Personal Narrative: The Crucibles Of Leadership

The article Crucibles of Leadership explains the reasons behind the success of some leaders in comparison to others, despite having similar vision and knowledge. The authors Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas conducted a research involving more than 40 top business leaders, who shared their stories about facing all these turbulent and unexpected experiences, which the authors of this article call “crucibles”. The growth of real leaders is a steady process and the authors have presented it step-by-step. The common aspect that Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas have found from interviewing these business people is the fact that they all found positives from the negative events and circumstances, learned from their mistakes and that

The stone was cold and I could feel the pain swelling up inside. I took a step towards the edge, I thought to myself, “One more step and the worries would end…” if only it was that easy.

Leadership is defined as the power or ability to lead other people. Historically, I have strived to be a person that my peers would call a leader. I want to be a part of the Florida Leadership Academy so that I can learn new leadership skills from other proven leaders, as well as spread some of the skills that I have honed over the years. Throughout my life, I have pursued numerous leadership roles such as assistant captain of my high school’s varsity ice hockey team, Lead Volunteer at Young At Art, and currently, the secretary of the University of Florida Student Investment club. In addition, as a sophomore in high school, I took the initiative to apply and enroll at the College Academy at Broward College. This decision was a unique opportunity

Having served in various leadership positions throughout a ten year military career, I can point to my appointment as a company commander as my most significant crucible experience. Although the vast majority officers prepare for this role relatively early in their career, my assignment to the position occurred abruptly, unexpectedly, and certainly imposed some traumatic qualities within my life at the time. These characteristics seem to fit Bennis and Thomas’ description of a crucible event, of which made this experience somewhat easy to identify. However, upon further analysis, I often reflect upon this experience and

The gifts, motives, role, likes and dislikes as a religious leader after serving in my supervised ministry setting are vast due to having two different settings in which I served. The first half was as a spiritual leader within a role of chaplaincy at Morristown Medical Center. The other half of the year was in my role of Local Licensed Associate Pastor which was appointed to me by the Bishop of the Greater New Jersey Conference. Each of the positions I held had both positive and negative experiences. I can honestly say I have learned something from all of them.

It was finally the end of third period and everyone eagerly left class to go to lunch. I wasn't a big fan of lunch because I had no one to sit with witch made me stand out in a crowed making it easy for my tormentors to track me down. "Hey loser" someone snarls from behind me. I turn around to find myself facing Laurie, she's always picked in me for as long as I can remember no after awhile she someone found herself a boyfriend who started doing the same.

School communities must have leaders that continually strive to learn, grow, and reflect on their experiences to make a significant impact. I plan to incorporate these same ideas when embarking on my new role as a supervisor. I have expanded and refined my experiences as a teacher since I embarked with cohort four on this leadership journey, and I feel equipped to be the effective leader that will truly make a difference in our schools. This year’s courses and high expectations from our faculty have provided me the opportunities to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses on a scale larger than that of the classroom. Our projects and meaningful discussions have helped shape my leadership philosophy.

It was a Thursday night. I dragged my tired feet, losing the battle with exhaustion in the middle of JCPenny's furniture section. Suddenly, I witnessed an uplifting scene. It was a girl standing with her weary mother, listening to an employee. As I watched on, the girl turned to her mother and translated the information to her in Spanish. Before I drew attention to myself by staring, I turned to find my mother, but couldn't resist the proud grin that had invaded my face.

One person I have devloped as a missional leader was one of my fraternity brothers and member of my GIG for fratenrity men. Connor is someone who grew up in the church but never really saw how he could be a leader or even brign together his faith and college in general. I chose Connor because he was acticely seekign guidance form god for both himself and IV, was faithful to both our GIG and his home church which he volunteered for, was both emotionally and spiritually mature, was familiar with the bible, and has been making great strides in his relationship with god and continues to strive for more growth . I devloped their leaderhsip in stages over the course of my senior year. I would have him lead prayer in our GIG, encourage him to invite

I opened the box and couldn’t hold back the smile I had on my face, tears brimming. My team did this for me and I know this put them in trouble. ‘’ I thought I lost this in Morocco ‘’ my voice was quiet almost a whisper. ‘’ I know. One our boys went back and retrieved it knowing what it means to you ‘’ Loki smiled. ‘’ Wow thank you ‘’ I mumbled into his shirt. He whipped my tears saying ‘’ don’t you cry love ’’.

Doors slam shut, cabinets rattle, and voices shout, yet I hear none of it. I am a hundred miles away and travelled hundreds of years, but I haven’t moved an inch. I’m living in my own reality, my own tiny bubble. The rickety bus flies over a pothole, kids shout to their friends down the aisle, the radio blasts songs from that week’s top 40, and still I am immersed in a book. Most people cannot concentrate in chaos, but I am not like most people. The real world fades from existence the moment my eyes skimmed the page and began to construct a new one in my mind.

It was a Wednesday afternoon, I was a Hostess at John Cutter’s Steakhouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. This had been my job for the past couple months since I had quit working at my first job. It was slow and quiet that day, the door was right next to the Hostess stand like most restaurants and all I heard was a family eating and discussing something uninteresting on the patio outside. My boyfriend got me that job; it made pretty good money for a 17-year-old. It was summer of 2015, July to be exact. Everything seemed content and I was happy at that moment, little did I know that was all going to change very soon.

I was told Andrea was the music director and would handle it. To be told something contrary to all Matt had led me to believe for so long was shocking, distressing, and hurtful. I couldn’t help but wonder where she had been for the last year.

Most of my experiences dealing with leaders and managers involve me being the subordinate one who reports to them. While working at Panera Bread, I experienced a lot of management styles and took that opportunity to learn what kind of manager I would want to be, but more importantly what kind I would not want to be. Some shift managers were respectful towards their coworkers and genuinely treated us as equals. However, a few of the magers that worked there took advantage of their power and used it to direct other employees around with no given guidance or explanation. An example of this is that one day I got to work like normal and checked my schedule to see whether I was working drive thru or the main line and realized I was given a shift as a waitress. I had

The dynamics of power with my mother, my wife and my classmate are very fluid and everchanging. I am sure my relationships with all this is not normal. The distribution of power changes dependent with moods, tone, situations and several other variables.