PAPERCLIPS

This is the trailer for a documentary named "Paperclips." I think it is a great example of how leaders are found everywhere on a day to day basis. Leaders are passionate and inspire change. In this case, a simple  class project turned into something huge and inspired many followers to set goals, reach them, and do good in the world. This video is a perfect exmaple of a how good leader can reach thousands of people if they set their mind to it. Those students are going to be great leaders of our future.

PERSONAL RELFECTION ABOUT LEADERSHIP

          Watching and learning about leadership has strengthened my views about leadership. I never contemplated the fact that there are many paths leaders take when it comes to leading their team. The main question is? Do leaders (especially historical leaders) lead with a certain type of theory because it comes naturally to them or is it something they learned and decided to use because they knew it would be most effective? For example, did Ghandi know he was using transformational leadership to influence his followers? Did Adolf Hitler know he used his innate traits such as charisma and confidence to make believe a whole group of people that those who weren’t blond with blue eyes should be exterminated? Students in the present are learning about all these different leaders and how they have succeeded in life. They have the option to choose which type of leadership they want to go by

This class has also made me realize how there are a thousand different ways to lead a group of people. Personally, I have gone through several theories in different stages of my life:

         The first example is when I was about 16 years old and I was a volunteer counselor for my community’s youth group that met every Saturday from 1-4. My co-counselor and I were in charge of 8^th grade girls. This particular group was very problematical and did not get along at all. My partner and I without knowing used path/goal theory to motivate the girls to discard their differences and learn to get along. We had a vision that by the end of the year, the girls at least respected each other and tried to get along. This vision and goal was very well communicated since the very beginning of the school year. Every Saturday, my co-worker and I organized activities in order to influence and motivate the girls to learn to get along. By the end of the school year, the group of girls did not end up becoming best friends but at least they did not hate each other. 6 years later, I ran into two of the girls that used to bully each other at an event. They went up to me and thanked my co-counselor and I for all the hard work we put in trying to bring the group together because in the long run, it worked. I am confident that using this type of theory with certain situations will help me achieve success.

         The second example involved situational leadership and deals with my experience as a student at San Diego State. We all know that we have had many group projects in our HTM classes. In group projects, I usually like to take a leadership roll and make it easier for the group to complete the assignment.  Looking back, I have realized how I have used situational leadership in order to cope with the different groups that I have encountered throughout my student career. For example, in one occasion I was in a group with only foreign exchange students. I used the “telling” method to lead the group. Since I had more experience with the English language than my group had, I tried to guide and direct them in what each person had to do to complete the project. In another situation, I was in a group where we where all on our senior year and had lots of experience. The group still needed a leader and I decided to be the main communicator. This leadership behavior I used was participative because the capacity and maturity level of the group where both very high. I used my spirit of optimism to encourage the group to get to the finish line but the major decisions where made unanimously.

         One of the wonders of today is that leaders have the ability to shape their leadership style to people they admire.  If someone really likes Oprah and the values she leads with, that person can learn to lead like Oprah and create a positive change in the world. However, this can also be dangerous and go the different way. If someone who is bad and wants to cause damage, that person can simply learn how Adolf Hitler influenced a huge group of people to exterminate the lesser races.  Personally I believe that a leader should lead with strong values. Having a strong set of morals and a good sense of ethics will lead people to create positive changes either in the workplace or in life.

LEARNING THROUGH FILM

Watching a film about leadership definitely allowed me to get a better grasp of what these leadership theories are all about.   I found that it was much easier trying to find the right scenes that matched the different leadership theories after I had a very good and thorough understanding of each and every one of them. The movie I watched, Mona Lisa Smile, mainly dealt with transformational leadership.  It depicts perfect examples of how a leader inspires a follower in order to make a change that will generate something positive in both of their lives. 

The most significant part of leadership theory that I learned from the movie is that many times, during the process in which a leader is trying to motivate change in their followers, they actually encounter sort of this epiphany where they see a change in themselves that they had not seen before.   In other words, many times leaders may be using their leadership style not only with their followers, but also with themselves, without even noticing. This can be seen in Julia Robert’s character and how at the end, she realized how she was the one that needed to go out and see the world and create new adventures in her life. This all happened because that is exactly what she was trying to inspire her students to do instead of marrying and becoming housewives. This also made me think about the fact that being a leader does not mean that you have all the answers. It is a never ending process where through experience, leaders learn on a daily basis different ways to learn and self develop.

This movie also strengthened my positive thoughts about behavioral and situational leadership in the way that it shows how different types of leaders act in order to get what they want or to reach a certain goal. Let’s take Betty for example. She is the stuck up, mean leader that uses her power and manipulation skills to get things done her way. On the other hand, Giselle uses her inner nature to “flow against the current “along with her high confidence to influence her classmates to think differently. Ms. Watson chose to be innovative and creative in order to communicate to her students the importance of opening their eyes to the world and stepping outside of their boundaries.  All these characters used certain behaviors that classify how they act in order to lead, influence, and inspire in certain situations.

MIDTERM

Making Change Happen

-James McGregor Burns (born August 13, 1918 in Melrose, Boston) is basically the father of one of the most popular type of leadership theories, transformational leadership.  Being and thinking differently is something he has been doing since he was a child.  For example, out of his whole family, he was the only one who had a liberal mindset. He made leadership philosophers and psychologists think about leadership in terms of a leader and followers working together for a common goal that will bring a positive change to either their lives or their organization rather than leadership being about the traits and behaviors of certain leaders.  This new type of leadership delivers integrity, trust, and value.
He has won the Pulitzer price and the national book award for his outstanding biographies.

-Some of his most famous works are:

 Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956)

 Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970)

 Leadership (1978)

 Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation (1999)

The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America (2001)

“In real life, the most practical advice for leaders is not to treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all persons like persons.” -JMB

I think this video is a good example of transformational leadership in action. Robbin Williams is practicing "inspirational motivation" with his patients. He uses humor and laughter to create a very calm and optimistic environment given the circumstances the children find themselves in.  He uses his charisma to help the children acheive a common goal which is simply being happy and enjoying life.  Williams deffenitly created a positive change along with his followers who in this case are the children.

CONTINGENCY VS. SITUATIONAL

CONTINGENCY:
|kənˈtinjənsē|a future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty


Fiedler basically said, if you cant change the personality or style of leadership, then change the situation. This way, everyone and anyone can be successful leaders if they know how to effectively choose the most appropriate situation to apply to their own leadership style.  My question is: how can you change or avoid situations? There are many times where stress and chaos are going to be right in front of your nose and if someone is not the type of leader who can handle difficulties in a calm way, then how can the situation be changed?
He helped many psychologists stray away from associating leadership with traits and characteristics to styles and behaviors. He argues that a leader’s effectiveness is dependant upon two different factors; the situation they find themselves in and how well they control that situation.
He also created a test; Least Preferred Co-worker test, which reflects whether the person taking the test leans more towards a task leadership style vs. relationship.  Those who score their least preferred co-worker in a negative way emphasize the importance of the task at hand. On the contrary, those who have a high score on the test are more interested in relationships and interpersonal behavior.  Personally, I think that I lean more towards task leadership but at the same time I have good relationships with my co-workers.

Mark Testa + HTM490

When trying to apply situational leadership to one of my experiences I thought of my HTM490 class with Mark Testa. In this case he was the leader and I was the follower along with the rest of my classmates. He changed his leadership style depending on the mood , environment, and ability of the classroom.

For example:

On the very first day of class, he sensed a high task, high relationship style so he used the “selling style” to lead the classroom. At the very beginning, we were willing and confident to take on the project and assignments of the class but we were unable because we hadn’t learned anything.  Testa kept on explaining and clarifying the project and most importantly communicating the rewards of the winning team in order for us to “buy in” to the project.

"DO NOT FOLLOW WHERE THE PATH MAY LEAD,
GO INSTEAD WHERE THERE IS NO PATH AND LEAVE A TRAIL"

He then kind of switched his leadership style to “delegating” as the semester went along and the class was starting to create ideas of their own.  We now where ready to make our own groups and as a group, make our own decisions and take whichever path we felt was needed in order to successfully complete the project.

Then, the class sort of hit a “dead end” where we weren’t exactly sure what was expected of us. Testa sensed this and started directing us and fully explaining exactly “what, why, and how” we needed to do things.

By the end of the semester, the maturity level of the class was very high and there was a high relationship / low task leader behavior. This meaning that both the teacher and the groups made important decisions together such as what reward should the winning group receive, the time frame of the presentation, and things like that.

I think he is a good example of a leader that follows a situational leadership style.