February 2

The first thing Professor Feinberg had the class do today was write down 3 adjectives describing ourselves. The 3 adjectives I chose were: Hardworking, Reliable, and Thoughtful. These 3 words do describe me very well; however, if I could do it over again I would pick more exhilarating words such as: Compassionate, Dedicated, and Dependable. I feel these words are much stronger and more descriptive, which would be better if I was trying to sell myself to someone or convince them to follow me. 

We then watched some of Professor Feinberg's favorite commercials from the Super Bowl--one's that depicted leadership in some way or another. The one that fascinated me the most was a Doritoes commercial in which guys were making their decisions based on what snow globe told them to do. It was a very humorous commercial, while illustrating a leadership point rather well. Professor Feinberg asked the question, "Do you reason your decisions, or rely on the "snow globe" to point you in the right direction?" Often times we sit back and wait for answers to just fall right into our laps. We think it would be easiest to base our decisions on some outside force, such as a snow globe or magic 8 ball. In reality, a person's wisest decisions should come from reason and contemplation. 

The remainder of class, the students who chose to be the leaders last class came into the room one by one and answered the question, "What is your leadership story?" They had 20 seconds to answer, and then the rest of class was to give them a score 1-10. The winners will be chosen for group leaders of this course. This activity taught me quite a bit actually. I was most interested in the students who excelled in public speaking. They had to first catch my attention and charm me in some way. They then had to say something relevant to leadership, while illustrating to me what leadership qualities they would bring to a group. I quickly learned that part of being a good leader is thinking on your feet. Some people struggled to find the words, while others were quick to answer the question. There are definitely some great leaders amongst my classmates.

M