Some of us work much our lives to move up the ladder to achieve a position of leadership. It is our ambition to become more important and to have more status... more power. This can be in the context of work, in sport, in politics, and even in family. We have ideas for the future and we want people to follow us.Yet, sometimes we are put into a position of leadership in other ways... sometimes by accident or against our will. We may unexpectedly be asked by others about what to do next, and it is up to us to figure that out for them. We are now in a time in this country where there appears to be no leader or leadership. A Prime Minister has been kicked out, people are confused about what to do next, and some people want the job and others do not.
I have always wanted to be a teacher. When my teachers asked me in primary school what I wanted to be, I said that I wanted to be a teacher. In this profession, I am asked to lead. This can be uncomfortable at times because sometimes others don't want to follow, so it is my work to convince them that the way I'm showing them is good for them. I know how to teach (I think) because I have observed so many teachers in my life. This is how I know what to do. But I also know what to do because of my students. They show me how to teach also. They show me when I'm doing the right thing by the expressions on their faces and by the work they produce, and they show me when I'm doing the wrong thing by the same way. Leadership is a constant education.
In this journal blog, explain when you have needed to be a leader and how you knew what to do in that role. Remember to include your Section # and ID # in your post. Aj. M
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ReplyDelete"The difficult decision"
In people's life, there are always some situations that put we into a position of leadership and only some people have characteristics to be a leader. In my life, there were so many times that I have been put into the leader position but I actually don't like it because this position is full of pressure. From my experience, I have been asked by my coach to be a captain of the basketball team and it was a difficult time for me. I had to change myself a lot for example; I needed to have more responsibility, needed to listen to others people’s opinions more and needed to be more confident. It is also the responsibility of the leader to make sure that the group work as a team and listen to each other ideas. At first I had to make my teammates believe in myself by being a good example and listening to them. Many people in my team were following what I was doing so it was pressuring me very much at first few weeks because I was not confident enough to make the decision for anyone but I feel better after I knew that they trust and believe in me. It turned out that they made me feels more confident in my team and myself as well.
Without any helps from others people in the group, I would not be able to lead the whole team.
The quality of our leadership often depends on the quality of those who follow us as well. Having good teammates can help you be a good captain.
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"Pressure"
In my life, there were a lot of leader that I have seen on television. I always wonder why those people can stand in front of crowd, and they still able to give a speech. For me, I always want to be in the front as a leader, but I never have courage to do what I want to do. One day, I have force to be in a needed leader at my high school as a captain for sport carnival. As a captain, I have to interact with many people. Moreover, I have to be more responsible. I have to make sure that everything is fine in order to make my team happy. There were many problem at that time, but my team was very helpful, and we try to understand each other. Finally, our team won the competition because we have a good teamwork.
There is a lot of pressure on a leader, and sometimes, I think pressure is good. It forces us to find answers and to get things done. If you never experience pressure, you will never develop.
DeleteSection 6, ID:5680855
ReplyDeleteIn this century, people value more about the concept of individualism. The ‘x’ and ‘y’ generation therefore have a better opportunity to express and take a leading role as compare to the previous generation. We become more independent and have no options but to follow less and begin leading. We are now in this community where an increasing percentage of parents allow their children to get education and choose their own career path. It is up to us now to make the best choices available as well as being responsible of those decisions we make.
Sometimes a leading role comes to us in such a simple form like choosing where we want to go for dinner with our family. Other times when we get ourselves up high to a position like a company’s manager, our decision will be so powerful that it can affect thousands of people working under the same enterprise. Of course nobody knows from birth what of successful leader should be like. We are not meant to, but to learn from mistakes and those great examples out there.
Another issue that should be emphasized is making decisions based on the real fact. In order to make a rightful decision for others to accept and carry out, an in depth and in width information should be found out. That means the decision maker should spend a lot of time doing research and listen to other colleagues too. With enough information, less ego and no emotions involved, there will be more chances of that decision being the best one in that situation.
You make an interesting point about leadership for these new generations, and it could be a great essay topic. The old-fashioned view of a leader is one that values power, aggression, and to be a public personality. I wonder what an online leader looks like, where everyone is individualistic and creating a direction for themselves. It is very different.
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I was in dance club when I was in high school, and we needed to perform a stage because performing on stage was our final exam. I needed to lead five of my friends to dance, because the only person in the group who knows the moves and knows how to teach the dance moves were me. The others have talents to learn but they did not know if the dance moves were correct or not. So I had to lead five of my friends to learn all the dance moves perfectly. Then, one of my friends cried because she thinks she could not catch others up, she thought she was not talented in dancing; I had to make her calm and tell her that she has talents from what I saw from her. We all practiced hard during school, after school, outside of school to perform perfectly for our final exam. That was when I first needed to be a leader of a small group.
And that's important. I think we all doubt ourselves and our abilities frequently, and it takes someone else often to reassure us that we can do it. Everyone needs that confidence from others.
DeleteID: 5681057, Section 3
ReplyDeleteI am not a charismatic person who leads other people. Moreover, I try not to be a leader because a leader has work and responsibility more than others. I usually recommend other person to be a leader, and assist the leader and the team to work smoothly and effectively.
However, I had to lead the team a few times. One of the times was making a planning paper by a group as a class assignment. At first, we discussed about the contents what we would write roughly, then, I divided the work among the members. After we did individual work, I checked them and asked the members to improve their work. Way of speaking is an important factor to motivate people, so I took care not to say harshly to them. I admired the good parts of their work before I asked them to rewrite the low quality parts. When I pointed out the unacceptable work, I listened to them and gave some specific suggestions to improve their work. The reason that I took this method was to make the members to work comfortably and motivate them to do high quality work. As a result, we completed the work without any serious troubles, but I do not want to do it because it put so much stress on me.
But because of the stress and responsibility you took, not only did your team succeed, but you developed as a human being. I also hate stress and pressure, but I have to force myself into those kinds of situations in order to test myself. Usually the outcome makes the experience worthwhile.
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ReplyDeletePeople have different opinions, so we need a leader to decide which is the best solution in various situation, and we have many types of a leader. For example, from a small society, such as leader in a group of friend decides where to eat, to larger society, such as a leader of the committee, a leader of the country, etc. We really have lots of leader types.
In my country, I did a leading position as the committee in the high school, and I should make a decision sometimes which influences lots of people, and I had to carry responsibility in my position.
I should talk with colleagues a lot, make the plan, adapt to the some problems, maintain the relationship among colleagues, and try to achieve the goal.
We have a lot of time to be a leader in the life, many times we make mistakes because leading people is not an easy task, but we can learn many things from a leader position,and we can become a better leader.
I wonder what kind of decisions you need to make as part of your high school committee. It is true that it is quite impossible to make everyone happy, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.
DeleteID 5680960, Section 6
ReplyDeleteWe are all human and a part of our life is a social. We were taught to behave in a good kind of manner to be acceptable in a sociability. As we can see that even the smallest part of community which is family we still need a leader to leads the family in the right way and being successful.
Frequently, in our daily life, it is necessary to work with many kind of people as a group. Definitely, a different backgrounds cause a various thoughts of each person. So, it is quit hard to get all the results at one point and who going to guide all those different minds to be on the same page? Sometimes we feeling the need to have a leader. For example, I was studying a topic of sciences by using the problem-based learning (PBL) method. PBL have to work in a group that everybody have to express all the self-idea to others and it is kind of messy. Therefore, we have the leader to clarify everyone idea and make sure that everybody understand the same thing. Finally the leader will summarize all the ideas and assure that everyone agree with the summary. Then the work done perfectly.
To sum up, we need to be a leader when everybody else seems pointless especially in the group or we have all the diverse ideas, even in a military needs commander. Moreover, urgent situations also can make us to be a leader to make everyone survive. Leaders is not a hero but is a powerful person to make every teamwork go on the successful level.
For the PBL approach to work, people need to be working towards a common outcome. So much depends on how that outcome is communicated by the leader... how the leader can persuade the members to have this common goal. This is a huge responsibility.
DeleteID 5681044, Section 6
ReplyDeleteMost of the time when people think of a leader they will think of some one who is very powerful, and everyone respects such as a president and prime minister. For me, every time when I think of the word "leader" it always reminds me about the story that happened 4 years ago when I accidentally became a leader.
The very first day of my sophomore year in high school I was chosen to be a class representative by my teacher. Without any reasons from my teacher why he picked me, I became a leader of the class at that time. However, my classmates did not take this thing seriously and did not excpet any thing from me because I had never been in this role before.
Unfortunately, I did not know how to behave, but I only knew that I have to do everything in order to prove myself from my friends that I can be better than what they thought. However, I realized that one of my best friend was the head of the class earlier. He was really qualified to be a leader because he led others not by sayings but by actions. Therefore, I did the same thing from what he did, and finally at the end of that year I could say that everyone in the classroom accepted me more than before and wanted me to be in this role again for next year.
We learn leadership from the leaders who came before us. This is a good comment. We now look to our leaders and we learn what to do (and what not to do).
DeleteID 5681094, section6
ReplyDeleteThere are several leaders that I really appreciate their achievement and I wanted to be skillfully like them. When I was young I didn’t want to be a leader because leaders must have so many things that they have to be responsible for and face many problems. I wondered how can they organize themselves and deal with the problems. In my high school, not many people liked to play sports but I do. Every year there would be a basketball competition between g.7-9, and 10-12 so every grade had to join it. At the time I was in 8th grade, my friend who liked to play sports and was a basketball leader when we were in 7th grade, quit and go study abroad. And luckily, I got to be a leader after her from the situation that I cannot avoid, my 8th grade teacher was the scariest teacher I ever known. I still remember that when I was lined up for the national anthem and she walked by me, my heart was pumping rapidly and my body was shaking because I was so scared of her. Moreover, not only me who scared of her but also students in every grade from 7-12 was scared of her. She asked 8th grade students “who is going to be a team’s leader?” But on one answered her. On that moment when the silent was all around us, I cheered myself up and slowly raised my hand. Suddenly I heard so many noises from my friends who were gossiping about me but I have no time to worry about it because the teacher asked me with her hoarse voice "can you do it?" I answered, “I’m not sure, but I will try my best.” Actually, I don’t know how to play basketball properly. I asked my friend to joined me and helped to do research about how to play basketball. Eventually, we lost but I got to learn from this competition a lot such as how to be a leader who cares about their teammate, win with no dirty tricks, and don’t judge each other but cheer up.
I enjoyed reading this story. You have a skill of making a clear picture with your words.
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ReplyDeleteI’m one of those people who usually follow the leader and assist them when they needed. This is because I honestly feel that I probably won’t be a great leader as others. Maybe it is because I have never experienced or don’t know how.
However, it really happened when I was in high school. There were so many exchange students from all over the world. Many of them are talented and confident and some of them are just unconcerned. It was quits unbelievable that the head of an international student, Mr. brown and other student voted me to be a representative of an international student. After I knew that I got selected, I seriously asked Mr. brown, “Are you sure I can do this?” What he said made me stronger and felt more confident. Moreover, I was not only proud of my position but also the trustfulness from him. In my mind, I only thought I will absolutely show him that of course, I can do it! He will not disappoint. I had to take care of these students particularly new exchange student. All the activities, clubs, grades, or even their lives in the new country that I had to take care of. I helped them out with college applications and much more too. This was my first time being a leader that plays a major role in high school. And yes I did it! That was when I have needed to be a leader.
Leadership often forces us to grow. Modesty is a good quality, but it can sometimes get in the way for us reaching our potential.
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ReplyDeleteThe time that i need leadership in me was when I need to lead my rugby team on the field. Our caption was injured, so as a wise caption I need to do the duty for him. My duty is to control my teammates under the big pressure from unfair tackling, and I was the only one who able to talk to the referee. The game started with a lot of arguments about me leading the team because it was my first time to lead the team. One of my teammates was very pissed off because of the high tackle which is illegal in rugby football. He said that the opponents were trying to make us angry, so we cannot concentrate on the game. I talked to him that he needed to let it go and concentrate on the game. However, we lost the game, but I have learned about being a good leader on the field. Every staff in the team was impressive about my performance. It was the best game I ever had. That game was the first and final match that i have leaded the team.
Good comment. Leadership on the rugby pitch is a different kind of leadership. I remember playing rugby and anger was an emotion needed to be a good and aggressive player.
DeleteThis journal blog is now closed. Thank you for your participation. Aj. M
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