Summing it up.

As a leader, it is extremely important to develop a clear vision. This carefully constructed vision must be reasonable and practical. It is necessary that a good leader makes certain his or her followers are fully aware of this vision and goal. A leader must also make known what is expected of his or her followers. If the team doesn’t know the expectations and responsibilities that have been set for them, they won’t completely ever satisfy their leader.

 In addition, a great leader must give his or her followers a compelling reason to follow them. If a leader isn’t optimistic, proactive, and trustworthy, they aren’t capable of being followed. An effective leader must deliver the results that they have promised their team. If a leader is simply all talk and know action, they aren’t giving their team a reason to want to follow them.

 On top of all of the leadership skills I learned from Professor Feinberg, one thing I have definitely taken from the leadership course involves the JP Morgan story. Each day, I wake up every morning and make a list of things I need to complete that day. If every item isn’t crossed off by the end of the day, I feel almost incomplete. I feel so accomplished each time I cross something off of my list. As dorky as it seems, I actually get excitement when I complete one of my tasks and get to cross it off my list.

 In our last class of the semester, Professor Feinberg showed a video of Jim Valvano. Valvano was the head coach of North Carolina State University and is most famous for his speech at the ESPY awards shortly before he died of cancer. Jim Valvano had a vision. He expressed how his vision became clear once he was diagnosed with cancer. While speaking at the ESPY awards, Jimmy V (as we he nicknamed) gave an inspirational speech that truly touched my heart. He stressed the importance of doing just three things every single day. He encouraged the audience to laugh, think, and let your emotions turn to tears every day. He claimed that these three actions alone would help someone become a better, loving individual. Jim Valvano made his enthusiasm for life apparent during this touching speech. His dream was for his inspiration to carry on with his words, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”

 I plan on putting these words to good use. Jimmy V is truly an inspiration. I want to do the three things he mentioned every single day. I want to laugh until it hurts, think of my goals and aspirations, and let my strongest emotions take over to relieve any pain or stress I may be feeling.

 Professor Feinberg actually scared me will all of his talk about only having 1.6 billion seconds left in this life. I want to combine Professor Feinberg’s words with Jim Valvano’s in order to be the most effective leader I can be, while being an influential and caring role model to the people around me. 

M

Racism Issues

Professor Feinberg showed us a video discussing the racism issues that were occurring at established college campuses. I was shocked to see how many prestigious universities were involved in these horrible attacks on people of different races. I was ashamed to see exactly how many educated people were involved in these racist acts towards people who attended their same university. 

I'll be the first to admit that college has opened up my eyes to the different races, ethnicities, and religions that come together at our campus. I have to be honest, I am from a very small town close to Purdue, where most students are Caucasian Christians or Catholics. Purdue has definitely shown me a wide array of varying backgrounds. However, I don't understand how someone can be attacked simply because of where they came from. I'm completely interested in learning about people's background and the history where they came from. A close friend of mine that I met at Purdue is Arabic. From the second I met him, I have bombarded him with questions about his country, beliefs, and family. I find other cultures completely intriguing, which is why I get so upset when people make racist comments or jokes. These attacks simply are not fair. Even though this problem will more than likely keep occurring, I hope that one day I can be in a place where people aren't judged by where they come from.

M

Decision Making

Monday's class dealt a lot with decision making. This is one area that I truly struggle with. I am completely awful with making decisions. I consider myself to be a more "go with the flow" type of person. I even have trouble deciding which restaurant I want to go to when a group of friends gets together for dinner. I would rather agree with someone than argue with what I want.

I recognize that this is a poor quality to possess if you want to be an effective leader. Professor Feinberg stressed the importance of decision making in effective leadership. He mentioned that a good leader should know the desired outcome of a decision before he or she even discusses the options with the team.

This is definitely an area of leadership I need to work to improve on. I've had to make a lot of important decisions in my life here recently. I received two really good job offers for after graduation. I obviously had to decide which offer I wanted to accept. Both were with stable companies with similar training programs. I weighed all of my options to reach a decision that I am truly happy with.

I am going to start using this approach with a lot of my decisions. While actually looking at the pros and cons, I will be able to come to a logical and reasonable decision more easily. 

M