagree with this assumption. In a way it is correct. Some people who behaved one way previously, mainly badly, do not learn from their mistakes and will continuously repeat them. On the other hand, people who behave in a good way, will usually repeat the same behavior because they recognize it as being the proper behavior.
The reason I disagree with that assumption is that people change and learn from their behaviors. I can personally relate to the fact that people change. I know I have. I have behaved in ways in the past that I can say I am not proud of, but I learned from those inappropriate behaviors and know how behave in certain situation. I learned from my mistakes. I know that my past behaviors will not predict my future behavior. It is hard getting past the things that you once had done. I know my friends always remind me of the things I use to do. In all honesty, it really drives me crazy that they bring it up. Even though I have never engaged in such behavior since, they feel that I am still that person, no matter what I do. We all have behaved inappropriately at one time or another, however, the people who learn from that, are the ones that succeed in life. I also believe that the people who learn from their mistakes are more likely to perform better in the workplace because they know how to learn from their wrongs.
Maybe I'm just biased on that subject, I don't know, but people always deserve a second chance to prove themselves.

Workshop

In Monday's class we had a leadership workshop. This workshop was a 4 1/2 hour long guest speaker,Kirk Weisler. He spent the night talking about how to improve yourself and your corporation. Although, it was an extremely long presentation, it was very beneficial. Kirk provided a lot of valuable insight on how to be able to shine your brightest so to speak. One of the best things he said Monday night was, "Most high performers don't spend time on their weaknesses, but exploiting their strengths. " This statement really through me off. My whole life I have been taught to spend more time on the things I do not perform well in and less time on my stronger areas. I have wasted a lot of time. I know he didn't mean not to work on your weaknesses but not to focus solely on those things. I really wish I would have known that earlier in life...it would have changed a lot of things. Had I been told this when I was playing basketball, I would not have spent so much of workouts trying to get faster and focused more of my time on my shooting and offensive skills. This in turn would have probably not have caused me to burn-out from exerting so much energy in areas that frustrated me to work on. I obsessed over my weaknesses which caused me to lose interest in the one thing in my life that I really loved to do.
Another key statement Kirk talked about was, "Feet must match mouth." I have always been taught that what you say must match what you do. If you do not follow through with what you say, you become dishonest and people will not follow you. You cannot implement rules in an organization if you say that something is suppose to be done one way and then you do it another. I feel like there are a lot of managers, CEOs, and parents whose actions and words do not match. My question to them is, how do you expect to have people listen to you if your feet do not match your mouth? Our society would be much better off if we had leaders who could do this at least 80% of the time.
Kirk Weisler gave me a lot of good advice and provided a number of different books that he recommended we read. I know I will be taking his advice and trying to apply it to my life so I can become a better person and leader.

Choosing Group Leaders

Yesterday in class we spent pretty much the entire class period having our second viewing of potential group leaders. Dr. Feinberg had the people who volunteered to be group leaders go out in the hall and had them divided into groups. When the group was called in they were given a task to complete and they were to demonstrate how they would be leaders. The rest of the class was to evaluate them. The first two groups huddled together and discussed the task they had amongst themselves and the rest of the class could hear them. How were we suppose to evaluate this? Basically the people in the first two groups received low rankings. The third group on the other hand did something completely different and innovative. They started out in a huddle and then when Dr. Feinberg tried to tell them that we were evaluating him they just ignored him. Then they broke off and ran throughout the room. No one knew exactly what was going on. Then their "leader" acted as one of those preachers who claim to have the power to heal people. He went to all of the other members and asked what they were struggling with and "healed" them. After that was over they demonstrated examples of good and bad leadership. I thought this was an excellent way for them to show their leadership skills. They instantly grabbed the attention of the class and then addressed their task. The third group's main leader was so charismatic and energized that he made all of the other potential group leaders look just as good as he did. They did a tremendous job.
Being a leader for a group is a difficult task. You have to be able to gain respect and have the attention of your group members. You must also provide them a reason to follow you. On Monday we had our first viewing of the potential leaders and they were to provide us with their leadership story. They had twenty seconds to do this and it was terrible. About 90% of them just listed off things they were involved in in both high school and college. I honestly could care less about what activities they are involved in and hold positions in. To me that gave me no reason to rank them high. I believe they needed to provide us with their characteristics that make them the leader they claim to be. I know I missed my chance to be able to become a leader, but after watching the past two days of viewings I know I could have done a much better job.
I believe a lot of people that volunteered felt that they were entitled to be a leader. Why? I do not know. I remember one girl's leadership story was that people always follow her and she never tries to lead people but they are just drawn to her. When I heard that, I knew that is the exact type of leader that you do not want to have. She came off as very conceded. A leader should never be conceded. A conceded leader is just out for him or herself. No one wants a leader that is like that. In order to be a successful leader, I believe that you must put your followers first and care about their successes more than your own. I believe that if you do this you will in turn be acknowledged for this and success will be there. You cannot be a successful leader if your group is not successful themselves.

Superbowl

In class on Monday, we talked a good 45 minutes almost on the Superbowl. I honestly did not watch it, mainly because I did not care about the teams playing. However, Dr. Feinberg showed us some of the commercials that aired during it and it was amazing how everything really does have an underlying leadership theme.
The one that sticks out in my head is the careerbuilder.com commercial. It was not so much the actual commercial but Dr. Feinberg's explanation of it. He told us that we always should have our resumes up and available for other companies to see because you never know the opportunity that might come up for a better job. Dr. Feinberg also addressed how the company that you will work for will not care about you. That statement made me realize that it is so true because if I want to be successful, you have to be willing to make yourself available and not afraid to take a chance and find something better. It is all about not being afraid to lead your life so you can succeed. I remember being told "If you keep your resume up when you have a job, your employer will likely question your loyalty." However, in reality, you are just limiting yourself to your current job. Then what happens when out of the blue you get laid off and then you have to go through the whole process all over again, at least with keeping your resume up, you will more than likely not be laid off, instead you will leave for a better job offer. This is extremely crucial during the current economic times and for college students looking for internships and full-time jobs. Why limit yourself when you can have numerous opportunities? We have been taught to keep our options open but when it comes down to it not very many of us do. What is with that?
Monday's class really emphasized the fact that leadership is really all around us. After Dr. Feinberg had mentioned that during one of his first lectures I somewhat understood what he meant but it was clear after watching the Superbowl commercials. Go and watch them again. Can you find the leadership themes behind the general message?
Another form of leadership from the Superbowl that was not mentioned in class but in the paper was of Santonio Holmes. Not only did he have the game winning reception, but there was an article about how as a teenager he was a drug dealer. I believe this is a great example of taking control and showing leadership in your life. He went from being a street thug from Southern Florida to a Superbowl MVP that helped lead the Steelers to be the only team in the NFL to have won six superbowls. His story is true inspiration to those who have hit rock bottom, that they can succeed when they continuously try to turn their life. That takes an awful lot of leadership in order to do such a thing. His story is one that everyone can learn from and proof that people can change when they become a leader in their own life.

No Sugar-Coating

Yesterday was our first official class with Professor Feinberg teaching. It was a relief to see him actually in class. He is quite the professor might I add. He does not sugar coat a single thing. On the first powerpoint slide he presented, it said basically that no one gives a shit about you. My first reaction to this was, "WOW!" I have never had a professor come out and just bluntly say that to us. It was actually kind of a relief because he is putting us into the real world instead of our current fantasy college world where we believe life is so great and people will always be there to hold our hands, like many professors do. Professor Feinberg really emphasized the point of being able to lead our lives so we are happy with our accomplishments in life and basically to have no regrets.
Professor Feinberg also told us that we would be the worst leader he could possibly be until we make him into a good leader. I thought he was doing a pretty good job leading the class yesterday. The point of him doing this is to demonstrate the types of leaders we may encounter after we graduate and are working.
After class yesterday, I actually thought about what he had said in class about living life, leaving a legacy, what we are going to do with our "remaining seconds", and how we can make a difference. I haven't come up with a lot of answers to those thoughts but I have come to some conclusions. As far as leaving a legacy, I do know that I do not really care if I am known to a lot of people. I just want the people who do know me to remember me as a fun, caring, kind, giving, energetic, laid back person. I believe that these things are good to be remembered by. I want my family, friends, co-workers, and clients to be like, "Yeah, I remember when she did this/that for me" or "I remember the time when I did this that would have drove anyone else crazy but she just went with the flow." I want to leave impressions on these peoples lives that will want to make them do things to better themselves and to get the most out of their life. I know for a fact that I have not achieved all of those characteristics but I am going to try my hardest to achieve them.
Another thought I drew some conclusions on after class was about living life. I know that I want to live a successful life and to try to be the best person possible but what about now? I know what I want in the future to be happy but I really don't know what I want now to be happy. So last night I decided to take charge of the present and do things that would make me presently happy and to not worry about the future. The first thing I did was to go out with some of my friends to the bars and had some fun. I decided that at times will stress myself out too much with school and other issues that I forget to "let my hair down" and have some fun and to be a college kid. So, I did that. And let me tell you, it feels good to worry about the present because I know that I am on the right track to being the person I want to be in the future with the decisions I am making in the present. I have taken control of my present and I do not think I'm going to give up that control anytime soon.
I know that the rest of the conclusions to Professor Feinberg's comments will come to me eventually. However, until they do I'm going to keep head up and my eyes open for the little things that are going to come my way and change my life!

Another day without a professor

So I went to class yesterday hoping to be able to actually be taught by Professor Feinberg. I was once again disappointed that he was not there. His TA was there and put in a movie, The Queen, for us to watch and take notes on so we can write our first individual memo.
I noticed once the TA said that the professor was not going to be in class and we were watching a movie, a bunch of people just got up and left. One thing I found disrespectful were the number of people sitting around and talking during the movie. This was very annoying and made it hard to hear the movie.
I was shocked how well the class did accept the TA as the leader of the class for the day. Everyone for the most part listened to what she had to say and then made their decision whether to stay or leave.
The movie we watched, The Queen, was an interesting movie. I have never seen it before and it really showed a different light on the royal family of England. The leadership of Queen Elizabeth was very passive during most of what we watched. I take her to be more of a figurative leader than anything else. I noticed during the movie, mainly during the period when Princess Diana died, that Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, lead the country during the time of grief. He was the one who really wanted to help the country cope with the loss of such a prominent figure. Queen Elizabeth was very passive as what had happened, and felt that it was "a private matter" and the public should not be involved. I realized how cold she was towards her son, Prince Charles, as well as Tony Blair. The movie was quite eye opening and showed a different side of Queen Elizabeth than I had once thought.
After watching part of the movie, it is clear to see that there are many different forms of leadership and people deal with each type differently. I cannot wait to finish the film because it will be interesting to see how her leadership will change, if it does at all.

First Week

The first week of the new semester has just ended, it's exciting to be in new classes and to have a new start to the semester. Most teachers just read through their detailed syllabus and told us whether or not to buy the books for the classes. However, my teacher for my Leadership Strategies class decided to do something completely different. Instead, of going through the motions, he did not show up for class. Instead, he sent someone to represent him. We did not talk about the syllabus or anything. Everyone was really confused about what was going on and a lot of people left after we watched a self-help movie by Anthony Robbins.

On the second meeting for the class, the professor pretended to be a "consultant" for the himself and gave the class a piece of paper that gave us a task. While the class was trying to complete the task he sat towards the back of the room and took detailed notes about who in the class took leadership to get the task done. To cut the story short we "avoided" our task. No one really understood the task and the people who were trying to lead the class seemed to just take us further and further away from the task and they were creating their own. This was so frustrating not only because we didn't complete the task but none of us had experienced a professor do something so outside of the norm.

Anyways, I still have yet to officially meet my professor but I have already learned something. I learned that you can have people who are willing to take charge but are not necessarily good leaders. I also learned that as students we are conditioned to expect things in our classes and when certain things do not occur, such as the professor not showing up or ever introducing himself, etc. students get frantic and become in a way disrespectful and do not want to complete the task at hand. I personally find the professor's style of teaching interesting. This is a good way to show us how valuable a good leader is and also is very eye opening to see how people react to bad leadership.

Well, I really don't have anything else to say so that's all for now. Take it easy.

-Kristen