Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Life and Leadership

The class I am presently in is Leadership, which is interesting amidst the backdrop of the impending Presidential election...The way the media slants to their own persuasion is pathetic...Fox News has consistently remained biased as far as I can tell...I do not however have much time for television....Continuing this journey has become quite a juggling act, walking the line between personal and professional responsibilities...Maintaining balance and flexibility is the key to sanity and success....allowing for down days when I shift my focus toward one task over another....I am enjoying the challenges and the intellectual stimulation....I also enjoy the silliness of my children in contrast....I am learning so much about leadership and what my personal leadership style is and how to best combine the different models depending upon the situational factors that contribute such as the environmental cues (economic, political, cultural) and the human capital, treating each individual as an important human being and cultivating the appropriate relationships with peers and subordinates....The bottom line, thus far, is there is no single best model or theory of leadership, it is an amalgamation of many theories and a leaders response is based upon the situation as opposed to having a robotic response based in a single thoery..."made to order" leadership seems the most applicable....while maintaining the utmost importance to the relationships we create with one another and holding that sacred....supporting and inspiring one another along our journey whether personal or professional, we are all leaders to someone, whether it be at home or at work....I hope that we all remember that we should live our lives like people are watching, because people are watching....big and little....so I hope that we all lead by example....keeping it positive and pushing forward!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Exhausted But Well Read

Today I am finishing the last of the nine book reading assignment and this week begins the classroom discussions....After reading the first book I was so excited to talk about it and now after getting through eight of the books and working today to finish the ninth, I am just really exhausted and my eyes are burning.....I am looking forward to NOT needing to read nine books in such a short time frame! I have looked ahead at the syllabus and compared to this reading assignment, the rest of the class will be a cake walk, for reading at least! I have my first assignment due next week comparing and contrasting four leadership models....I love to get into papers, of course the best part is when it is finished but I love the research to start the paper and the "art of discovery" when you find an amazing source of information....no doubt these first nine textbooks will certainly come in handy...I have had hand cramp from taking all the notes and several notebooks now filled with writing that I hope to be able to decipher when I review what I have written :-) I am left handed and so the ink stains my pinky finger as it drags across the page, so lovely, it is like the "nerd tatoo"! I have been excited about embarking on this journey to earn this degree but right now I would just like to have a massage and crawl into bed! Tomorrow begins work and class discussion so I hope to down a pot of coffee, pen in hand, glasses firmly on face, and enjoy the ride!