AGED 260: The Final Picture

 

Over the past 15 weeks, we have taken a journey through the world of leadership.  It has been great to read your previous blog posts and see you making connections between the theories from class and your real world experiences and beliefs!  A central theme of this course is increasing your understanding of different leadership approaches while also increasing your self-awareness.  You’ve addressed some of this in your LTA, but here’s your chance to share and learn from each other.  Enjoy this final blog reflection!

Your final blog post should address the following:

·         How are you more aware of yourself?  What do you see differently?  How are you changing?

·         How have you been able to apply what have learned about leadership?

·         What is your own philosophy of leadership?

EVERYONE should post your own blog post to your team’s blog page.

You should use written narrative for your response, but you can also supplement your post with videos, music, photography, links to relevant websites, etc.).  Draw connections to at least 3 leadership approaches discussed in class this semester to support your points. You should write at least 1 paragraph (100 words minimum) for each question; there is no maximum limit.

Blog Prompt #6 - Everyday Leadership

Check out this TED Talk from Drew Dudley on Everyday Leadership.

 

Drew Dudley closes with, “There is no world, there is only six billion understandings of it. And if you change one person’s understanding of it … you’ve changed the whole thing.”  Well, that’s pretty daunting, isn’t it?  Maybe, but it also presents a vast amount of opportunity for understanding and connection with others.  We’ve been talking in class recently about transformational leadership and servant leadership, both of which focus on the collaborative and relational aspects of leadership.  Leadership always involves others. And often times the impact of leadership is not about those grand moments with an impact on a large number of people, but rather the more significant impact comes from those seemingly small moments and gestures that make a profound impact on us.

Identify a “lollipop moment” from your life.  Think of an ordinary experience from your life where someone had a profound impact on your life and that fundamentally made your life better.  Who was this person and what was the impact on your life?  Connect your story/experience to the transformational leadership or servant leadership approaches.

Reminder:

One member of your group should post a response to your team's blog page.  You can write a narrative, post a video or other media, share links to other sources, etc. but your response must include text to show CLEAR connections between your response and class materials.

Blog Prompt #5

The Center for Creative Leadership posted this interesting blog recently: The Truth About Cats and Dogs. And Polarities.

Read their blog here: http://www.leadingeffectively.com/the-truth-about-cats-and-dogs-and-polarities/

Many of the leadership approaches we have discussed thus far in class do just this by putting leaders and followers into one category (or polarity) or another, but often not accounting for how we could be in more than one category at a time.

What experiences have you had where you or another leader were asking these cat-or-dog (either/or) kinds of questions? What was the impact of this type of leadership thinking on your group? Have you ever been part of group or worked with a leader who intentionally used the both/and thinking? If so, what was the impact?

Reminder:

One member of your group should post a response to your team's blog page. You can write a narrative, post a video or other media, share links to other sources, etc. but your response must include text to show CLEAR connections between your response and class materials.

AGED 260 Blog Prompt #4

As we’ve been talking about Leader Member Exchange Theory in class, this week’s blog is related to understanding others.  Check out this TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie on The Danger of a Single Story.

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes
is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.
They make one story become the only story.”
– Chimamanda Adichie

How is your perception influenced by the world around you? (ie. What stories are you told in books, movies, pictures, music, the news, or by friends and family?) 

In what ways do our family background, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, age, socio-economic status and other group and cultural influences contribute to the development of our perceptions?

Thinking about the core tenets of Leader-Member Exchange and other leadership approaches that we’ve discuss in class, how do our perceptions influence our leadership or followership in groups and whether we find ourselves in the in-group or out-group?  

Reminder:

One member of your group should post a response to your team's blog page.  You can write a narrative, post a video or other media, share links to other sources, etc. but your response must include text to show CLEAR connections between your response and class materials.

AGED 260 Blog Prompt #3 - Leadership in Action

As we talk about the style approach and situational leadership approach, think of a leader you have observed and connect his/her behaviors to either of these approaches.  You may choose to write about a leader you have personal experience working with (you can change names if you need to) or a politician or community leader you admire (or don’t admire).  

How would you characterize his/her leadership based on concepts we have discussed in class?  Do you consider this person to be an effective leader and why/why not? Do you consider these approaches to be valuable approaches to leadership? How so?  Use specific examples/observations to support your viewpoint.

Reminder:

One member of your group should post a response to your team's blog page.  You can write a narrative, post a video or other media, share links to other sources, etc. but your response must include text to show CLEAR connections between your response and class materials.

 

We have spent the past few weeks discussing the traits, skills, and personality characteristics of effective leaders.  

Check out this TED talk on the Power of Introverts by Susan Cain.

If the video doesn't work, follow this link: http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html

In your group’s second blog post, respond to the following:

How do you see her points about introverts relating to concepts we have discussed thus far in class?  What do you see as the benefits of extroverted leadership?  What about the benefits of introverted leadership? Can these styles be mixed?

Reminder:

One member of your group should post a response to your team's blog page.  You can write a narrative, post a video or other media, share links to other sources, etc. but your response must include text to show CLEAR connections between your response and class materials. 

Blog #1 - Leadership is Everyone's Business

In their book The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner, talk about the concept that “Leadership is Everyone’s Business.”

Think about what these phrases mean to you:

Leadership is everyone’s business.

Leadership is everyone’s business

Leadership is everyone’s business.

We have spent the first few classes this semester defining leadership and power. So, for your first blog post, answer the following:

What does “Leadership is Everyone’s Business” mean,
and what does power have to do with it?

Reminder:

One member of your group should post a response to your team's blog page.  You can write a narrative, post a video or other media, share links to other sources, etc. but your response must include text to show CLEAR connections between your response and class materials.  

Welcome to our AGED 260 Blog!

Welcome to our class blog for fall 2013!  I'm excited to expand on our learning from class with all of you this semester.

I'll be posting a blog prompt to frame your blog posts one week before the due date.  Remember, each person is responsible for writing two blogs this semester on your group's page. I will make each of you an author on your respective group's page so that you can create your individual posts.  Also, each person is responsible for commenting on four posts from other groups during the semester.  You can click on the comment link below the post to write your comment.

Stay tuned for your first blog prompt!