January 28th Class

Today's message...

"You want to get the fish to jump into your boat."

You won't be successful if you don't choose your own paths and make something of yourself. Your goal is to make good things happen for yourself.

I enjoyed hearing the section of Professor Feinberg's lecture discussing the roles and importance of the leaders and their followers. We came to the conclusion that the followers are as equally important as the leaders. Without loyal followers, the leaders would be nothing.

We did a leadership exercise in class. We each had to finish the sentence, " I should follow you because..." I finished the sentence with, "...I will help you do your best and motivate you to succeed while giving you the utmost respect and attention you deserve." Professor Feinberg then selected a few individuals to stand up and complete their version of the sentence. Some were successful, while others were not. The followers want to hear what you would do to help them, and how following you would benefit them. This exercise taught me that people will only follow you if you give them a compelling and convincing reason to.

At the end of class, Professor Feinberg asked the students who wanted to be a leader to come to the front of the classroom. I hesitated. I quickly regretted my decision...

M

Week 3

"Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great." -Martin Luther King

Oprah quoted the notorious MLK while giving a very inspirational speech during a short clip we watched today in CSR 309. Oprah was commenting on her ability to be a powerful woman and inspirational leader throughout this segment. Her words were very memorable. She stated that being a leader isn't about having power, and it definitely isn't about being a celebrity. Leadership is about doing the things you were put on this Earth to do. Serving people less fortunate than yourself and caring for others in a way you would want to be cared for. I will definitely take Oprah's motivating words with me as I begin to develop my own leadership attributes and styles. 

Professor Feinberg discussed leadership while introducing the class today. He says that leadership not only makes a difference; leadership makes THE difference. There are 2 major themes involving leadership. The first is leading others, the second is leading self. Professor Feinberg stated that we will be discussing both of these themes throughout the semester. He also explained how he is demonstrating how to be a poor leader and a poor CEO until he is given a reason to be a good leader. 

Day 1, Week 2

Professor Feinberg was not in class once again. The TA,Courtney, for the class showed great leadership qualities as she silenced the classroom once class was to begin. Courtney explained that the professor wasn't able to make it to class, and we were supposed to watch a movie. She did a nice job explaining the assignment that was to follow this film, as well as answering the questions from the students to clear up any concerns that came up.

The film we watched was "The Queen." I took notes on the type of leadership displayed throughout this movie. I am noticing that the Queen exhibits a type of conservative leadership style. A lot of students ended up leaving during the movie, but I actually thought it was a very interesting film. Since the class wasn't long enough to watch the entire movie, I plan on downloading it from Professor Feinberg's website to finish watching.

First week of CSR 309

This past week in CSR 309 was an interesting one that's for sure.

One thing is obvious: Professor Feinberg is testing our leadership ability.

The first class on Monday wasn't very successful. The professor wasn't in class, which left all of the students a little frazzled. After handing in a paper following the short film that was playing, we were not instructed whether or not we were free to leave the class. Some students stayed, while others left. I feel as if Professor Feinberg was testing our class to see who would step up and take charge of the classroom. Unfortunately, no one did this on Monday.

On Wednesday, Professor Feinberg sat in the back of the classroom to observe how we handled day 2 of CSR 309. The only instructions we had involved a paper telling us we were to "study leadership in the here and now." A couple of students stepped up and suggested we form groups of 15 or more.

After my group formed, we unanimously decided that I was the group leader. I collected each group member's email address and phone number. After groups were formed, a few students tried to open a discussion about what leadership is and what makes a good leader. Unfortunately, they quickly lost the attention of the hundreds of students in the classroom.

I believe it is hard to gain the attention of a room full of students when you haven't earned the respect of these students. It was also hard for us to complete this task given by the instructor because no one fully understood what the task entailed. 

At the end of the class, it was obvious that we failed again on day 2. It was very frustrating to try to discuss this one sentence for an hour long class. Nothing really got accomplished during this class, except for the formation of our groups. I hope next week is a little more successful.

Morgan