Matt Hochbrunn EDPA 1301W

Week 9 Blog

2010-08-02T04:25:50Z

The reading I took the most out of for this week was the "How Good People Make Tough Choices" article. It helped my definition by adding the need to be ethical when making tough decisions especially when there is no wrong decision. The author puts the four types of paradigms and different ways to handle them that add to my definition because I realize there are going to be hard decisions you must make tough choices in life, and my personal leadership style and definition puts a lot of emphasis on the ends based thinking. I think as a leader I want the most people to be happy in the end, and that is how I would make some of the tough decisions. I also thought that laziness being the top critical thinking error in unethical behavior adds to my definition. It is obvious that laziness is a bad thing in almost all situation, but being lazy in leadership roles leads to a lot of problems. I also add to my definition that being ethical is something crucial to leadership. In the other reading they mentioned Hitler, and how he wasn't really a leader because he was unethical, and even though you can make an argument he was because he lead people, it was in such a violent, terrible, and unethical way it can't be considered true leadership. Acting in a ethical way is something I now find an integral part of my definition because it is so important to make the right decisions in all aspects especially leadership.

Week 8 Blog

2010-07-22T03:54:44Z

Like the racism article, the conflict article brought information that I neglected from my initial definition of leadership. Granted I didn't get much out of this article because I thought it was a lot of common sense arguments that were put into obvious real life examples I did take a few points from it that help add to my definition. First, when thinking about conflicts they are crucial to defining leadership, because when you are leading people conflicts are bound to occur. Being able to recognize different kinds of problems can help you deal with the different scenarios that occur while you are leading. Also concerning the definition of leadership I find the article's take on power as something that changes my personal definition. My definition included having power over people, and my view on power was like Weeks said in to have the ability to make others behave how you want them to, but after reading the article I realize that isn't the case. Power being something that helps you influence people more clearly defines a trait a leader would exemplify. When you try to get people to do what you want them to it doesn't really make you a leader, but more of a bossy person. Allowing people to determine what they want, and you influencing them to that decision more clearly defines power within my leadership definition.

Week 7 Blog (Late)

2010-07-22T03:53:37Z

My initial definition of leadership completely dismissed racism, because I didn't think it affected it. After reading the articles you realize that it kind of does, and even though I don't think it is necessary to add something like "don't be prejudice and racist" to my definition it is still important. Mostly because I realize a lot of things happen subconsciously and in order to be a good leader you must be able to keep things like that in check. I also think it is inevitable to judge people upon meeting them, but I have to add being more open to letting the deeper things determine how I see people to my definition. In the end I dont think racism and prejudice play a big role in my definition of leadership.

Week 6 Blog

2010-07-02T22:25:24Z

I think it is true one can be a leader coming from the grass roots, but only on a smaller level. If you can show strong leadership skills you can strongly influence a small group of people (like a team), but I think bigger leadership comes from those who actually have power. A leader within a team can show strong results on a project, but the project isnt going to affect the larger picture of a company. Which is why I think it is true you can lead from the grass roots, but only a small level. I also agree that it is biased to only study the CEO's and president's of company, but in the they are the leaders who are mainly responsible for the company. They have the largest leadership roles, and need to show strong leadership skills more than any other employee making the title quite important. One can lead and be a project manager of something small, but how much that inputs to the companies all around success may never be seen. I think it is crucial for the person with the title to show strong leadership skills. From the next article, I think servant leadership deals with all stakeholdrs in a company. Stakeholders include everyone who interacts with the company, including vendors, employees, stockholders, board of directors, customers and everyone dealing with the company. If you are the CEO of a company, and look at yourself as a servant leader you have a lot of people to please, and if you could make everyone happy you would be doing one heck of a job as a leader.

Week 5 Blog

2010-06-25T02:50:09Z

After reading Leadership is in the Eye of the Follower I was able to see the definition of leadership in a different way, and it is crucial to understand the followers perspective to be a quality leader. I completely agree with the authors that honesty is the essential characteristic and something you look up to for leaders. If a leader declares they will do something and pulls through you continue to look up to them, but if they fail you lose all trust in the leader. Promising things and not pulling through is the biggest let down a leader can do and is detrimental to their success. Competence and being forward looking are two other characteristics the authors declare to be things followers look for in leaders, which I completely agree on. In the reading for competence it states, "if we doubt the leader's abilities, we are unlikely to enlist in the crusade," and that makes it obvious that the leader must know what he is doing for his followers to trust him. Next, the reading states "a leader's 'vision' is like an architects model of a new building," so it is the framework of everything a leader does. I feel inspiration and credibility aren't as important as the other traits, and can be made up for with other traits. In the end it is very interesting to try and look at leadership from the follower's eyes, and can bring a lot of light on important traits sometimes overlooked when only analyzing leadership.

Week 4 Blog

2010-06-17T23:07:26Z

The reading didn't exactly help define leadership, but rather helped identify things necessary you need to know about yourself to enable yourself to give the proper definition of leadership. Just because personal vision doesn't exactly contribute to the definition of leadership, doesnt mean it isnt crucial to your definition. Knowing yourself, and what you take pride in, where you want to go in life, and your personal experiences are going to have a huge effect on how you define leadership, and more importatly how you actually lead people. I think telling your own story and taking after role models were the two best ways to learn about yourself. While telling your own story you can really reflect on things that have affected you as both a person and a leader. This information really helps define things important to you and can help you give a more personalized definition of leadership. Next, learning from role models and people you look up to can help you take some ideas experience has taught them, and use their life lessons to better yourself as a leader. All of these things help you find your leadership vision, and help create the ideal picture of the way you want to do as a leader (Discovering the Leader in You, Page 50).

Week 3 Blog

2010-06-15T05:33:18Z

When defining leadership I must agree with King in saying that leadership is not management, but I think he creates too close of a relationship with the two. I agree that probably all great leaders would make good managers, but to say that all great managers are leaders is no where near correct if you ask me. My boss now is a great manager because he always has things for me to do, but to say he is a leader is very far off, I haven't had a conversation of over 20 words with him in a long time. This could be one particular instance, but it rebuts the argument that they are always closely related. I completely agree with King that everyone is their own leader. I know this because I can guarantee my definition of leadership is different than everyone else's in this class, and probably in this world. The variation of people's definition of leadership also makes knowing your values and what you really care about in life crucial to coming up with your own definition of leadership. Taking some of my own core values like family, friendship, excitement, truth and knowledge will take me to a unique style and definition of leadership based around those things I feel passionate about. Also, allowing for change in your values, and therefore your leadership style is another important thing to remember.

Week 2 Blog

2010-06-14T16:22:02Z

My definition of leadership changed a little after reading this week's articles, and I think the article brought some important stuff to the table. The Cathedral reading really strengthened my belief that you need to build a framework to your leadership beliefs. Starting with small things and learning from experience helps you become a well rounded leader. That being said it is important to make a flexible enough foundation where if something happens you can alter your "cathedral" to something that really suits you as a leader. Also from this article, I agree with you that leadership isn't a basic human need, and it is ridiculous to think that. Comparing leadership to love and being safe is preposterous, and even though for some people it is a very important part of life considering it a basic human need just isn't right. The next article also brought up some good things, but I can't completely agree with there only being six types of leaders. I agree that most people in a lot of circumstances can be categorized into one of the six categories given, but I think both a combination of two or more categories, or some sort of hybrid combining several of the categories would be the most affective. I think being able to coach, be authoritative, set an example and take everyone's opinion are essential to being a good leader. Being able to be a well rounded leader and use the good things from all the groups is how I would define a good leader.

Week 1 Blog

2010-06-09T05:04:54Z

I feel like defining leadership is a very difficult task. It involves so many things from so many places where determining an exact definition is almost impossible. It is definitely something that some people are naturally born with, but not to say it is something only born leaders can possess. Being in a position of leadership also demands or forces you into being a leader, and your effectiveness is based on your passion and understanding for what you are leading.