Voice Credo

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Resonant Leader

Based on class discussions to date and looking back at your experience leading (and being led), how will you recognize "resonant leadership" as you move forward from this class.  What would resonant leadership look like, sound like, and feel like when seen in a team captain, student government leader, youth group leader, or any other role in which you might find yourself?

A resonant leader is a leader who is passionate about the needs of those that they lead and are very good about connecting emotionally with those that they lead. Resonant leaders always have followers behind them because of how passionate they are about what they are doing, others are wanting to follow. For example, moving forward from this class, I would recognize resonant leadership on the basketball team, if everyone was working together to create opportunities for all players on the team to be successful on the court. It would be recognized by the team captain playing with a passion and encouraging the other players and also leading by example on the court. The opposite of a resonant leader is a dissonant leader.  One who isn't passionate about what they are doing and doesn't connect with their followers at all.  

Goleman Quote Reflection

"No creature can fly with just one wing.  Gifted leadership occurs where heart and head - feeling and thought - meet.  These are the two wings that allow a leader to soar."

This quote truly makes a lot of sense to me, a leader with "just one wing" will not be near as effective as a leader with two wings and will never be able to soar like the leader with two wings.  In saying two wings, I mean that a leader must have both the heart and the head to complete and lead through tasks.  If the leader only has one wing, or just heart for example, that leader may have all the desire to get the work done but doesn't have the head, or the creative nature, forward looking, and the intelligence "wing" of leadership. On the other hand if the leader only has the head "wing" of leadership they will be lacking the heart or ability to relate to others and understand their emotions and the desire to get the task completed. Goleman's quote recognizes that a successful leader needs both feeling and thought to be able to "soar" as a leader.

Meyers Briggs Personality Test

My results of ESFP were a tad surprising to me because I believe the definition for ISFP described me a little better, although I believe I truly could go either way. It described how I like to have my own space and to work within my own time frame and also how I dislike disagreements and conflicts which I think describes me pretty perfectly.  I see the results of the tool assisting me on my leadership journey from this point forward because by more consciously recognizing my personality type I think I will be able to adapt to leadership situations by knowing which personality traits come naturally and knowing which ones I need to work at to keep a nice balance.  

The Me I Always Wanted to Be

It would make me most proud to hear myself described with words such as caring, loving, good listener, supportive, and passionate.  I would like others to think of me as being very caring.  That I cared for everyone around me, was a willing listener and always willing to help.  I would also like to be remembered as one who would always be willing to help others if a friend ever needed help.  I would want to be remembered as very loving to my family and friends.  I would like to be remembered as approachable, that you could come up to me and talk to me if you needed to.  I would also like to be remembered as passionate in everything I did, giving my all into everything.  All in all I would be proudest to be remembered as a loving, kind person, that tried to always put others first.

Interview Reflection

After completing my interview with my Godmother Andrea, I realized that different people define leadership in all different ways.  For my first question, I asked Andrea what characteristics she believed a leader possessed and she responded with “intelligence (which isn’t necessarily smarts), wise, empathetic and loyal.”  I found this very interesting because it wasn’t quite what we talked about in class but how she defined each characteristic seemed to fit in with leaders qualities.  Another interesting response I got from Andrea was when I asked her what has made her a successful business leader and she responded with, “Being able to be open to all opinions and to be able to see all sides of all issues and making the final decision based on what’s best for the company. “ She went on and also said, “I believe being a good listener is a very important trait for a good leader.  Being able to take criticism and correcting yourself to become a better all-around leader. “ Lastly, I asked Andrea who had influenced her in developing her leadership skills, and she responded with a very surprising answer.  She said that for one of her first jobs she had a terrible boss, that would just order people around with no meaning and no insight.  She said her boss would throw temper tantrums and she said that that really showed her how NOT to lead. All in all I feel like this interview was very successful, and gave me further insight into an actual business woman’s leadership qualities and experiences.  

How Has Your View of Leadership Changed?

My view of leadership has changed in many different ways since taking this class.  Before taking this class I always knew that leaders had to have certain characteristics but I never really realized that these could be practiced and learned.  This class has also caused me to realize that a leader is not just the President of a company or the captain of a team, that there are many different types of leaders but they all contain leadership qualities even if they aren’t the President or CEO.   Also I now try to look at the people in my life that I consider leaders and see if they contain all of the qualities that we have discussed in class.  Also I now believe that leaders can be made, that if one works on their leadership qualities and characteristics they can in fact improve themselves as leaders.  

Direction, Alignment, Commitment

One leader in my life is one of my really good friends that attends Parish in my grade named Michael Murph.  Although Michael isn't an adult he is still very influential.  Michael and I played basketball together all throughout middle school and he was always a little on the chubby side.  When freshman year came around there were tryouts for the Varsity basketball team and Michael and I discussed how we would like to play varsity basketball as freshman.  We both made the varsity team but Michael didn't play much because he was out of shape and couldn't move all that well on the court.  After that year Michael had a vision of getting in shape and being a starter on the Varsity team.  Throughout the next two years and summers Michael worked out every day and got in great shape and is not only starting on Varsity now but is the Captain of the Varsity team as a Junior.  This was very inspiring for me to watch from the outside seeing Michael have the vision and then being so committed to actually pull it through.

Another leader in my life is my brother Logan.  My brother Logan graduated from Parish and now attends the University of Oklahoma.  He is a very influential leader in my life for many reasons.  First whenever he was in high school at Parish, he didn’t have the best of grades his freshman and sophomore years at Parish.  He then met with my parents and a college guidance committee that told him he would really have to put forth a lot more work to get into the colleges that he wanted to attend.  From that point on Logan's grades sky rocketed because of his vision of going to the college that he wanted too.  He ended up making a 5 on his Calculus final.  This is very inspiring to me and he is now doing great at the University of Oklahoma, being the President of the Engineering club, the biggest club on the University of Oklahoma’s campus.

Another leader in my life is my Godmother, Andrea Clay. Andrea is very inspiring because first and foremost she is an outstanding mother to four boys.  She leads by giving all of her boys strong academic direction. For example she helps them with school work after she gets home from work or hires a tutor if one of her boys is struggling.  In addition, Andrea is the owner of her own law firm.  She must lead all of her employees by example and in addition she inspires many young people by giving them their first job, even if it’s only for short time.  My Godmother is very inspirational in my life.