Chp. 8 Exercise

I.

            1. The Quality of the project is perfect

            2. The project was accomplished so quickly to that high standard

            3. The teammates can take part in having pride in the project

            4. People appreciate not only the results but also the process

            5. That it benefitted everyone on the team and that the team was a team not a bunch of individuals.

            1. Strong Relationships with the team for trust

            2. Humor keeping things positive

            3. Giving people a goal/purpose to look forward to each day

            4. Encouraging the heart of the people for the best work and not just encouraging results

            5. Breaking down barriers that make us separate people

II.

·         I liked the aspect that the responsibility was mine to bear because it relives some stress from others when one has it. The thing I didn't like though was that people are different and with my lack of experience so far in life is was difficult to react the right way each time.

·         I achieved a sense of passion for the project. Being the leader of a project I could use the intense passions of others for the group benefit.

·         As a group member it gave me insight that it is important to lead by example.

·         The facilitate that change it came with encouraging people for who they are not what they could do. Because when they felt they as a person where needed the excelled to far greater limits.

·         Yes, getting people to work together as a team comes down to finding that basic motivation of why each person is there and bringing it together.

·         Not everything is a win or lose situation. That being said failure is closely related to losing. The motivation I get comes from my dislike of losing. Not that I enjoy winning, I just can't stand failure and that shows in my team effort.

·         A creative solution used to solve a problem was using jokes to cut the tension between people then comforting the difference and getting rid of them.

·         The end results of the project always show that the project set forth was to be accomplished, such as the archery department making record sales numbers.

·         The last time I took a risk, well every day I try to risk something so that I can grow as a individual and leader to gain more experience for the future.

·         Every situation faced includes important communication skills whether it be body or language how something is heard by others is important to cooperation.

·         A leader should possess a vast multitude of qualities to be able to react to any situation.

III.

            Leading has its up and downs, Its rewards and it's failures but it something we all have to take part in. THe thing that makes people lead is that motivation to want to bring people together and achieve something more than what has been already accomplished. A leader is a person who can adapat to many situations because they have built experience or are willing to take new risks in situations to grow. A leader is never stuck in a comfort zone they always try to push out and become better than they were yesterday to make people other than themselves also better. Leading is somewhat a selfless and thankless job. but it something that we all should strive to do.

Chp. 8

An effective leader can not only bring out the best in themselves but also the best in others. By doing this each individual person has their own style of leadership that they must use to achieve something that they want. It's a form of motivation to step and do the best they can with what they have to want to become something more. Sometimes though that leadership is trusted upon on us or it just happens. Leading for others is about the ability to respond to the situation effectively to control an outcome for the better. The most important thing a leader can do though is keep that hope alive and well inside of others. That hope is a fire of motivation that can burn the fuel to spur others on to achieve the end results that are beneficial to everyone. A leader's job is complicated one and it is something that needs to grow with experience over to be the best effective leader one can possibly be.

Teams

            In my experiences with working within a team that is effective, is if someone steps up and leads. The leading might be subtle but one is always need to keep people focused and moving forward. In a job scenario and one is getting paid to be there I believe it is more dependent on self-leadership. The person has to be able to step and want to succeed, like a effective team member should. It is about sacrifice of the individual to make a better collective outcome for everyone but I think it has to start within the person themselves otherwise the leader is helping a brick wall. With the five dysfunctions, to me, it appears to be a domino effect which in some cases is true but in others a team can progress but no trust because individuals are doing their own jobs effectively. Most of the time being effective is trust that others get the job done but other situations can occur from motivation of self-promotion. Opening up to have a more functional team reminds me similar to Johari window. I personally don't agree with what defines a team whether that's because of my experience or lack their of I don't know, but want I do know they only way to keep a effective team is suck up problems people bring to you it's not always about opening up to share or calling out a member's pass aggressiveness. It's about stepping out with self-leadership and internalizing a certain amount of conflicts that don't actually hinder the group severely as a whole. The five dysfunctions order; trust. conflict, commitment, accountability, then results to me are just observations something that one person has a view on, it's his opinion of what is working. Meaning if I observed the same trends I might come up with the same traits or something different. As stated early with my degree of experience I just can't be sure and "totally approve" of them, but at the same time I don't completely disregard them because now that they are brought to attention I might have the chance in the future to look and see for myself.   

Decision Making

            Decision making was something I always thought that was kind of cut and dry. Either it was a good or bad choice and that making a decision is just making a decision a simple style. I never thought of the different styles like anchoring, sunk-cost, or even confirming evidence trap. As I read through them the all made perfect sense and relatable to situations that do happen. Knowing this now and being more aware of these different approaches I can recognize them and grow as a leader. Growing as a leader by using my own judgment and not letting anything else fog what I think and believe to be is right. Some of the styles surprised me and made me think that certain people only stick to one type of style. I think in order to be effective, just like any other type of leadership style, a leader has to be diverse and well rounded to use the best one for the right people. I think the most important thing taken away is that there are always ways to control the situation when someone is doing one of these decisions traps. It's about combating it to focus on the facts and not just judgment, becoming less opinionated and more practical. More often than not I think practicality leads to better efficacy.

Kouzes Exercise 5

I.

1. Not enough money +

2. Time the dead lines is just not enough time to complete  + (check)

3. Teamwork not everyone can effectively work together -

4. The end results may be inadequate to the group -

5. People won't be able to agree on one thing -

6. The project impute could possible only come from a couple of people -

7. Everyone else is out to see us fail -

8. Other groups want to beat us out to win + (check)

II

1.  Ask another person who has already done the project one what they did to overcome the limitations to be productive and for there impute on a different outside view of the situation.

2. Watch movies and read books that are able to relate the situation that has info that can be used to benefit the goal in our favor

3. Take time to relax, most of Google's important ideas came out of down time called free thinking, so if it can work there I'm sure it can work for the group.

III

I am going to become a type of doctor, despite what others say. Keeping things practical and doing the things that need to be done to do so. Eliminating the distractions especially the bad ones by keeping focused. Being able to keep focused by keeping a good sense of mind of the closer more timely goals. More timely goals as focusing on classes by semester and not thinking about the next ones or how they are going to be until I experience them myself. It comes down for me to do the daily grind tasks and let them lead to something else doing the small tasks that lead to the big task I want to get to.

Kouzes Exercise 4

I.

1. Playing sports, I can relate a lot of who I am and what I do now based on my past experiences playing them

2. My grandfather passing away, first person really close to me that I lost.

3. People telling me that I look like my father, A high standard  is set so I have to strive to be better.

4.  Going to college, big transition where most people change but I wanted to hold true to what my parents believed in when I left.

5. Working, set things into perspective and understand that sometimes it's about compromise.

Nothing really connects them they each are different in their own way, that is what makes me who I am though I can't be defined as one or two things. I'm not a big picture person, I'm a little detail person and I think that's reflective.

The meaning is that anything can happen because life is unpredictable, means that I may set to do one thing and get there in one way different than I thought but I'll still get there. Propel me forward is myself and supporting cast and the people who say I can't accepting challenges.

II.

Something I'm involved in is working at a sporting goods store. Personal goals are to make money so that I can stay and college and spread the knowledge of what I know so that other people can improve and better than what they are now. Important that others achieve something that maybe I can't or don't want to keep things different so that the world is not a boring place to be and to be able to gain money to help out others do maybe can't help themselves. For others to share my vision need to realize that I'm not one that is going to get to where I'm going and forget what got me there or where I came from to remain humble and keeping true to my values.

III.

Doing - people are doing what their passions promote them to do

Saying - saying that they are able to do something they love at a high level because they aren't being hindered by anything

Feeling - euphoria, just being happy that their best is better because they have help from others.

My project is like a the bottom beans that stick into the bottom of the can when making chili. The end product is something enjoyable for all but the ones that get left behinde might not be able to get their by themselves so by adding that extra help they can do what they are intended to do and make others happy in the process.

Service Learning III

Helping out with a Bone Marrow Drive, that was the last of my service learning for class but certainly not my last volunteer job. Spending a good five hours there was actually pretty enjoyable the people I was working with had a lot of energy, too much in fact, but I wasn't there to criticize them. I was there to learn how I can grow as a leader and ultimately a person. For the drive I was pretty much the first one there and one of the lasts to leave and I realize I only need three hours but I wasn't doing it just for the hours, I did it for the people who needed my help. So, I set my priorities straight and decided in that time frame I had nothing that important to do, I would stay and help. Helping out I moved tables and chairs but I also interacted with donators and looked over a form that they needed to fill out. After they filled the form I was the one who checked it, to clear them for the chance to donate. Dealing with people of all ages and personalities, in a situation where I wasn't the one in charge was different to say the least. Some people would act as it was my fault or try to blame me. Learning from the director I tried to control the situation, so after biting back my tongue I listened and responded in a professional way. Throughout the day I was looking for something I can look towards on to improve on as a leader then sometime after lunch when people kept wanting to talk to me I realized that I need to work on keeping others focused. I can control myself and get something done but I didn't realize that some people need extra help to get on tract and stay there. In order for me to kept them going I used encouragement and started the project with them then I would leave to go do other thing then come back after awhile to help them and gradually they needed me less and less. Now, I realize they are more effective ways for other people to help them but then in that moment I just reverted back to the "Let's do it together method" because it was comfortable.  Now that I know I need to use more diverse styles on helping others, in future situations I hope to realize this and try them out. Some of them might work but I need to take that chance to gain experience so that I can grow as leader to become more effective. Right now, to use an analogy, I would just say I'm a buck knife I know about three different styles (three different blades) but I really only ever use the one method (one blade). I need to work to be like a swiss army knife and have a large diversity (multiple tools) and be able to use any one of them at any time.