This week's definition:Leadership facilitates positive social change and is an on-going, life-long learning process influenced by context. It is when one acts on their well-defined personal values while motivating others to reach a shared goal and motivating oneself to be his/her ideal self. It is showing trust, compassion, stability, hope, and effective communication while reading the underlying behavior and opinions of others and looking beyond their race, sex, and physical appearance.

Analysis: This week I added "effective communication" because I agree with Saphiere, Mikk, and Devries (2005) as well as Sessions (2010) that it is important to choose the most effective communication style in a given interaction. Without effective communication, it will take much longer for a goal to be reached, so it is important a leader knows which communication style works best for each group member. I found the statement by Sessions (2010) very valuable in terms of how I view leadership: "multiplexity, relationships characterized by multiple bases of interaction, forms stronger bonds" (p.378). If people interact with one another on many different levels they are more likely to get to know one another better and team work will be improved. I did not disagree with any part of the readings, but I did find the metaphor of a circus a bit of a stretch, especially the smell of circus snacks as a metaphor for goals (Saphiere et al., 2005).

Saphiere, D. H., Mikk, B. K., & Devries, B. I. (2005). "Factors Affecting Communication Style: Starring acts in the circus." 47 - 82. Retrieved from http://www.download-it.org/free_files/Pages%20from%20Chapter%2003%20-%20Factors%20Affecting%20Communication%20Style-c2c273a32b32ce590fe42518fa48db05.pdf.

Sessions, L. F. (2010). How offline gatherings affect online communities: When virtual community members 'meet up'. Information, Communication & Society, 13(3), 375-395. doi:10.1080/13691180903468954

This week's definition:Leadership facilitates positive social change and is an on-going, life-long learning process influenced by context. It is when one acts on their well-defined personal values while motivating others to reach a shared goal and motivating oneself to be his/her ideal self. It is showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope while reading the underlying behavior and opinions of others and looking beyond their race, sex, and physical appearance.

Analysis: This week I added "motivating oneself to be his/her ideal self". I felt this was the overarching concept in Boyatzis' intentional change theory, and it is very important for a leader to always want to improve on their strengths and close the gap between their real and ideal self. I found the five discoveries according to Boyatzis (2006) very valuable in terms of how I view leadership. I think the second discovery of "assessing one's strengths and weaknesses" (p. 613) was the most important to my personal leadership journey. I can continuously reassess these characteristics and improve. I did not disagree with any part of the reading this week.

Boyatzis, R. E. (2006). "An Overview of Intentional Change from a Leadership Perspective." Journal of Management Development, 25(7), 607-623. doi:10.1108/02621710610678445

This week's definition: Leadership facilitates positive social change and is an on-going, life-long learning process influenced by context. It is when one acts on their well defined personal values while motivating others to reach a shared goal. It is showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope while reading the underlying behavior and opinions of others and looking beyond their race, sex, and physical appearance.

Analysis: The only thing I changed to my definition this week was changing "set goal" to "shared goal". I changed the wording because I felt the word "shared" summarized the positive forces in group development stated by Yoon and Johnson (2008) and the consensus model in decision making stated by Komives, Lucas, and McMahon (1998). I found many parts of the readings valuable this week. I agreed with Komives et al. (1998) that it is important to be aware of how one's group is structured, whether it be by the purpose, the structure, or the time. It is also important to keep in mind which method of decision making is appropriate for different situations, which is also stated by Komives et al. (1998). Yoon and Johnson (2008) note impeding behaviors of group members such as: absence, ineffective work procedure, lack of sharing, non-participation, and technical problems. I think it is important to talk about these issues and their effects with group members so everyone is aware of how to prevent them. I don't disagree with any parts of the readings, but I do agree more with Yoon and Johnson's (2008) seven group development phases than Komives et al. (1998) four stages of development.

Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (1998). "Interacting in Teams and Groups." Exploring Leadership: For college students who want to make a difference (pp. 165 - 194). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Yoon, S., & Johnson, S. (2008). Phases and patterns of group development in virtual learning teams. Educational Technology Research & Development, 56(5), 595-618. doi:10.1007/s11423-007-9078-x (in online sections folder of reading packet)

This week's definition:Leadership facilitates positive social change and is an on-going, life-long learning process influenced by context. It is when one acts on their well defined personal values while motivating others to reach a set goal. It is showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope while reading the underlying behavior and opinions of others and looking beyond their race, sex, and physical appearance.

Analysis: This week I added two small parts to my definition and split my last sentence into two sentences. I added "influenced by context" from the Tatum and Kezar readings because this has shown to be a common theme in many readings from class, and it is very true that our actions, beliefs, and opinions grow from the context we grew up in. I added "looking beyond their race, sex, and physical appearance" from the Gladwell reading because I believe an effective leader should not base their judgments only on these three characteristics when choosing followers or a leadership style for a specific person. I found the article written by Gladwell most valuable in terms of how I view leadership. I especially liked when Gladwell (2005) stated, "Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions - we can alter the way we thin-slice- by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions" (p. 97). This tied into Tatum's (1997) statement that "We are not at fault for the stereotypes, but we are responsible for challenging them and disrupting the cycle" (p. 7). Even though our experiences highly influence our behavior, we need to realize when our actions or thought-processes are wrong and change them. Just because something is outside of awareness doesn't mean it's outside of control. I did not disagree with any part of the course readings.

Gladwell, M. (2005). "The Warren Harding Error: Why we fall for tall, dark, and handsome men." Blink: The power of thinking without thinking (pp. 72 - 98). New York: Pushkin Enterprises.

Tatum, B. D. (1997). "Defining Racism: Can we talk?" Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (pp. 3 - 17). New York: Basic Books.

Kezar, A. (2000). "Pluralistic Leadership: Incorporating Diverse Voices." The Journal of Higher Education, 71(6), Nov. - Dec., 2000, pp. 722-743. http://z.umn.edu/kezar

This week's definition: Leadership facilitates positive social change and is an on-going, life-long learning process. It is when one acts on their well defined personal values while motivating others to reach a set goal by showing trust, compassion, stability, hope, and reading the underlying behavior and opinions of others.

Analysis: From last week, I added "reading the underlying behavior and opinions of others" to the end of my definition. I added this because I feel that to be a good leader one needs to be able to know how others are feeling when it is not apparent, so they can choose their next action wisely. I chose this sentence by summarizing the main points of Heifetz and Linsky's (2002) article: find out where people are at, listen to the song beneath the words, and read the underlying behavior of authority figures for clues. I found many parts of the readings valuable this week. I really enjoyed the analogy of leaving the dance floor and going to the balcony to observe what is really going on in the situation (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002). I also found it valuable that each of us have "one-big-thing" we need to work on pertaining to our leadership skills and that we are usually unaware of it, as Peter was in the article (Kegan & Lahey, 2009, p.64). I didn't disagree with any parts of the reading this week. I found them very valuable in terms of how I view leadership.

Heifetz, R. A., & Linsky, M. (2002). "Get on the balcony." Leadership on the Line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading (pp. 51 - 74). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). "Identifying Each Person's One Big Thing" (pp. 63 - 67). Boston: Harvard Business Press.

This week's definition: Leadership facilitates positive social change and is an on-going, life-long learning process. It is when one acts on their well defined personal values while motivating others to reach a set goal by showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Analysis: This week, I added "facilitates positive social change" from because that is one of the two goals of A. Astin and H. Astin's (1996) leadership model, and I have always felt "positive" has been a key word in my personal leadership definition. I also added "on-going, life-long learning process", in place of "learned from experience" because this is part of Barbuto and Wheeler's (2007) definition of servant leadership which I found very intriguing and very much agreed with the fact that one is constantly learning from their leadership opportunities. I found A. Astin and H. Astin's (1996) leadership model extremely valuable. I believe the eight critical values are all very important to be aware of and they do interrelate with one another. I also found Barbuto and Wheeler's (2007) definition of servant leadership very interesting and I liked that it helped me tie in the "doing good" aspect of leadership that I have always wanted. These readings helped turn my leadership definition into something to strive for instead of something everyone can achieve. I didn't disagree with anything I read because both authors made very good points concerning leadership.

Barbuto, J. E., & Wheeler, D. W. (2007). "Becoming a Servant Leader: Do you have what it takes?" Retrieved from www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1481/build/g1481.pdf

Astin, H. S., & Astin, A. W. (1996). A social change model of leadership development: Guidebook (version III) (pp. 4 - 27). Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute.

This week's definition:Leadership is learned from experience. It is when one acts on their well defined personal values while motivating others to reach a set goal by showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Analysis: I decided not to change anything from last week's definition to this week's definition. I enjoyed reading the article this week, but I thought it was too specific on the time period of an economic crisis to influence my general definition of leadership. I did find the first step of fostering adaptation as valuable information. I liked that Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky (2009) were very honest when they stated, "You need to confront loyalty to legacy practices and understand that your desire to change them makes you a target of attack" (p. 65). It is very true that when you stand up for something you feel strongly in you need to be prepared to be in the minority. I didn't disagree with any part of their article, but I do think their leadership view sounds extremely challenging. When embracing disequilibrium it would be very difficult to find the right balance so it is productive rather than destructive.

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). Leadership in a (permanent) crisis. Harvard Business Review, 87(7), 62-69.

This week's definition: Leadership is learned from experience. It is when one acts on their well defined personal values while motivating others to reach a set goal by showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Analysis: I didn't change much between my definitions besides rewording the first sentence and adding "well defined" and "personal" in front of values. I added "well defined" because according to Kidder (2003), tough ethical decisions happen when one's values are well defined. I also added "personal" because the values have to be your own values and not generally accepted values. I didn't add much from the readings regarding ethical reasoning because it is very ambiguous. As Paul and Elder (2006) mention, Hitler used ethical reasoning when he believed he was doing what was in the best interest of his country. It is an interesting perspective, but not something I feel is important enough to include in a definition of leadership. I thought the four right versus right dilemmas and three main principles to help us think through the dilemmas were valuable to reflect on, but again I didn't feel they were important enough to include. I didn't agree with Paul and Elder's (2006) statement that our ethical concepts should not be defined by religious or political practices. I believe my faith helps me define what I think is ethical and unethical.

Kidder, R. M. (2003). "Overview: The ethics of right vs. right." How Good People Make Tough Choices (pp. 13 - 29). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). "The Function of Ethics -- and Its Main Impediement." Understanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning (pp. 4 - 36). Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.

This week's definition: Leadership is a quality learned from experience in which one acts on their values while motivating others to reach a set goal by showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Analysis: My definition changed by adding the aspects of a "quality learned from experience" and "acts on their values." I added these two aspects because I strongly believe that leadership is learned and not born. I also strongly agree with Lee and King (2001), when they state, "increasingly, effective leaders will be those who are aware of and act on their values" (p.56). According to Terry (2001), it is extremely important to be aware of how we define leadership and I found his point of view very valuable. I hadn't thought of many of the contrasting leadership styles that he mentioned and I learned a lot about my own opinions regarding different styles. I did disagree with Lee and King (2001) when they mentioned there aren't specific 'right' values of leadership. I tend to believe people need to have basic qualities such as responsibility and determination to be a leader.

Lee, R. J., & King, S. N. (2001). Ground your leadership vision in a personal vision. Discovering the leader in you: A guide to realizing your personal leadership potential (pp. 55-70). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Terry, R. (2001). Deciding what you believe. Seven zones for leadership: Acting authentically in stability and chaos (pp. 20 - 40). Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, Inc.

This week's definition: Leadership is motivating others to reach a set goal by showing trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Analysis: I added the words 'motivating', 'goal', 'trust', 'compassion', 'stability', and 'hope' because these words stood out to me in the readings as important. I found many parts of the course readings to be valuable to me in terms of how I view leadership, and I didn't disagree with any part I read. I really enjoyed Rath and Conchie's view of leadership because they focused on the four main attributes of influential leaders: "trust, compassion, stability, and hope" (2009, p.82). I view leadership as only a positive role. If someone is corrupt, such as Hitler, I don't consider them a leader. I also agreed with Goleman because he believes leaders need to be flexible and use their flexibility to their advantage (2000).