This week: Leadership is a role of knowing yourself, having a vision, and striving to improve your leadership skills.

It's the final blog post and I'm sticking to my current definition of leadership. This is the definition of what I believe leadership should entail. Most importantly, this definition is who I want to become as a leader. I wasn't that interested in the readings for this week, but I thought about prejudice in leadership. Prejudice happens in leadership, whether it's misjudging another group member or receiving misinformation. Prejudice is everywhere. Tatum states, "prejudice is one of the inescapable consequences of living" (p.6).

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.

Last week: Leadership is a role of knowing yourself, having a vision, and striving to improve your leadership skills.

I liked the whole concept of group roles. I believe it's important to have a specific role when attaining leadership. Having roles during leadership will bring the organization closer to achieving their goal. Komives (1998) states, "task roles focus on accomplishing the purposes of the group, including giving information and opinions and moving the group along on the tasks by summarizing and by using various decision-making strategies" (p.173).
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.

Palloff (2005) states, "recent studies of online learning have noted that involvement is better known as a feeling of community and connection among learners, has contributed positively to learning outcomes and learner satisfaction" (p.1). I don't agree with what Palloff studies have shown. I don't find collaborating online to be a way of leadership, rather a simple way of communicating. I decided not to change my definition of leadership because I wasn't fond of the readings.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Learning together in community: Collaboration online. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, Retrieved from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/04_1127.pdf

Last week: Leadership is a task of knowing yourself through shaping and sharing a vision with others while taking on the role of a participant and observer.

Kegan (2009) inspired me to add a bit to my definition of leadership by explaining the concept of 720 degrees. The 720 degrees theory suggests improving leadership skills by getting feedback from people in your personal life and public life. Kegan (2009) states, "including key people in your private life as well as your public life - dramatically increases people's attachment on improving their leadership ways" (p.65).

Reference: Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). "We Never Had a Language for It" Immunity to Change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization (pp. 61 - 84). Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Last week: Leadership is a task of knowing yourself, by shaping and sharing a vision with others. While taking on the role of being an observer and a participant.

This week, I really liked Goleman's (2006) reading on sweet spots for achievement. In the reading, Goleman (2006) explains how emotions can affect performance.
He describes certain studies that show the affect emotions can have on performance. One particular study is how college students taking a math exam found out that when they were told the test was a practice, they scored better. Goleman (2006) states, "In a simulation of emotions on learning, college students are bound to do better when relaxed, rather than feeling anxious" (p.274). I changed my definition a little bit, by making it a real sentence. I still agree with Heifetz (2002) on how to be an effective leader, by being an observer and a participant.

Reference
Goleman, D. (2006). "The Sweet Spot for Achievement." Social Intelligence: The new science of human relationships (pp. 267 - 284). New York: Bantam Books

Last Week: Leadership is a task of knowing yourself, by shaping and sharing a vision with others.

The reading this week, On the Balcony really grabbed my attention on ways to be an effective leader. It inspired me to add a few words to my definition of leadership. Being an observer and a participant allows the leader to see what is happening as it is happening. Heifetz (2002) states, "to be effective, you must respond to what is happening. Moving back and forth from the observer to the participant, over and over again throughout the day, week, month, and year" (p.73). I just really agree with this way of leading, It's a hard leadership technique learn, but once accomplished it's very effective.

Reference
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.

Last Week: Leadership is a role of knowing yourself, by shaping and sharing a vision with others.

This week, nothing outside of this course or the readings inspired me to change my view of leadership. I'm still fond of last weeks reading on the concept of creating a vision. Sharing a vision will give a sense of direction, which I believe is a key element in effective leadership. While reading Heifetz (2009), I agreed with the leadership practice, embrace disequilibrium. Basically, embrace disequilibrium explains that leadership comes with difficulties, discomfort and disagreement. I believe that my definition kind of relates to embrace disequilibrium. For example, it can be uncomfortable to propose a vision that might fail or share an idea with a stranger. Indeed, leadership comes with difficult obstacles, but as a leader you have to find ways around them. Heifetz (2009) states, "The art of leadership in today's world involves orchestrating the inevitable conflict, chaos, and confusion so that the disturbance is productive rather than destructive" (p.5).

Reference
Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). "Leadership in a (permanent) crisis." Harvard Business Review, 87(7), 62-69. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=41997981&site=ehost-live

This Week: Leadership is a role of knowing yourself, by shaping and sharing a vision with others.

The reading this week helped me shape a new understanding of leadership. I changed it because I believe that effective leadership begins with shaping a vision. For example the vision might be achieving a goal, building a house, or having a family. Lee and King (2001) clearly state, "We strongly agree that successful leadership originates from the start" (p.31). Then, by sharing the vision it will strive others to do better work, provide better solutions, and be fully participative. Lastly, almost every reading this semester states its importance of how a leader must know their strengths. That's why I added, "leadership is a role of knowing yourself." Rath and Conchie (2009) sum it up the best, "Without an awareness of your strengths, it's almost impossible for you to lead effectively" (p.10).

Last week: Leadership is a progression of influencing followers to accomplish a certain task. While achieving a goal, a leader influences followers to identify their unique strengths and weaknesses, by pushing them beyond their abilities.

The readings this week, Kyle (1998) and Goleman (2008) didn't inspire my idea of leadership. Kyle's (1998) reading explains the leadership style of ancient tradition and how Sovereigns ruled the power. Therefore, I decided to keep my same definition of leadership. I did change the word "abilities" to the word "comfort zone." Followers may not be physically able to complete a task, but may have to get uncomfortable to reach a goal. For example, athletes step out of their comfort zone almost everyday to reach their goals. Maybe by lifting a heavier weight than the day before or running a faster time to beat the competition. As Goleman (2002) describes, "The coaching style is good at delegating, giving employees challenging assignments that stretch them, rather than tasks that simply get the job done." (p.61).

Reference
Goleman,(2002). "The dissonant styles." Primal leadership: Learning to lead with emotional intelligence (p.61). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Last week: Leadership is a progression of influencing others to accomplish a certain task. While achieving a goal, a leader influences people to identify their unique strengths and weaknesses, by pushing people beyond their abilities.

I still believe that Goleman's, Boyatzis', and Mckee's (2002) coaching style is the best way to lead. Throughout the readings, Goleman, Boyatzis, and Mckee (2002) claim, "Perhaps most important leaders don't practice just one particular style, rather, they use as many as six distinct styles." (p.54). I still don't agree with what the authors are saying. I believe a leader can practice one style and still be a well-rounded leader. After reading Rath and Conchie (2009), I changed the words "others" and "people" to the word "followers." Rath and Conchie (2009) touch on the topic of why people follow, which really sparked my interest. Rath and Conchie (2009) stated, "A leader contributes to a followers life, by influencing them to make a difference." (p.81). I love what the authors are saying because a leader is there to help followers reach their desired successes.

Reference
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). "The dissonant styles." Primal leadership: Learning to lead with emotional intelligence (p.54). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Rath, T. and Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths-based leadership: Great teams, leaders, and why people follow. (p.81) Gallup Press: Washington D.C.

After reading Goleman, Boyatzis, and Mckee (2002), the leadership coaching style helped shape my view on leadership. The coaching style reminds me of when I was a leader and a follower. I have been an athlete my entire life, therefore, I am a follower to my coach and a leader to my team. According to Goleman, Boyatzis, and Mckee (2002), "Coaches encourage people to establish long-term development goals, and help them conceptualize a plan for reaching those goals" (p.61). I agree with what the authors are saying because when people have a dream or goal it's a necessity to develop a plan.

Reference
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). "The dissonant styles." Primal leadership: Learning to lead with emotional intelligence (p.61). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.