I came into this class not knowing what to expect. I thought we would just learn about leadership principles and methods of leadership. Another thought was we could possibly study great leaders and what they did that made them a great leader. This was my own narrow view of what leadership was supposed to look like. I soon found out my opinion of this class was wrong. I learned so many different aspects about myself and my own leadership. Through this class I learned many theories and views of leadership, which helped transform my previous view on Leadership. I learned the best leadership I can do is the leadership where I can be myself. A leader who can be effective is one who knows their S.H.A.P.E. It is their Spiritual Gifts, Heart, …show more content…
I learned there were many theories on leadership. My view of leadership had many similarities to the Great Man theory view on leadership. The theory basically states that leaders are only born. I also was taught there was five other theories of leadership. There is Trait theory, which is saying only people with certain traits can be a leader. Behavioral theory is similar to Trait theory, but it states that leaders only are people who exhibit specific behaviors. Situational Contingency Theory claims that leaders are only people who meet the needs of specific leadership in a specific situation. There is also Influence theory, which states leaders are people who can only influence people to an idea or desired task. Lastly, is the Reciprocal Leadership theory, this theory claims that everybody is a leader and works together as a leadership group. Learning about these theories helped changed my view on leadership. I was taught, as Christians, we are all called to be leaders. Leadership is an honorable aspiration to God. God has given us abilities, gifts, and talents to be leaders. Also I found out that there is no specific mold for leadership. Every leader is an individual so they have an individual leadership style. It is up to people to find their strengths and weaknesses to know their sweet spot for leadership. My view of leadership has changed drastically from before I started this class. I now realize that everybody can be a
Throughout high school, I participated in many leadership activities. I served as the president of the National Homeschool Honor Society, which involved organizing meetings community service projects. I taught a class of twenty preschoolers at my church for two years. Even simply hosting Bible studies has involved a lot of planning and leadership. All of these opportunities have shown me that a good leader not only instructs people on what to do, but they also listen to the people they are leading. A good leader needs equal amounts of passion, patience, confidence, and integrity.
This Leadership Theory and Practice class was not at all what I expected it to be, which is great. I had heard of other people who had taken this class previously with different professors and how all they did was write papers and honestly, hardly learned anything about leadership. This class thankfully had an easy work load which helped with my senioritus, but still challenged me to think about different leadership styles, concepts, and what it truly means to be a leader. I was able to hear the views of many other people especially those who were also in the class, but also from the different people we had interviewed for the assignment we had to present on. I learned a lot about leadership and I learned a lot about myself in a leadership
When I first took this class, I did not expect to be a leader. I’m still under the influence that men are supposed to lead as girls follow, but now that I have
Growing up, I always knew the importance of loving others as yourself and being kindhearted; however it was not until the course the I learned that these are also the qualities of an exemplary leader; specifically that you can lead others without being hard, strict, and callous. Therefore, this course has not only taught me the true definition of a leader, but also the qualities, traits, and attributes that I should embody to be a great Christian leader. Referring back to the introductory blog, my views are basically the same and have not changed. However, my knowledge and understanding of how to develop into a great leader has greatly expanded. I feel that I had the foundation of what a great leader was prior to this course, however, after completing this course and interviewing an exceptional leader; I have the tools necessary to build upon the
I think that leadership is all about the communication between leaders, followers, and the situation. I feel as if in any situation there is opportunity for someone to step up as the leader and it may not be the same person every time. In these situations, the leader should take in the opinions of the followers because they could have just as valuable input about the situation as the leader might. I think this philosophy of mine came from my many group projects in college that I have completed. I really like to lead groups, but I know in many situations I may not be the most informed or have the best decisions on the situation at hand. For example, I had a science project last year and I was the leader of the group. But, science is my worst subject and I knew I was going to need help in the decisions that were being made towards our presentation. So I stepped aside and let one of my group members really take charge because they knew what they were doing in that science presentation. This helped them build more confidence and it helped our groups overall goal to get a good grade. This course has really enhanced the idea of leadership being a relationship to me by showing me that everyone has different strengths. In my group presentation for CLA I had a lot of the strengths that make me an ideal leader, but I wasn’t able to complete the project without the strong help I got from my group members. Without Kayla and
In fact, I did not even know what leadership really was. I was always told I was a “leader” but never quite understood what that meant as I viewed myself as “bossy”. I am glad Mr. Jones clarified the difference between being a leader and being a boss, as I fear I would have lived my entire life too afraid to truly take charge due to thinking I was being bossy. This realization of the difference between the two occurred during our friday jump rope activity when I burst out with a new idea, only to later apologize for my behaviour in thinking I was being bossy. Mr. Jones corrected me in introducing the idea that that was, in fact, leading. One of my favorite lessons was the one on failure. The fear of failure article was inspiring and really allowed me to check myself and see what I have been holding back within myself for so
After this class, I still haven’t changed that definition, but I have added more to the definition of leadership. With the previous definition in mind, I think leadership also consist the ability to know oneself and seek improvement. This class’ approach on leadership was different to what I had originally expected. I thought it would be the stereotypical Western style leadership of having command and assertiveness over others. This class emphasized the significance of personal leadership: the ability to view the world and reflect on on it. It also emphasized the importance of relationship and how a leader can utilize his or her relationships to push their vision. I truly agree with Scott’s definition that leadership is love. A leader must be genuine and show compassion to their followers. This class helped me understand that before I go leading a group of people, I must first be able to lead myself to the right direction. I have to be the change that I want to see before I make the effort of changing
James 3:1 says “not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (ESV). The reason many are scared to lead is because they are scared to be held accountable for their actions as well as the actions of others. Leaders cannot be scared and effectively lead others, so they must stand tall at all times and take pride and responsibility in leading others to success. Christians must be leaders in this world to lead others to Christ, but they should also look to Christ for leadership and guidance just as He looks to God. John 5:30 says “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (ESV). Examples of leaders are all around today and in the Bible, and this literature review will present the fourteen necessary components of becoming an effective leader.
While we found that the majority of respondents believed that a class could be beneficial, the most prevalent concern is that leadership is something that cannot be taught in the classroom. This might lead to a decrease in interest. We disagree with this idea; however, we have identified that the class must be structured in a way that explicitly shows students how they can benefit from the class. In order to maximize interest and utility in the class, it should be structured in an interactive way. We will explain this further below in our
At the start of this semester, I had a very narrow understanding on what leadership was and what leadership could do. I was always under the impression that leaders were cultivated through a series of trials and tribulations where this single individual’s vision was faced with extreme difficulties. Through this course, I have learned leaders are, in fact, created, but not through the narrow lens I always saw with. Leaders can be created through the need for leadership, by cultivating leadership traits in individuals, and even from the spontaneity of challenging situations. Our scope of learning leadership was expansive this semester: we first identified the definition of leadership having to include leaders, followers, and the situation,
The class has really shown me what kind of leader I want to be. It taught me that I cannot just be about myself, I have to understand the importance of my followers. My followers will be what makes me a leader. Times may be tough but I have to push through. I have to be strong because if I am not then I will lose trust in the ones around me. They are counting on me to lead them through hard times. You know how much I like to lead so these aspects have really helped me understand what I need to work on to one day be this kind of
Before taking this course I thought I knew everything it took to be an effective and successful leader. Some of the things I thought and did were, I tried to help my team before myself, I coached when needed, and I also gave good feedback either negative or positive to each team member. I ran a very
Leadership should not be about making other people into lackeys, but it should inspire and better ourselves and others. My theatre teacher made the choice to talk to me and inspire me, which led me to be a leader in our theatrical community; one leader breeds another through encouragement and inspiration. To this day, I am grateful for his input in my life, even though we
Before attending introduction into leadership I assumed that I was a very good leader. I attained the leadership award at my high school, in the softball program I was known as a leader by both my coaches, teammates, and in newspaper articles. Given that I have all these awards for being a leader I assumed that there was nothing else to learn about being a leader. I know that you can always improve if you practice something, but I never realized that there are different ways you can lead and still be effective. Throughout the course, it has opened my eyes to different models, theories, and ideas that can help me improve my skills not only as a leader but as a follower as well. I learned that there are different leadership styles along with followership styles, self-awareness along with personality dimensions, and motivation models along with theories.
Leadership has always been a part of my life. I consider myself a leader in many aspects. I have been a member of many organizations in high school and in college and have also been on several sports teams. But like every leader, I am not perfect, and have my strengths and weaknesses. Experience helps with this and the least you should get out of experience is learning about yourself and your style of leadership. Because of my experience I have learned what I am good at and what I need to work on in my leadership. That’s also the benefit of the class, people are learning not only about leadership, but their own styles. You are continually doing exercises or reading about leadership styles to learn about what your leadership style and from there you can learn your strengths and weaknesses. I do not believe that leadership classes will change ones style but I do believe that it will help it grow.