WEEK 1 (first week): My definition of leadership is when someone has followers that look up to them for advice in work environments, a crisis, or general learning. There are good leaders and bad leaders. Leaders can either be assigned to you with no choice (for example, a mentor that has been assigned to be your advocate); or otherwise, you could have voted them in and respect their opinion and know they are going to be leading you in the right direction and you have the same goal (voting for a president of a company)

WEEK 12 (now): Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal while respecting other cultures and believing in the common goal. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses and surrounds themselves with smart people who can contribute to their weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure and always be positive and encouraging. A leader is only as strong as its weakest member. Leadership involves seeing past prejudice and looking at a person as an individual with contributing strengths.

ANALYSIS: This is my last entry regarding my definition of Leadership. As you can see, my definition changed a lot from Week 1's definition (included in this blog entry) Leadership is clearly so many more things than just having followers that look up to someone for leading. I learned a lot throughout the last 16 weeks. I believe the biggest lesson I can take away is when I look at people individually more closely, that I take in to account their different cultures and upbringings. In addition, how everyone is different - - neither is better than the other - just different, but that's what makes the world work and how we can incorporate strengths together to make some great.

Week 11: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal while respecting other cultures and believing in the common goal. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses and surrounds themselves with smart people who can contribute to their weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure and always be positive and encouraging. A leader is only as strong as its weakest member. Leadership involves seeing past prejudice and looking at a person as an individual with contributing strengths.

Analysis: I changed my definition to include "Leadership involves seeing past prejudice and looking at a person as an individual with contributing strengths." We studied a lot about prejudices and how even if one is not prejudice he or she could still be benefiting from it. It is important that if someone is a leader that they realize how people are benefiting and why so fairness can play a part in their leadership.

Week 10: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal while respecting other cultures and believing in the common goal. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses and surrounds themselves with smart people who can contribute to their weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure and always be positive and encouraging. A leader is only as strong as its weakest member.

Analysis: During week 10's class exercise all the students were required to work together to get on a "raft". If one of us fell off we had to start over. Each time we all successfully got on the raft we had to keep making it smaller. This forced us to work together, but include everyone as well - no one could be left behind. We were only able to finish the project if everyone participated and able to get on the raft. This lesson was a great teaching tool to show me that a community and a leader is only good if we work together, and if everyone participates. If someone isn't participating then we can only be as strong as the "weakest link" and will not be able to reach our goals without them. Therefore, I changed my definition to include "A leader is only as strong as its weakest member."

Week 9: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal while respecting other cultures and believing in the common goal. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses and surrounds themselves with smart people who can contribute to their weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure and always be positive and encouraging.

Analysis: Through our Cultural Detective packets and in-class card exercise (which was genius!) I've realized the importance of taking other cultures into consideration. When working in groups it is really important to consider that everyone comes from a different background with different values and goals. Some things are the same, some are different, - but neither are better than the other. We can all incorporate our different backgrounds together to come up with something great and creative when applying respect.

Week 8: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal. A leader should believe in the common goal and have respect for others, and other's ideas. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses and surrounds themselves with smart people who can contribute to their weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure and always be positive and encouraging.

Analysis: Week 7 and week 8's definition did not change a lot except for re-wording. I added that a good leader should surround themselves with smart people who can contribute to their weaknesses. It is important to have strengths in all areas so if a leader has weaknesses they should be smart enough to compensate for those weaknesses from someone else on their team, because a leader cannot do everything alone.

Week 7: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal. Respect of others, and their ideas, is required of a good leader. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure and for the most part always be positive and encouraging. They should believe in the common goal and what they're working for.

Analysis: This week I added a that a leader should have a positive outlook throughout their leadership projects. Throughout my adult life I've always thought as some of my "strengths" as negative attributes instead of strengths. This class has helped me view these "negative" attributes as strengths through the StrengthsQuest evaluation I did. It has given me a completely positive outlook on my leadership abilities and is necessary for myself to believe in me if I want others to. I also took out "Leaders can either be assigned to you with no choice, or could be voted in." because I felt that it was a little obvious after reading it a lot. I wanted to concentrate more on what it takes to be a leader instead of how to become one.

Week 6: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal. Respect of others, and their ideas, is required of a good leader. Leaders can either be assigned to you with no choice, or could be voted in. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure.

Analysis: My definition did not change from week 5 to week 6. However, my analysis is from a few daily observations I had observing people. They made me think that its important to question and revisit the question of why we are doing the things we do. It only takes one follower to create a leader. After time there are many followers. Why am I following something and why I'm leading something could change over time. Its important to keep revisiting this question to be a good leader and make sure you still incorporate your values and want the same end result.

Week 5: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal. Respect of others, and their ideas, is required of a good leader. Leaders can either be assigned to you with no choice, or could be voted in. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses. A good leader should be able to work well under pressure.

Analysis: I added a sentence about being able to work well under pressure because its going to be required of a good leader. Through reading "The Art of Failure" we studied why humans fail under pressure (chocking vs. panicking). In order to improve as a leader we should know why we are failing so we can become good leaders.

Week 4: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their best strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal. Respect of others in your group and their culture is required of a good leader. Leaders can either be assigned to you with no choice, or could be voted in with the hope that they are going to be leading us in the right direction towards the same goal. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses. It is necessary to know your weaknesses so you can surround yourself with smart people who have your weaknesses as strengths.

Analysis: Through a few readings I learned how to be a better leader in different type of groups. There are three key things that could help to keep in mind when being a good leader: the purpose, structure and time frame of the group and its goal. Groups have different purposes and its important to make sure if you're part of that group to have the same purpose. If you do not, its important to give respect to the group's purpose. The structure has to deal with if there are assigned leaders or is it a leaderless group? Finally, time - is there a time limit or is it extended time? I thought it was most important to add respect into my leadership definition from these readings. If you cannot respect others and their opinions I do not feel that you can be a good leader.

Week 3: My definition of leadership is changing every week. Week 3 is as follows: Leadership is when an ethical person with ethical intentions uses their best strengths to lead a group of people towards a common goal. Leaders can either be assigned to you with no choice, or could be voted in with the hope that they are going to be leading us in the right direction towards the same goal. A good leader knows both their strengths and weaknesses. It is necessary to know your weaknesses so you can surround yourself with smart people who have your weaknesses as strengths.

Analysis: It was necessary to incorporate strengths into my definition this week. A leader must use and develop their strengths to become a better leader. Finding my own strengths (and weaknesses) will help myself become a better leader as well. Through the Strengths Quest and readings I've noted my own strengths and weaknesses for future use.

Week 2: The definition of a leader should be defined with an understanding that she/he is an ethical person with good intentions working towards the same goal for a community for a positive cause. There may possibly be bad leaders out there, but does that necessarily make them leaders or just people with bad intentions? Even they have followers which is required of a leader.

Analysis: My definition didn't change, but there was some additions and clarifications incorporated to it. During class there was some discussion regarding unethical leaders and some students were under the assumption that we were only speaking about good leaders but then a few people brought up people like Hitler, who by definition was a "leader" but an unethical leader so I wanted to clarify that topic of unethical versus ethical leaders. During our reading of "Get on the Balcony" it helped me take a step out of situations I might be involved in and view them subjectively and non-biased by going to the "balcony". It is a good exercise to think about when incorporating into the future leader projects I might have.

My definition of leadership is when someone has followers that look up
to them for advice in work environments, a crisis, or general
learning. There are good leaders and bad leaders. Leaders can either
be assigned to you with no choice (for example, a mentor that has been
assigned to be your advocate); or otherwise, you could have voted them
in and respect their opinion and know they are going to be leading you
in the right direction and you have the same goal (voting for a
president of a company)