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.