Blog #9 Reflections

Over this semester I have learned a lot about different aspects of what it takes to be a great leader.  Throughout this class we took surveys to learn our strengths and weaknesses.  We also wrote up our own philosophy and plan for what leadership is to us.  During our time in class sessions we discussed our experiences in leadership and team situations.

Looking towards the future I see myself using the topics we learned throughout this class.  For example, when we discussed the topic of blog #2 and how the relational leadership model works.  I believe that the model will help me organize and plan out my steps to moving towards running my own business.  Each of the components inclusive, purpose, ethical, empowering, and process work together to reach a common goal.  This model as a whole will continue to help me with problems and goals I could continue to face in my journey.

Along with the model I believe the surveys and discussions upon those surveys in class will help me in the future.  Some of these surveys opened my eyes to strengths that I had not though about before.  For example, the quizzes we took on implicit biases that we may or may not have.  After reviewing my results, I was happy to see that I had little to no bias.  In the career path of becoming a personal trainer having no bias helps especially when working with other people.  Another survey that was recently taken in class called Style Under Stress Test.  This survey gave me the opportunity to see where I could improve on how I deal with stressful situations.  Needless to say that running my own business and being a personal trainer I will face stress situations along the way.

Overall this class has taught me a lot more than I expected going into it.  This semester I was able to learn about the many different aspects and components to becoming a leader.  Throughout this class I have become more aware of the type of leader I want to be and how to achieve it.  I plan to take what I have learned and apply it to all my goals in the future.  Hopefully one day I will be able to pass on my leadership philosophy and plan onto someone else.

Blog #8

When I was in high school I played on a couple of sports teams.  Each of these teams had an impact on my life because of the communities I got involved with.  One of most meaningful communities I joined was the soccer team.  As a team I believe we went through the stages described in Peck’s theory.

The first stage is pseudocommunity in this stage “a group may feel like things are just fine, people seem to be getting along…” (Exploring Leadership, p.299).  During my sophomore year I believe the team went through this stage.  Many of the kids on the team were friends from school and other travel soccer teams.  All of the members on the team got along and there weren’t many issues that arrived.  Mostly because the junior varsity was filled with all sophomore students.

Next stage is the chaos and views that come with many individuals on a team.  The text states “Different people or factions are asserting their perspectives…” (Exploring Leadership, p.300).  During the summer we trained almost every day in the morning at the gym and afternoons on the fields.  As the summer went on many began to voice their ideas and opinions on the future of our team heading into the next season. This caused many to disagree and fight over who would play this position, who’s the captains going to be, and how much playing time.

Then third stage came into effect when as team we realized that all the things we were saying became barriers.  These barriers prevented us from “truly listening and understanding (and being understood)” (Exploring Leadership, p.301).  For instance, the seniors believed that as sophomores we weren’t good enough to be asked to play up in varsity.  These assumptions and thoughts began to bring the sophomores together to prove them wrong.  As a team we ended up going against the varsity players in a scrimmage and beat them.  Those assumptions and barriers were then gone and we became closer as a soccer program.

The final stage is the team came together as a soccer program and no one was left out.  For example, as the summer ended we all had one goal in mind and that was to make it to states.  As a team all the players of junior varsity and varsity helped each other out to better our skills.  When conflicts came about we all handled it as a team and solved the problem.  For instance, when half of the varsity team was seniors and graduated we had to come together and decide who would fill those positions.  These decisions were decided by the general consensus of the team and given to the coach to have the final say.

Overall the stages of Peck’s theory work well when it came to sports teams and my experience.  I believe that after reading the theory it explains how a new team can come together overtime.  It also shows the importance of the overall development it takes to making an efficient community. 

Blog #7

Recently in the news and all over social media we have seen certain groups be the target for their identities.  I personally believe that although it is not a minority or a specific ethnicity that police officers are targeted.  For instance, many social media services have portrayed police officers as harmful to many of those target identities we discussed in class.  When we participated in the activity I was one of the police officers and the way we were told to act was not right.  I believe that many police officers are targeted because of a few who did wrong or broke rules in which they were supposed to follow.  In my everyday life the police are there for our protection and help in case of an emergency.

When it comes to non-target identity I believe being a male fit perfectly.  There are many examples in which males are the non-target identity because of how society sees it.  For instance, men aren’t on the news fighting and protesting for their rights.  Men in majority do not have to worry about many of the things women will face during their life.  To clarify men are usually seen as “the big business owners” and not women.  Being a white male I do recognize that I am part of the non-target identity majority.  I realize that not all men have it easy and don’t fall into the non-target identity.  For example, homosexual males continue to face criticism and problems because of their sexual preference.  I do count myself lucky at times that in some cases I am considered the “majority” and aren’t harmed.

The identities that I discussed both target and non-target coexist in the everyday life we live in today.  I believe that as we grow as a society many will change their way of thinking.  This hopeful thinking could lead to less target identities and a more equal base for all.  One example that came to mind was how the police help with protection for women who are protesting for equal rights.  We also see this help when it comes to the pride parades that are held in NYC.

Blog #6 LPI- assessment

I believe after taking the LPI-leadership assessment that many of the results I agree with.  My highest principles were actually a tie between model the way and challenge the process.  At first looking at both of these principles you may think they can’t coexist.  After I looked over the questions again I saw some correlations between the two and examples in my own life.  For example, when it comes to being a big brother I always try to model the way for my younger siblings.  As the oldest I always want to lead and set a good example for my siblings.  To incorporate challenging the process to this example in my mind is clear.  Being the older brother I challenge the process everyday by picking right from wrong.  Making these right from wrong decisions help me also build upon my moral and leadership values.  In challenging the process it states leaders are pioneers and "step into the unknown" (How to Improve Your Leadership Style in Each Area).  I believe that as the oldest I have done a lot of stepping into the unknown that helped pave the way for my siblings.  For instance, I was the first to learn how to drive out of my siblings and now I have the knowledge to help model the way for them.

My second highest principles are inspire a shared vision and encourage the heart.  These two go hand in hand with who I am as a leader.  I believe that when I was on my internship in Orlando I was able to lead others by these principles.  When on this internship I was instructed to lead a team to get a bunch of product organized and set up in one of the busiest rooms.  By encouraging the hearts of my team and sharing an inspired vision we accomplished our task.  During my internship there many moments like this and I believe each helped me grow as a leader.

The lowest ranked principle is enable to act others.  Now this principle was only shy one point from being in the second highest on my results.  I don’t believe that I see this as a low ranking principle of mine but a high one if anything.  In the previous paragraph I gave the example where I was given a group to lead in getting a task done.  If I wasn’t able to bring together this group as a team to trust me then I would have never gotten the project completed in time.

Overall I believe that the LPI-leadership assessment came up with decent results to my leadership ideals.  I also see each of these five principles as things that I need to work on to become a better leader.  This is so that I can see each of these principles as strengths working together towards my leadership goals.

Blog # 5

To answer this blog question I had to step back and really think of a way to answer.  The idea of a random act of kindness shouldn’t be planned or done with the intent to record.  It should be exactly what it says and be random.  The act of being kind should never come with an ulterior motive of a grade or reward for doing so.  I believe that in any facet of displaying kindness you need to really feel it in your heart and act accordingly.  After a week of thinking I thought what if I could find a picture of when I performed random acts of kindness. 

The moment which I was able to find was in the gym.  This is an environment where I spend a lot of my time and feel most comfortable.  As seen in the photo underneath I am helping another member of the gym with a spot.  Now there were many other members working out which could have done the same but didn’t.  I felt that this was a solid act of random kindness because it helped someone out and it wasn’t planned out.  I also didn’t know at the time that it was being recorded to post on his Instagram.

Moral Muteness blog #4

To answer this blog post I want to look at how I answered to a “moral muteness” situation and not how I didn’t.  This is because as I have gotten older I have grown to understand the true importance of morals and the values I strive to live by.  My example is when my father and I went into New York City to see Gabriel Iglesias for my eighteenth birthday.  Before the show we were sitting outside of the Radio City Hall and there was a group making fun and throwing things at a homeless man picking change out of the fountain.  Now the moral muteness that we noticed was the families walking by didn’t do anything to stop this group.  So as this continued my father and I walked over and told them to leave the guy alone.  I think that the values my father have taught me is why we both got up feeling that this was wrong.  One of my big moral values being pulled at was how you should always treat people how you wanted to be treated.  Also to help those who are less fortunate or can’t defend themselves. This man wasn’t harassing anyone like most people begging or scamming in NYC and this group decided it would be fun to mess with him.  After we asked the group to leave the guy alone the man thanked us and we bought him some food before heading into our show.  As weird as it sounds for myself I had this pit in my stomach feeling that something needed to be done or said.  Overall this experience showed how moral muteness was present and how it could be answered to help someone.

Blog #3

    For this blog the three project implicit bias quizzes were weight IA T, age IA T, gender-career IA T.  All three of these test reminded me of a quick thinking memory game.

      First test I took was the weight IA T and I wasn’t surprised with my results.  Project Implicit said “Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Fat People and Thin People” (project implicit/ harvard.edu).  I believe that the results agree with how I am as a person towards others.  In the experience I have with athletics, training, and career is where I see may have shaped this result.  With athletic sports in particular I have always tried to include everyone in the game no matter what their physical appearance.  Along the lines of training and career they go hand in hand with the results.  For instance, I previously worked and helped train at a gym where we wanted everyone no matter their physical appearance to reach their goals.  To understand yourself especially working in a gym environment is very important.  In that atmosphere you begin to understand who you are then you are able to help others.

     The second test I took was age IA T and again I wasn’t surprised with my results.  The results again came up as no preference between young and old.  For this test I believe that my position in my family is a big factor in why I got these results.  In my immediate family I am the oldest of three and my experiences I can see came into factor.  For example, being the oldest of two younger siblings you begin to take on responsibilities so that you are looked up to as a role model.  In doing this as a young child absorbing and looking up to those older people for guidance.  Those people more often or not for myself were my parents and grandparents.  To relate to young as well I believe it means just being a kid and socializing with people the same age as you get older.  The balance I have between the two will help while working with others throughout life.  A big way that having no automatic preference between the two ages was when I worked for Disney.  During my internship I worked with multiple different age groups from old to young coworkers to guests of all ages.  In that experience I learned how valuable it is to know who you are so you can relate your experience with others.

     The third test I took was gender-career IA T and this test result didn’t surprise either.  This result came back with no automatic preference as well between gender roles of career and family.  I think this relates back to the way I was brought up and raised in my family.  As a child I believe it is your parents who teach you how to perceive who should be doing what roles in the family.  Through my experience I believe at young age I was exposed to both genders in high positions in both career and family.  Other experience I have that could relate to my results are in the jobs that I have had while growing up.  Many of the jobs I had displayed both women and men in all types of career positions.  With this test it helps assist working with others because when you don’t see one gender over another you are able to treat everyone equally.

    Overall after taking the three test and agreeing with the results I still do not believe this is the best way to find out for yourself.  I think the tests I took may help aid in discovering what you prefer but what is going to help is having experiences through life.  Being face to face with all different types of people and seeing who you connect better with then others.