The 'pump'......

Winding down,

Thank you once again for joining me as we digress and my knowledge becomes your updates is coming to a close. This week we learned about empowerment and how it involves the leader in particular and how it affects a person or a group of people. This concept can clearly be defined as, “giving power to someone thus resulting in a greater sense of confidence/self esteem and ability to do a task”. If done with a ‘good heart’ and attitude this can go a long way resulting in nothing less than optimistic group contributions to better each one. However, there is one thing people need to know that will use this skill effectively and that is whoever is doing the ‘empowering’ of the other person they need to know what that certain person is good at. For example, this applies to my past life when I was on the wrestling and football team starting out as a freshman. There would be team leaders that encouraged others including myself on the team and in wrestling if he knew I had a clear shot at working a move which I was good at he would call it and I would follow up with it. This benefited the group in points, resulted in a wins for me, and boosted my self-confidence gearing up for the next match.

As well as knowing what empowerment is one needs to know what to believe in order to follow through and this includes:

• That others might be better at something
 That others should have the chance to thrive
 That the fact that others might do something different than you would does not make it bad
 That giving power to others creates an opportunity for you to learn something new

Realizing these factors one can assume it goes ‘hand-in-hand’ with motivation in part which is the next concept. Motivation can be defined as an incentive or move to action. There three different dimensions of motivation including intrinsic, relational, and extrinsic, but for now I will go into depth on the one that I live by and that is extrinsic motivation and the details by which this entails are as follows:

 Tangible rewards (scholarships, awards, prizes, gifts, money)
 Credit towards something (academic credit or completing requirements toward something larger)
 Experience to build your resume
 Opportunity for advancement (promotion, new opportunities)
 Avoiding penalties (fines, loss of privileges)
 Public recognition
 Knowing that someone may return the favor
 Competition with others/to win

The one in which I go by most is competition with others which I dislike losing. This ‘inner drive’ within me has pushed myself to the limit and given me success. I still believe I am humble, but there is nothing better than competing with each other to put your skills to the test. I also know when to motivate others giving them that extra ‘boost’ they need when down. There many ways to apply this to leadership if not stated in the obvious, but the question you can draw is when was the last time you motivated or was motivated by someone?

The sum of who you are.....

Tuning into this week,

We will be exploring ethics and morale and how they seemingly intertwine with each other. Through our assigned reading I noticed the author relied heavily on these two concepts, but it was in the latter that I realized why. Her defined leadership definition was having good ethics and effectiveness essentially. Hitler was mentioned in the reading, but there was speculation as to whether or not he was a ‘leader’ in a sense that under the fore-mentioned Great Man and Trait theories he can be listed as a leader, but under the Behavioral, Situational, and Process he cannot. So we digress keeping this in mind and learning about ethics and morale.

To start off, there are a few definitions including values, morals, ethics, and character. These definitions ‘sum’ up who you are as person and what you live by:

- Values: Freely chosen personal beliefs
- Morals: Relating to right or wrong, commonly thought to be influenced by religion or values
- Ethics: Social rules that govern and limit our conduct, especially the ultimate rules concerning right and wrong
- Character: Who you are

As one can see, paying close attention to morals and ethics they both include similar context. The million dollar question that can be drawn here is, “Is there a universal code of ethics?” This question still relays in my mind as I have yet to come up with a solution. However, what shapes our ethics? These can include, school, family, religion, culture, media, friends, and experiences. I like to consider myself as having decent ethics in terms of working for example. Going into work each day, I say to myself, ‘think about all the people who don’t have jobs’. This alone makes me feel a sense of job security knowing that I will strive to increase my stores sales by relating to the customers needs and working with them to close a deal. This is just one of many rules that I live by on a daily basis.

Focusing on morals, we all have our ways of ‘going through the motions of life’ but some people can take advantage of this in different ways and abuse the system. According to changingminds.org morals can be further defined as “having a greater social element to values and tend to have a very broad acceptance. Morals are far more about good and bad than other values. We thus judge others more strongly on morals than values. A person can be described as immoral, yet there is no word for them not following values”. Note that ethics and morals have been used interchangeably over the years. This relates to everyone as it does to me, yet some of the morals I live by are: ‘Be happy with what you have, life is not fair, be thankful for every new day, and treat others as you would want to be treated’. I am still working on building my self morale and it will always be a continuing process that I am willing to keep up with. How do you value yourself in the above concepts and what will you do to change the bad to good?

Born Identity.....

This just in,

In yet another week of learning about leadership my class and I learned about identity, oppression, and privilege. These concepts break down into our society and though we may not even think for a second about these, they are there. What can you indentify yourself as? An athlete, cat or dog person, out doors, science, book worm, and so on? A common term is ascribed identity which according to our lecture: how others see you or what society may impose on you (this may or may not match with self identity). This concept plays into leadership by the simply fact of it showing others who you are as a person if you are the ‘head of the pack’. I’d like to identify myself as an athlete, conscientious, humble, outdoor person, studious, and the list can go on from there. I take pride in my identity because, and this is the same with all of you reading this, no one has the same identity as you. Though we may envy others from different aspects in this field, but regardless you are you and no one can change that.

Looking at oppression it can be simply stated as “disadvantages or barriers used subtly or by force to keep someone or group in a particular place in society”. Its target is those who do not have a privilege or social power. This social aspect is constructed upon institutions and systems in which this is formed by people and persists beyond the everyday that shapes how people live, grow, and learn, and keeps a community going. Systems within institutions include sexism, racism, ableism, heterosexism, classism, etc…Some of the effects of oppression and in relation to privilege can by categorized by:

 Family
 Societal Norms
 Crime
 Geography
 Media
 Health
 Business
 Government
 Education

Within an article we read the author explained how people of color fit into all of these very categories yet today we feel as though this doesn’t exist. IT does, and soon maybe we will all come to realize this. Everyone is oppressed but some more than others. I feel, myself, is oppressed considering I do not come from an upper- middle class family. I am still blessed nonetheless for being alive, but working harder than those with money ‘always’ in their pockets is a must.

Turning to privilege, this concept grabbed my attention because I have never thought of it this way before. Coming from a different view point privilege is inherent in dominant groups in society. If you are in a dominant group, you get privilege whether you want it or not. If you appear to be in a dominant group (passing), you get some privilege associated with that group. Though having privilege doesn’t make you a bad person. Take for example right handed people; if you walk into a classroom what type of handed scissors are readily available? I personally feel privileged being able to even walk! Or where does the left handed person always have to sit when eating with other friends? It is examples like these that make those feel a little more ‘special’ about themselves.

Where do you stand?

Welcome back and good day,

This blog will be about inclusivity in the context of culture and how it relates to, of course, leadership. According to this weeks lecture “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations; the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group”. We generalized and compiled a list of what we thought culture was and included but it turned out most of what we had was something of common knowledge. What we failed to recognize somewhat was the underlying categories of culture including, but not limited to, conception of beauty, eye behavior, facial expressions, and social interaction rate. All of these which can play a huge role in ones culture and can take offense to it done otherwise.

This concept of culture relates to me as well as the United States as a whole because we live in a society filled with mixed cultures, races, religions, and more. What I have yet to understand is to acceptingly take in other cultures and value their ways of life. In doing so, I will be able to expand my knowledge which can better serve others especially in the health care field. A few other interesting concepts we viewed were individualism and collectivism. These two terms indeed weigh in on ‘opposite’ sides of the spectrum in which one is based on self per-se’ and the other is involved with others more socially. These two ways is how our western society is structured essentially. A few key points include:

Individualism

- Stand out from the rest
- Develop own skills and opportunities
- “What’s in it for me?” or “That’s not my job”
- Control
- In charge of own fate
- Competitive
- Strive to be the best

Collectivism

- Interdependent
- Development of group
- Trust
- Collaborative
- What’s best for group?
- Familial

When looking at these concepts I can relate more so to the individualism only because I fit into more of the categories than the other. This is what I have been told is that if you want to get far in life you have to want to, you have to make good choices, want to exceed others in the competition and so forth. Keep in mind though, not one way is better than the other indeed.

As the world continues to grow with people from all cultures and races I have seen more and more multicultural leadership people shape different peoples lives such as our president, again, who broke the racial boundary of having all predominantly Caucasian presidents in the past. There needs to be a well balance of both individualistic and collective ideologies (something I am working on) engrained in our minds because with this, and only this, will the U.S. turn the ways of being ‘self-centered’ and provoke a new way of reaching the common goal to better everyone in the long run. So the question is, where do you stand and what will you do to change your ways?

Groups and cohesion

Good day and welcome back,

Tuning in this week for my leadership course we discussed the importance of cohesion and group aspects which entail this. First off, the concept of cohesion is attraction meaning there are two underlyers; individual and group attraction. Individual attraction can be described by simply each member of the group has their own likes, interests, and ‘hanging out’ if you will. This, compared to group attraction is the group has very close views on likes and dislikes, thus it can be known as group pride. I believe this can relate to me in past experience when designing a template for a health company my group and I had to complete. We all agreed on the formatting, structure, word choice, and so forth coming up with the finished product, in fact this can relate to unity. Cohesion is unity. Entailed is the thought of group ‘one-ness’ and the sense of ‘we’. The last related definition of cohesion is team work. It is the member’s commitment to team goals and their belief in the capacity of the group. Concluding, cohesion can be summed up by the driving force that keeps a group together keeping out ‘outside’ detracting forces which can harm the group effectiveness.

In turn, we dive into the next topic of collective efficacy being the belief of most, if not all, group members that the group can attain its goals. It was actually in my Blue-Chip Leadership Program on Field Day that is the most recent example of this term. My group shared the common goal of being the best team out there dominating the competition. No one had the lack of faith in the others and in the end we did come out on top overall winning all the physical competition games. On behalf of my group, I would say we had high collective efficacy to say the least. A side concept discussed in class was Tuckmans Model of Group Development. In a brief overview it was divided by an ordering sequence of ‘phases’ including: Forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Here is a breakdown of each:

-Forming: Group comes together and gets to know each other (very nice at this point)

-Storming: Group hits a ‘bump in the road’ by trying to create processes

-Norming: Group gets back into routine and starts solving problems

-Performing: Group goes beyond and actually gets into rhythm and synergy with each other

-Adjourning: Group comes to an end and lets go of structure in effort to move on

The relevance of this can only be done by utilizing each person’s assets for the benefit of the team. We all have assets, some being more important than others and it is crucial to use them and not let them go to waste given the right situation. I have been in a group where one of them members did not say he had access to a van to get us from point A to point B and this caused time and money to bring two vehicles instead of one. Have you been in a situation where you held back a certain asset that could have proved beneficial?

Mission and vision: "I have a dream......"

Welcome back,

Today I will be discussing some key aspects of leadership in which directly relates to what the leaders values are and how he or she views a certain situation they might be in. This is broken down into mission and vision. These two concepts in fact are something that many companies have including, but not limited to, Southwest Airlines, McDonalds, Delta Airlines, and many more. You may ask, well what’s the purpose of having these? It’s simple, essentially these two factors will tell the person, follower, potential customer, what that company or leader has in mind for future business and to obtain as much support as possible along the way.

First, we look at the mission statement. This entails a statement of purpose/core values. This is important because a person or organization can refer back to these to encompass the decision making. Not only this but, as mentioned above, this can clarify to others what is important to the leader or the organization. Also, there are a couple types of mission statements including organizational mission and personal mission (explains itself). The organizational mission is a statement of the purpose/core values of an organization; simply, what the organization does. For example, my work which is Sears, their mission statement is: To grow our business by providing quality products and services at great value when and where our customers want them, and by building positive, lasting relationships with our customers. I can agree with this because our store carries large amounts of different consumer goods and we offer shipping on select products to give the customer what they want and where they want it. My (personal) mission statement would go somewhere along the lines of expanding my horizons by living and learning; building bridges to success and not burning ones that cant be rebuilt. This holds value to me because it is what I have lived by for quite sometime and defines who I am as a person.

When I talk about vision this means ‘foreseeing’ the future picture of an organization or cause. The purpose of having this is to allow a person or organization to stay focused on the future and set goals to reach the vision. Also, it can motivate and inspire individuals and groups of people. This again contains two types vision being organizational and personal. How this relates to me and for example Sears vision: To be the preferred and most trusted resource for the products and services that enhance home and family life. At our location it is very evident to me that the managers care about the customer and show that through many interactions with them. My organizational vision would be: I imagine myself graduating college in the next few years, where I have my degree, where I will pursue a career in the medical field benefiting others in the long run. This will be done through hard work and dedication, sacrificing time to apply myself to education, and taking advantage of opportunities when given. What do you think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision was? Did his vision become reality?

Are you under the illusion?

This just in,

A new form of leadership has been introduced in our class. However, this isn’t your average ‘normal’ leadership concept. No. This is in the form of ‘toxic leadership’. The term says it all in the sense that no one likes toxic products in which they are bad for you and can be bad for your health. The concept(s) I will be discussing goes into toxic leadership and the different characteristics that accompany the leader. First off, there are to sub categories of this and they are intentional and unintentional toxic leaders. These people are bad news; let’s hope you haven’t run into any recently.

In this world there are good leaders and bad leaders to say the least. Unintentional toxic leaders engage in careless and reckless actions, including incompetence, nonetheless causing negative effects. On the other hand, intentional toxic leaders deliberately injure others or enhance themselves at others’ expense. For example, take Hitler and though some argue he was a good leader in the way how he poised himself in front of people (followers), but behind the scenes he was taking people out who got in his way to success as being the dictator of Germany. Now when we describe these types of leaders keep in mind that many of these ‘toxic’ leaders display not just one distinguishable trait, but many. They are as follows but not limited to:

-incompetence
-malfunctioning
-maladjusted
-sense of inadequacy
-malcontent
-irresponsible
-cowardice
-egotism

and much more. Do note that these are just the characteristics of toxic leaders, but there are different types of leaders that possess these traits and many others. I will only discuss two as they can relate to my personal experience and most likely yours. The first (concept) is the ‘busybody’ leader. The busybody leader is energetic, restless, constantly in motion and full of unfocused vigor. He may give full focus to one project or topic for a period and then jump to another for no apparent reason, leaving those around dazed and confused. This relates to me because my past manager felt the need to get many things done at once and often had his employees starting one task only to start another ten minutes later. This left myself confused on which was more important leaving the other ‘five’ tasks out. Also he felt as though he was perfect and assumed he was the center of attention in the work place. The other form (concept) is the ‘street fighter leader’. This leader is good to those who are loyal to her/him and can help her/him with his “wins,” but can be brutal to those who disagree with her/him or offer a dissenting opinion (also forms gangs to fight the battles they must win). This relates to my life and yours too given the area you live in, that there are plenty of gangs all across the U.S.; some more than others and even in high schools (the ones I went to especially). I have seen plenty of groups and people do things they weren’t supposed to at the leader’s discretion. Given all the above information, are you under a toxic leader and not know it yet?

How the world maintains balance by the other side of the equation.....

Greetings,

Welcome back as today we learn about followers. What is the term for it? You guessed it, followership ofcourse. Without this there is no leader and without a leader there is no follower. Well, what is followership? This concept basically means the capacity or willingness to follow a leader. Simple right? Well, it goes a little further in depth than that because of course we all know that there are different types of followers. This can easily relate to me because, well, we have all been followers including myself such as when I was learning to become a certified EMT and trained fire fighter I had to ‘follow’ with a good attitude and mentally appreciate the leader or whom was teaching me ‘the ropes’ of how to do things. Or take for example, I am in a biology group where there is the leader and she delegates the tasks for us to complete the project by its due date. Well now, let’s take a look at the different types of followers among us today.

First off, these types of followers will either prove to be inhibiting towards effective leadership, positive towards it, or neutral about it; here they are:
-Isolates: Do not care about their leaders, are not aware, are detached, do nothing
-Bystanders: Go along with the status quo (often when it is in their self interest), disengage, are aware but do nothing
-Participants: Invest a little to make an impact, free agents, and care somewhat
-Activists: Eager, energetic, engaged, feel strongly one way or another about leaders and act accordingly
-Diehards: Deeply devoted to their leaders or may want to oust their leaders, all encompassing commitment

All these concepts of followership really explain all types of followers in the given context of how they ‘participate’ in the group. An example of a diehard follower in our assigned reading text was Hitler’s right hand man, who after witnessed the dictator commit suicide, took upon himself and took the life of his wife and children before his own life. What type of follower are you? This relates to my life in the way that in most cases I am border line between an activist and participant given of course, what group I am in and how I feel about the way it is run and by whom.

In the end there are some guidelines as well to becoming an effective follower including: offering support to the leader, take initiative, show appreciation, keep the leader informed, and raises issues or concerns when necessary, and much more. The other concept examined was the “Leader- Member Exchange” Theory in which this includes explanation of quality relationship between the leader and follower. High levels of these types of relationships among the group provide higher levels of support and guidance from the leader and better follower satisfaction and performance. I agree with this as there is no “I” in team, but rather it takes the leader and the follower to make a positive difference.

The "bigger" picture of the Process Theory

Hello everyone,

This week we ‘tune’ in on what the Process Theory entails and different models along the way. So what is this so-called ‘Process Theory’? Basically what it is can be known as the reciprocal theory in which leadership is more conclusive to the followers and the leader as a whole. A model known as the Relational Model is composed of five different segments including purpose, inclusive, empowering, ethical, and process. Here is a simple breakdown of each:
1. Purpose- the shared value or vision of the group as a whole
2. Inclusive- a sense of ‘we’ different people and different points of view
3. Empowering- through others generate a sense of empowerment to essentially ‘motivate’ each other
4. Ethical- basically means making moral decisions
5. Process- the way the group goes about to achieve goal(s), how they communicate, and plan and steps in doing so

So the way this concept works is by following through with each of the above terms. As you can see, process, encompasses the whole imaginatively by keeping track of the ‘teams’ progression. It is also important to note that there is no ‘end goal’ in this model, but perhaps each individual has a personal goal they may want to get out of the whole thing. Essentially, the means do not justify the end in this rare case scenario. For example, this relates to my life in the exact way how my program Blue Chip is doing. All of the above terms correlate with how the program is run in being that everyone works together, in class, in projects, and in the community, but each one may want to get something different out of it than others. Perhaps one may do service to get a letter of recommendation, or one may want the satisfaction of helping people in general. I feel this purpose of me being a part of this program is to get a better understanding of leadership, help my community, and generate a strong portfolio for future job positions.
The other model described was the “Social Change” Model in which it is inclusive, views leadership as a process rather than a position, promotes the values of equity, social justice, self-knowledge, personal empowerment, citizenship and service. In other words, the term can encompass concepts as broad as revolution and paradigm shift, to narrow changes such as a particular cause within small town government. One of the areas this concept can derive from is in political science. An easy example of how this relates to my life and our generation is the election of President Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president. This marked a ‘huge’ point in history and some even say he is the ‘renewing’ of the Civil Rights movement as it continues throughout this day in society. This makes sense right? This effects me as I m able to witness this social change in time and due to unfortunate events in Tucson, Arizona I was able to see and hear him talk to the public about the tragedy earlier this year. The question of the day is what social change can apply to you?

Behavior and Situational Theories.....

Welcome back,
Today I will be discussing the Behavioral and Situational Trait theories. As mentioned in the earlier blogs these theories are ones that could apply to anyone from past to present. Over the last century studying behavior of leaders has been a primary focus. Some aspects to take into consideration of this concept is that learned behaviors and not predisposed traits are associated with leadership. It can be learned. One commonly used technique to show results is self scoring assessments. It has been proved through research that some behaviors are more related to leaders than non-leaders. Through research these skills continue to appear throughout: technical, human, and conceptual skills. Like the trait approach, the skills approach takes a general consensus of effective leaders. However, according to Northouse the skills approach bases the ideology on that skills are something the leader can accomplish whereas traits are who leaders are.

The first skill is the technical skill which means the knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity. For example, I have known many general managers of stores who are high on this skill but may lack other skills. They were very good with numbers and being very ‘micro-managing’ in a sense. My former manager knew what the quota was each day and pushed for the employees to meet it at the end of the business day. The second skill, human, is simple. It essentially means ‘people’ skills; how you work with others and your knowledge in doing so. This can be a very rewarding skill or can create problems with being ‘too’ nice with others and not being focused on the overall ‘grand’ scheme of things (i.e. what you are trying to accomplish). The last is conceptual, which going back to Northouse, means the abilities to work with ideas and concepts. For example, relating to my life, my current manager has exceedingly great conceptual skills pertaining to the layout of new products in given areas of the store. Though the company has pre-designed layouts of certain areas, he has me and others position products on the floor to generate more customers and profitability. The last concept to take into consideration is the Situational Theory which describes itself practically, though there are four underlinings of this including: coaching, supporting, directing, and delegating.

I won’t go into much detail on these because they all ‘speak’ for themselves. However, the one that can be a little more difficult to understand is delegating. What is it? This approach is the members basically run the show; however you are given the title as the group leader with minimal support and direction. You do help, but in the aspect of using each members strengths for the groups own good. I have seen this in many groups especially in high school where our leader would ‘sit-back’ and watch us work, but I believe this can build strong character in the long run. So, what theory do you support and why? Until next time…….

To be or not to be? Extraverted or introverted that is.........

Welcome back,

Today I will be discussing a widely used psychometric assessment questionnaire known as the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). First published in 1962, this assessment composed and based off of Carl Jung’s psychological types, were believed to narrow down how the human mind worked. The key concepts to this were either extraverted or introverted (outspoken vs. within one self) so to speak. When you take this test there are 8 mental functions the test will decide upon based on how you answered the questions to the best of your ability. There are:
- Extraversion
- Introversion
- Sensing
- Intuition
- Thinking
- Feeling
- Judging
- Perceiving
Here I will discuss the concept of extraversion a little more in depth. Now according to dictionary.com, extraversion is “the act of directing one’s interest outward or to things outside the self”. For example, this deals with being outgoing and energetic versus solitary and reserved (like introverted) also being excited and seeking stimulation on others. On the other hand, the concept of introversion is “the direction of or tendency to direct one's thoughts and feelings toward oneself”. For example, this term is pretty much the opposite of extrovert, less out-going, not as sociable, and more likely to thrive with minimum new social contacts. This doesn’t mean the person is asocial either, but you get the point?
How this all relates to me, is that when I took this test I received ESTJ. I can agree with this because it relates to how I am in life. It was broken down in the following order from highest to lowest (descending): Extraverted thinking, introverted sensing, extraverted intuition, introverted feeling, introverted thinking, extraverted sensing, introverted intuition, and extraverted feeling. Well what does this all mean? Here’s the breakdown of (some) it according to our Blue Chip manuals:

- Extraverted thinking (Te): Establishing goals and applying objective analysis to arrive at a logical, defendable decision
- Introverted sensing (Si): Recalling the details of past experiences and reliving the emotions that accompany them
- Extraverted intuition (Ne): Creating possibilities for the future and spontaneously recognizing patterns and connections
- Introverted feeling (Fi): Feeling internal tranquility when reality matches what is uniquely and deeply valued
- Extraverted sensing (Se): Alive in the moment and aware of what the senses are able to immediately experience

Now keep in mind, most likely when you first take the test you will come up with the four letters of the eight words I described above. There is a quite complicated equation you must use to fit those letters in descending order (1-8) to come up with your strongest and weakest mental functions. This relates to me by showing me what my strengths are and what I can ‘improve’ on to be helpful to others. You can take this test online to see what defines you. What I like most about this assessment is that it is different from other tests where as they point out your weaknesses, however this test focuses more on strengths (and what can be worked on). So the question is, how do you function in life; introvert or extravert?

"Are you born a leader?"

Hello everyone,
Thank you for coming once again to my blog where I fill you in on leadership and what it’s all about anyways. Whether you’re in school, holding a job position, or just wanting or thinking about creating charisma for yourself through a newly developed organization, I am here to help. This week we are going to be looking at “The Great Man Theory” and “The Trait Theory”. These two different concepts are very different in a sense that they both contain different guidelines of what leadership meant and in some cases still means today.

As discussed in the previous blog, the concept of “The Great Man Theory” led to the thought that leaders were born to be great. The leaders of the time were politically powerful, wealthy, and royal. What would you say on who you think could fit into this category? Perhaps, Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela who served as the President of South Africa from 1994-1999. His political figure in society has always been one to notice for his great acts to promote a better democratic multi-racial country for his people. Today, he still remains an ‘idol’ among many people from all across the nation. This could be a perfect example on the applied theory mentioned above. The way this would apply to my life would make sense in a way, but I believe that being outspoken could definitely be a contributing quality in which this is something that I am becoming more and more dependent upon. The other conceptual theory was the “Trait Theory”, that in a way lacks a theory altogether. This is because the definition of a great leader was the physical appearance of the person such as the hair, build, height, and so on so forth. Through studies traits arose to make what researchers thought to be “The five top traits for effective leadership” and they were:

-Intelligence
-Self Confidence
-Determination
-Integrity
-Sociability

Now when I look these they do make somewhat sense, but there are many traits that could easily be placed with these. This theory can relate to my life in that when I have been or will be put into a leadership position, it is essential that you look and present yourself in good manner because who wants to follow after some poorly dressed, ‘scruffy’, pessimistic person? I certainly won’t. How about you? What do you define as a good leader?

There have been many theories over the years but on a side note as learned during lecture was the “Achievement Motivation Theory” in which was designed by McClelland where it focuses on how the leaders performance and need for power, achievement, and affiliation. Though this can be seen as a minuscule outlier to the wide spectrum of leadership theories varying from tested, proved, researched, and so forth, the achievement theory may be one that a certain leader goes by. All in all, the essentials of good leadership is what you feel is right and what others view of that in being their purpose to come to reasoning with you in the long term.

picture above (www.black-collegian.com/newsspecial-reports/mandela2000-1st1.shtml)

The good ol' history of leadership.....

Greetings and good day,
This brings upon the second entry of “What is leadership anyway?” Today I will be writing more in depth of leadership and the different theories given the different time periods in which that style was most effective. To date, there has been around five eras of leadership which include: Tribal, Pre-classical, Classical, Progressive, and Post-Progressive. Not to mention the different theories (as written above) behind leadership, meaning what style of leadership those who were given the “label” carried about themselves to best suit them and their “followers”. Have you ever been in a leadership position in which you found yourself going back and forth from the “Great Man Theory” where you believed you were just born as a leader or the “Situational Theory” perhaps? Let’s go ahead and see exactly how this world we live in came around along the time line of leadership (do note that there are many concepts to be gained from reading this).
To start, tribal leadership (which speaks for itself) gives one somewhat of an idea on how the leaders came to be, what their physical qualities were like, or how they contributed to benefit themselves and others. Well, in that time period, the leaders were leaders because of their size, strength, and agility. They posed fear into the eyes of their followers and though the followers were crucial in tribal success, those who did not obey were killed to say the least. The leader knew how the ‘system’ worked, meaning who did what, how to do what, and where to do what. In “layman” terms, he was practically the ‘head-honcho’ of his established tribe. The next in line was the pre-classical era, perhaps in the Renaissance time period where claimed divinity was essential to leadership and kings and queens ruled over the country. Death was feared and majority of the time it was male dominance in which held the leadership positions. Those who viewed the leaders as spiritually or magically endowed can say that this can somewhat correlate to Biblical times concerned with spirituality (prophets for example). The followers were to obey and be spiritually filled for they followed in fear of the leaders. So what about today? You may ask. Let’s pick up the pace a bit and skip forward in time just to see exactly how much the thought of leadership changed. The post-progressive era is the time we are in now where leadership has explored new forms of leading beyond business and profit margins (PowerPoint, 15). The thought of addressing the post –industrial world is relevant to the leader’s point of view. There is a new democratic agenda at hand and answers in which everyone is looking for in a leader. It can be said that the idea of one person being in charge of his or her own is no longer a factor in today’s society, but rather equal partner in the leadership relationship. The follower’s needs are met and the agenda of becoming a better follower leads to the empowerment of the leadership position. With this in mind however, it was a different story for the theories behind leadership can be dated back to the late 1700’s.
During our nations Independence (1776), the “Great Man Theory” was believed that all leaders possessed this quality, not by learning, but they were born with it. This was in their family lineage and it carried with them in time. Moreover, the “Trait Theory” in which was during the early nineteen hundreds to mid nineteen hundreds, the leader had certain traits about him and held a predisposed position in their society such as hair, height, weight, etc.. The “Behavioral Theory” lasted between the 1950’s-1960’s where there was only one best way to lead others and the thought of actually learning this was understandable. The “Situational Theory” lasted around the 1950’s-1980’s and this dealt with the fact that the leader was supposed to adapt to any given situation based on the task at hand. Based on my belief, the situational theory should or would suite me or any other leader because that shows the diversification of the leader. For example, the president comes across many different situations in which people are asking him to do different tasks and he has to adjust to the situation and find out what works best. Last but not least, the “Process Theory” which dates to the 1970’s to the present, in which leadership is a relational and shared process. They (leaders) must conform to the followers needs to create a better place including serving them, leading by example, and focus on the community to create change. I believe this is very relevant alongside with the situational theory because many businesses you can see this in which in turn creates a better work atmosphere for everyone. For example, someone’s boss who works for a major company is open minded to them and sees both sides of their situation. This in turn leaves the worker to stay and work for the boss making the business better and the people around better. Gone are the days when it was about the leader, instead it is about leadership and what it means. In the end, “true self interest teaches selflessness” (Wren, 69). What can be said by this? Ask yourself this question while you go about your days work, for it can prove the enhancement of a better person in you….

The basics of leadership

Hello and good day, my name is Andrew Lopez and I would like to start by thanking you for coming or even following me on my way to bring the latest updates on leadership to the web. Throughout my life I have taken on quite a few leadership roles ranging from academics in high school, to a team leader of the varsity football team, to insuring quality patient care on the ambulance as an EMT. I seemed to have a pretty good idea of what leadership meant, but not once did I contemplate on the history, different types, or even the truisms of the quality. Have you ever been put in a leadership position? What do you define leadership as? As a member of the Blue Chip Program at the University of Arizona, it is required that my peers and I give our insights on what it means to become a ‘leader’. Over the course of 4 years (myself being in the first phase, equivalent to the first year), everyone who takes part in this prestigious program will learn ‘inside and out’ what it takes, means, and the history of leadership and leading in general. At this time we will dive into the basic concepts of leadership.

Leadership can be dated as being one of the oldest preoccupations in history (Wren, 49). Dating as far back as the leaders in the Old and New Testaments, leadership defined, was different than it is now. This definition of the term has changed many times over the years. This being said, the reason being was in correlation with the time period and what major people stood out during those years. The commonality between all these people that emerged into leaders was that they all had a well understanding of who they were such as their values, interests, skills, style, and their mission. Which brings us to the sole and beginning definition (so to speak) of leadership and that is:

1. You have to know who you are as a person

Are you the type of leader that will understand your vision and see ‘eye to eye’ with the public or group of people in whom you are trying to outreach to? It is essential that in order to be the leader you want to be, you have to use the best strategy to work effectively with a group of people (PowerPoint, 2). In other words how to communicate, create powerful teams, use everyone’s skills for the better, work with, and know the strengths and weaknesses of your followers. I never thought of these key aspects when I was in the position of leading another person or a group of people. However, I can say now that these rolls which must be played are indeed vital to becoming a successful leader. Though we may make mistakes in life and bestowing upon the responsibility is no easy task, but it’s the mistakes we learn from that make us better leaders for the future to come. In fact, as mentioned earlier, leadership defined nowadays is the relationship between the leaders and followers with the intent towards a common goal and mutual relationship. This means that in today’s society we are becoming more and more equal with each other coming from all different walks of life, but sharing and helping each other more side by side. In the end, everyone has the responsibility to lead, but when it comes down to it, there is no one best way to lead rather follow your heart, mind, and soul….and sure enough others will be there to help and follow you through your journey of life.