A Sleep Deprived Meeting of the Minds

Uninspired, that’s how I felt when I walked into Lori’s office, that and really tired… So needless to say I wasn’t really feeling this whole narrative thing, and had absolutely no response when Lori asked me what I was thinking?  I was in deep need of some direction and another cup of coffee.  Then Lori asked me what I wanted to do after graduation?  My first thought, oh crap I don’t know the answer to this one either, second thought I’m going to bed early tonight, what came out of my mouth, “Um well, I kinda think I want to work in a museum.”  Yes I know poetic; I bet you are really looking forward to when I present my narrative, aren’t you?  But it turns out my half idea of what I want to do with my life actually helped us get somewhere.  I had been hitting a wall when it came to this whole narrative thing because I kept trying to think of it from a manager’s stand point, a stand point I don’t remotely relate to and one I don’t really know if I ever want to have.  So I told Lori this, forming better sentences this time, and she told me it didn’t necessarily have to be from a manager stand point, my sleepy mind was blown.  So we brought this whole narrative down to my level, I’m currently working at a nonprofit, a museum is a nonprofit, well why don’t I give my narrative as someone who is coordinating volunteers for a fundraising event?  And that is why we have these one on one meetings because who knows what I would have come up with on my own?  So my narrative is going to be to my nonprofit volunteers, with a bit of transformational leadership, maybe a sprinkle of authentic leadership, and a pinch of me (yah I just used a baking analogy, I’m embarrassed).

Leadership Theory Map

Something New

So normally I try to make my posts as interesting as possible but this week requires a lot of dense information however, I promise if you read on you will be rewarded...

Authentic – known to be real and genuine and not a copy

Authentic Leadership seems to be a newer theory, it was hard to find a lot of detailed information about the theory but I thought it was interesting so I will do my best to describe this still evolving concept.

Authentic leadership is based on the core idea that Authentic Leaders are motivated by their core values and conviction to take action, rather than being driven by status and position.  Authentic leaders are leaders who “walk their talk,” and take action independent of pleasing people or their expectations.

Authentic Leadership theory was developed with the idea that leadership is changing.  Authentic Leadership states that the old model of one leader and many followers is disappearing and that the idea that everyone must be a leader is gaining strength

There is an assessment that goes along with this theory called the ALI, I haven’t taken it myself because you do have to pay but I was able to find the areas the assessment focuses on.

Authentic Leadership can be broken down into four parts:

Self Awareness:  This concerns how well a person is aware of their own strengths, and weaknesses or limitations.  It also concerns how aware the leader is of what others think of their leadership and to what degree the leader is aware of how their leadership impacts others.

Transparency: This pertains to the degree to which the leader is able to reinforce a level of openness with others.  Does the leader provide others with an opportunity to give their own ideas, and opinions?  Is the leader able to be open and trust in relationships?

Ethical/Moral: Is the leader’s behavior guided by core values, beliefs, thoughts and feelings rather than outside pressures and personalities?  To what degree does the leader set a standard for ethical and moral conduct?

Balanced Processing: Is the leader able to be unbiased with both positive and negative self-related information?  How able is the leader at getting other opinions and viewpoints prior to making important decisions?

Overall if I were to sum up Authentic leadership as I understand it an authentic leader must be in touch not only themselves but with others, and others' onpions of them as a leader.  An authentic leader is someone who is able to stick to their core values and not be swayed by expectations.  Authentic leadership is something that is still growing but is gaining strength and something that I think will be important to keep an eye on in the future.

Article: The link below doesn't just talk about Authentic Leadership but other Leadership ideas as well so have a look for some further information:

http://www.uic.edu/sph/phtpg/Content/Reading%20Room/Articles/Integrative%20strategies%20for%20leadership%20theory%20building.pdf

And now the most important part what is your reward for reading all the way to the end? It is a picture of my cat watching another cat on T.V. enjoy : )

And yes I am aware you could have just scrolled down to the bottom and for those of you who that applies to you should be ashamed and go back to the beginning immediatly and read about Authentic Leadership.

Where the Wild Things Are

So I believe I was the only one who watched Where The Wild Things Are, a movie I'm convinced was created by all the hipsters at Urban Outfitters.  In class it seemed that the majority of you had never seen it, and by majority of you I mean everyone but Krystal, so if you don't want the movie ruined for you I don't recommend reading much further, everyone dies, just kidding, or am I?  No really just stay away from my transformational leadership section and you should be fine.

Slideshowish

I'm sorry to inform all of you but me and the slideshow gadget have infact broken up.  Due to the fact that I just couldn't figure out how to get my pictures to show up in a slideshow I knew the relationship just couldn't go on.  Lucky for you, you will still have the opportunity to check out my transformational pictures.  What I really wanted to do was find five pictures of a transformer changing from an autobot into a car but that was nearly impossible so here are some beautiful scenic images instead.

Regular Show

My Transformational video comes from the show Regular Show, my clips are in two parts but they are both about a minute long, so no excuse for not watching them. Enjoy : )

Pop's Speech Part 1
Pop's Speech Part 2

Burn Notice

The task this week, write a biography about a biographer, what I’ve chosen to do, inform you as to why this 92 year old man is cooler than you and me.

James MacGregor Burns was born August 3, 1918.  As part of his education he attended Williams College after turning down Princeton University.  Total side note but how much fun would it be to say, “Sorry Princeton but I’m too cool for your school.”  That's probably just my fantasy, so here is some more cool information about Burns. During WWII he joined the Army as a combat historian in the Pacific where he received four battle stars and a Bronze star.  Next he completed his master’s and doctorate in Political Science at Harvard University.  He then went on to write many notable and award winning books, including, "Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox,"(1956),  the Pulitzer Prize winning, “Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom,” (1970),  "Leadership" (1978), and "The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America" (2001).

So let’s take a pause for a moment. Just looking at what I’ve mentioned above, I’m already jealous of all his cool accomplishments, and just when you think Burns couldn’t possibly have done anything cooler you find out he did.   So what makes Burns even cooler you ask?  How about the fact that he is not really one to brag, case and point he tried to convince the University of Maryland not to name their leadership academy after him, they did anyway.  To this day anytime Burns has to mention the leadership academy he still keeps his name out of it.

The last thing I want to mention and probably the most relevant thing to this class is that Burns coined the theory of transformational leadership.  I know I should probably talk about the fact that transformational leadership was a way of getting away from the idea of trait based leadership and focusing instead on the interactions of leaders and their followes, but to be honest I totally just love the idea that he coined something.

This concludes Mr. Burns’s biography but if you really want one last reason as to why he is way cooler than me and probably you, because this has got to have happened to someone besides me, here it is.  The entire time I’ve been writing this my headphones have been, unbeknownst to me, tied into my shirt (don’t ask me how) and when I went to get up to get something to drink I was violently attacked by my computer.  I am convinced James MacGregor Burns is too cool to ever have anything like this happen to him.