Servant Leadership!

I would define leadership as a quality that anyone can possess where they serve the ones they lead, and motivate others to do unite with them in achieving a common goal.
One thing that has really impacted me this semester is when we learned about being a servant leader, someone who is willing to serve those they lead. I loved talking about Divine Centered leadership and really enjoyed reading all about it. This is why I BYU is so awesome - in your leadership class you learn how to be a leader through following Jesus Christ's example because he is the perfect leader. He didn't do things to get glory or power. He did them to serve because he loves each and every person he leads. One part in the Divine Centered Leadership talked about doing God's will and not your own. It talks about how we need to ask Heavenly Father in our prayers to help us know what he would have us do each day. Instead of asking "What would Jesus do?" we can ask, "What would Jesus have me do?" We have opportunities that we need to embrace and can truly create and seek leadership opportunities more easily if we are willing to ask what Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father would have us do. I have tried to implement this habit of asking the Lord's will in my daily prayers and have been more aware to the opportunities I have every day in my life to be a leader to others by serving others. I am so happy that this class really emphasized servant leadership because it is a different concept of leadership compared to the world's view of its definition. We, as members of the church, need to be willing to lead humbly through our service. We shouldn't seek powerful roles to get gain or the praise of man - we should seek to first serve the Lord through serving his children. Jesus said, "If ye love me, feed my sheep." I truly want to encompass this statement and show my love for the Savior by having charity towards all people.

Leadership for Change

This week's lecture was a little bit confusing, but Tamara Gray did make some really good points that I want to emphasize. I understood the source strategy of Personal Motivation. We can motivate ourselves or motivate others by allowing self discovery, creating personal experiences or vicarious experiences, and we need to end with an invitation. I liked that she talked about making a personal experience that will make you or the person you're influencing care about that change. When I really understand a cause that's when I want to join. In my English class last semester, for our research paper, we were supposed to do more for our reader by giving a personal story compared to a statistic. When we can create a vicarious experience, it makes the issue more personal. In this way we can "consciously connect to values."
Another point I liked was about goals and social motivation. When we really want to achieve a goal, we will tell somebody who will hold us accountable for it. We need to choose good people to surround ourselves with so we can harness good peer pressure. When you are with good people, you will feel more accountable to them to be the best you can around them. We can find strength in numbers.
This approach to setting a goal to change seems like a good way to harness your own abilities, use others in a good way, and take advantage of our environment (structure).


P.S. Love language - Service (I think?)

Shared Leadership in the Home

This week's lecture by Brother Jeffrey Hill was really interesting as he talked mostly about being a leader as a husband/father and wife/mother. I was happy that he emphasized equal partnership in marriage. It made sense when he said that in the world people see the husband as the more dominant one when in reality it should be equal between the wife and mother. We are to be partners with one common goal. As a family, we should look after each memeber of the family and include them in making goals. This was actually emphasized in the book I read, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen Covey said that we should have a family mission statement and when making this, everyone in the family should contribute. The family is the central team of our lives so we have to make it the best situation we can be leading the other members.
I believe that one of the biggest parts of being a leader in general and in families is to lead by example. I am the youngest and so I've seen all my six sisters grow up, with five of them married and those five having kids. I'm so thankful to be able to see what they've done in their lives so I can learn what works and what doesn't. In addition, I strive to be an example to my sisters and all my nieces and nephews. If they see what I do is working, they will hopefully follow my lead. I'm so thankful for the central unit of the family - it's something that is essential in life and you always feel comfortable when you're home. I'm excited to be able to spend eternity with my family.

Ethical Leadership and Integrity

Dean Kaw (?) did a great job on pointing out many of the various ways people are unethical in our world today. I would have to agree with him - How sad is it that the "norm" now is to cheat and lie? I've experienced this in high school and will admit that I haven't kept perfect integrity myself. Many students in high school would cheat on homework and even on tests. I've seen my friends do it and in the end they really do cheat themselves. It doesn't make them learn anything and doesn't make them smarter, but when they don't get caught they do get the grade. Things get out of hand and "help" on homework resorts to just copying someone else's work, the work that they spent time and effort on. In my school, they implemented something that they hoped would decrease cheating. They had every student sign an academic integrity contract that said that they would not cheat on any kind of assignment. It should have helped, but I'm not sure if it did.
Something I always think about when it comes to cheating is going to the doctor. The question is whether you would want a doctor to perform surgery or any procedure on you if they had only cheated their way through medical school. The obvious answer is no. It's scary what people can achieve through cheating and getting away with it. For this reason, it is up to us, the leaders, to draw a firm line of where we will stand. We cannot reset this line or compromise our standards for anything. It's a difficult situation when there is so much competition and many other people are cheating, but it the end what matters is how you conduct yourself and the integrity you hold.
Integrity is one of the vital characteristics we need to preserve in our society. One way we can do this is by setting the example for others. When we set our standards high, other people see that and watch what we do. If we slip up, they will notice. Therefore, we need to strive to possess within ourselves integrity, high moral conduct. We can follow Christ is this aspect and do the best we can.

Servant Leadership

I really enjoyed this week's lecture about being a servant leader. In my high school student government we tried to emphasize this point because a lot of people just want to be a part of it for the name and title. Sometimes it's hard to not want to be recognized or praised for the good work you do, but we have to realize that that's not the point in leadership. The best leaders are humble and don't go around telling people about how cool they are. Brother Cox's stories about different leaders were very interesting. When he talked about Alvin York, the World War I soldier, he told about how in the end he didn't want to be famous for the act of service he performed. Even though he was famous for it, he wanted to be remembered as someone who helped others. I think that sometimes when people who are praised for their acts of good and actually soak it up, they can become prideful. That doesn't make anyone like them more. Addiotionally, Brother Cox talked about not being caught up in yourself. You can't get caught up in what you are because with leadership it isn't actually about you - it's about the people you serve. If we can keep that in mind, then we will be able to focus on the people. That was his big main point - to serve outward, not look inward. I won't ever forget his hand motions of pointing outward. It's all about the people and the relationships - not about the projects and processes. Building relationships through serving others in your leadership positions, I feel, has been one of the main themes throughout this class so far. I am going to try to apply this by making eye contact and smiling more at the people I see around me.

Conflict Resolution

Our speaker this week had many good points about conflict and why we need it in our lives. I liked many different things so this post will be kind of all over the place.

I've always really believed in the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11 where it talks about having opposition in all things. I had never really thought of this scripture in terms of conflict, but it's true that conflict fits as well. I think a lot of people see conflict as something negative, but it is essential to relationships and growth. I think when people are in serious relationships, they should be able to have a conflict, get through it, and still love each other afterwards. What matters is the way we deal with conflict. We can either be negative and bash on another person's ideas or we can be positive by being calm and reasonable. We should see the other person or group's point of view and really make an effort to do so.

I really liked it when he talked about seeing people as people and not things. Brother Pace said that we could either see them as real people like ourselves or see them as obstacles, tools/instruments, or as irrelevant to our own goals. I feel like sometimes I see people as just objects that are sometimes in my way and I don't really try to get to know them or make them happy. I've tried to be better at looking at the people I pass and smiling at them. It makes both people happier.

We also need to spend more time listening to other people. I liked the quote that said "the heart of good listening is authenticity." We need to be genuine in asking people questions and getting to know them.

Some of the things Brother Pace said were actually pretty similar to some things said in the book I'm reading right now (7 Habits Of Highly Effective People). We need to start with ourselves and try to see what our mistakes are in certain conflicts. If we can change ourselves and our way of seeing things, as well as our way of being, success will be the result. We need to realize when some things are our fault, even if we don't think we are at fault. All in all, conflict is something that can be positive and help your relationships strengthen and grow.

Lift Where You Stand - Teamwork

Monday's lecture was really insightful for me. My favorite part of his lecture was the five stages of relationships that he shared with us from John Maxwell. I can see these aspects of relationships in my life more clearly now. I think his point in sharing that was that we need to be more invested in the relationships we created with different people. Another thing he said was that we shouldn't be afraid to fail in these relationships because then we will know if we can trust different people. As a leader, I believe we should try to be open with people and also be genuinely interested in their lives. If we only have surface relationships with the people we work with, our common goal will not only be unsuccessful, but could also be different for each person. When we take time to truly get to know people, we can use their strengths to help in certain tasks of a project.
It is a scary thing to just trust people when you know that there is a chance of failure, but if you give people that chance you and that person will be able to learn. I believe at one point I had a near-solid relationship with a friend of mine and we trusted each other with almost everything. When that trust was broken between us, it was really hard to be good friends. I think that because of that experience, sometimes I'm scared to invest so much trust in people, but I am going to try and being willing to fail again so that I will continue to learn.
I also enjoyed what he said about goals - that if you tell someone your goal, you will have them on your team and they can help you reach that goal. As a team, goals have to be CLEAR to everyone. It's also good to realize that in accomplishing most goals, you have to take "mini-goals" and do them step by step. It won't happen all at once. As a team player, you need to be a "fire-lighter" by encouraging the team in what they do. I think this happened in lab this week when we did the hula-hoop activity. Because there were people in our group cheering and getting excited about it, it made everyone else want to do well and get the task done. His analogy of fire-lighters led into his story about James Earl Jones which I thought was really inspiring. Just one person, his English teacher, gave him the confidence he needed to launch himself into the world. If you can see the potential in someone, you should tell that person and encourage them.
In conclusion, team work has to do a lot about doing your part - lifting where you stand, as President Utchdorf explains. We need to do our part as members of different teams and do the best that we can. When we try our best, others are inspired by our efforts and want to do their best as well.