Adaptive Leadership

     Some of the best leaders are the ones that thrive under pressure. They are the ones that push through every challenge. When something get in the way of them achieving their goal they don’t stop from trying but look at different ways of reaching their goals. In the reading it talks about the evolutionary part of adaptive leadership. It connects to the survival of the fittest. The animals and humans that survived were the ones that pushed through challenges and adapted to changes. This can even connect to the Derailments of Leaders. One of the four things that derail leaders is the failure to adapt and be flexible. This comes from the very beginning of human life.  Change is required to become adaptable and the ability to change sometimes to even totally opposite directions is important for leaders. Times are changing and things will not always stay the same. At the same time new is not always better and is important to look to the past and to elders to learn what worked and what didn’t. Many mistakes can be avoided by looking into history and paying attention to what went wrong. Adaptation is also said to occur through experimentation. This is okay but only if it is very controlled. No business wants to experiment without proper research or a solid hypothesis that is could work. It is important that it mentions in the text that adaptation takes times. Change is slow and when it isn’t it can cause chaos, something that needs to be avoided.

They made a good point in not doing it alone. Make sure that your goal or vision is a common one and that what you are doing is something others support. Make sure they will be right by your side and not disappear if the going gets tough. This can relate to making your partner your real partner.

I think there was also a point that someone’s passion can hide signs of danger. This is a wonderful point in which everyone should be aware if their vision is realistic and if there is something they are possibly unaware of. This is seen a lot. An example would be a student being excited to work overseas, not taking into consideration that a country or region could be in turmoil and dangerous.

Before you leap into action, make sure you are carefully looking over every possible aspect and laying out the pros and cons. Think about obstacles and situations and how you would need to deal with them.

In Dan Goleman’s work it starts out saying that many see leadership as an individual’s personality rather than a strategic choice. This is exactly what I thought before this class and now I have realized I can work on my skills as a leader. In his styles I realized I do mostly the Affiliative and Coaching style sometimes with a little democratic style.  

Service Hours

Service Hours- 15 Hours total of Spring Career Fair.

In the fall semester I volunteered to help out with the career fair. Every hour I worked earned money for a club on campus. It was so fun and successful that I decided to volunteer and this spring it was just as successful. Since it was my second time volunteering I knew the routines and was given more responsibility because I knew the individuals from Career Services that ran it. They even told me that next semester I they would give me good recommendations if I applied to work there. Some of the tasks I did were manual labor such as carrying the boxes that employers had sent to MSU to the individual tables, carrying signs, and setting up tables. My main job on the first day however was greeting and signing in employees which suited me very well because I am a very social person. We greeted them with a firm handshake and gave them their folders. We were instructed to show them their table and give them their name tags and lunch coupons. If their name tags were not correct we printed new ones off. We also had to go over their interview sheets with them and ask that they return them at the end of the three days. Most of the Employers were easy and they brought all the supplies they need to the fair. Others were not as prepared and have us running around campus looking for various things like chalk boards, yarn, markers, extension cords, and other miscellaneous things that they wanted. One of the biggest concerns that we had the first day was that the employers were parking their cars in the bus lanes and we had to politely ask them to move so they didn’t get tickets. We wanted everyone to have a really good experience so they will return again. During the first day I was signed up for 4 hours but because of a lack of volunteers showing up and the faculty really appreciating my ability to see things that needed done and doing them without asked they asked me to stay a few more hours and I worked a total of 7 hours that day. I really enjoyed talking and meeting employers and I think one employer was very impressed that I went out of my way to take his cardboard to recycling.

     I felt satisfied in my first day of volunteering because I knew what I was doing and how I could help. It was frustrating last semester when I was unsure of what needed to be done and felt like I was not participating.

Second day of Career Fair-4 Hours

The second day was the busiest day of the fair. Employers showed up at seven and students started coming a little later. The main job for volunteer is coat check and name tags. Students check in their coats and it is very busy for the poor volunteers running around in the coat check room. After students check in their bags they are asked to fill out a name tag and the volunteers at the front desk are supposed to make sure they are dressed appropriately or not let them in. Another volunteer clicks a counter every time a student with a resume walks in the ballroom to see how many students attend. Employers like to know this number so they can decide if it is worth to attend again. As soon as I showed up I was surprised to see the lady in charge wave at me excitedly and I could tell she was glad I was there. We were lacking in numbers and I took charge of assigning my teammates with what to do. The day went smoothly and when I signed out she asked me to come earlier the next day in case there was a lot to do.

Third day-4 Hours

    At 7 A.M I arrived on campus and I was told to go into room 232 with Francine and check students who had gotten interviews with employers checked in. As the employers with interviews came in we hung up their interview schedule on a huge board and showed them to their room or area where they were going to hold interviews. As students came in for their interviews we checked them in and someone ran to the big board to highlight their name so employers knew they were ready. It was a fairly easy task and was even boring at times. I spent a lot of time talking with employers and practiced looking them in the eye and trying to feel comfortable. None of them were necessarily individuals that I would look at to interview for a job but I fell it was still good experience.

     This day too many students were signed up to volunteer and a couple times the room was filled with 10 members of the boys and girls team. It was a lot of fun and I think we impressed Francine with our team bonds and how good of a turnout our teams had in those three days. After all the interviews were complete we helped clean up and put chairs and tables away.
The whole career fair was fun and my favorite part was walking around and doind errands for the employers. I helped them with recycling, and getting set up and that for me was the best part.

Car Wash- 4 hours

To raise money for our club we put on a car wash at Peaks Car Wash. It wasn’t the warmest day to have a car wash but we all dressed warmly and then night before I had half the team over at my house baking so we could sell baked goods as well.

We split of jobs as we got there with the plan to switch out every half hour or so. A few girls held signs at street corners while some set up the bake sale in the yard. I was in charge of washing cars first. When a driver pulled up I asked if he would like his car washed by the Bozeman Whitetail. It was slow business at first but the bake sale was getting a lot of attention. The two pies we had went almost immediately. As customers came many were very nice and paid or tipped us generously. A few neighbors of the car wash came to get muffins for breakfast and the bake sale went smoothly all day. I loved washing cars because I had a lot of time to talk to customers and I think that my enthusiasm drew them in. Some asked about Rugby and seemed very interested. One man with a Brewery offered to maybe sponsor us in the fall season. The owner of the car wash was so generous throughout the day opening more bays for us so we could wash more cars in a quicker more efficient time frame.  Some of the cars had so much mud and dirt from the winter months that we had to take our time and scrub them two or three times before they began to look clean. I do not believe we got any complaints on the job that we did but we had one complaint by some snowmobilers that wanted their huge truck and trailer washed as quickly as possible.  They barely paid us for one vehicle and they possibly had the muddiest vehicles of all. That was a moment where I was clearly frustrated and had to bite my tongue in order to not say something that I would regret later.

During that day we almost raised $500 which was more than we had hoped for. We were also able to make it to the end of the boys team and cheer them on. They suffered a loss but played hard and improved a lot.

Applied Leadership

When only reading the title of today’s reading I thought back to the day that we interviewed the teachers from the other country. One had mentioned to me that sometimes American’s seem so ignorant and do not want to learn any other way than their own.

In the reading the first part related to self awareness and how one needs to know how they go about solving a problem compared to someone else. I am  still unclear about single loop and double loops but I might have grasped the concept.

Special Event

General Wesley Clark was an honor to watch and listen to. I have the utmost respect to him and all his accomplishments. The fact that he has been honored by several other countries including ours shows us how accomplished he is. All his past experiences and the way that he talks also show us what a smart and intelligent man he is. He is a great leader and showed many characteristics of why he is such a great leader. He was polished and well put together so when you first look at him you immediately respect he and you are drawn to him. The way he addresses things, he knows how to say things in such a professional manner that you can nod your head and agree when he could be telling you that the sky is pink. He also addressed issues that were important to the audience. He had charisma and enthusiasm that drew people in. I loved the idea that he supports of using our own resources and not other countries, giving them billions of dollars a year. It is something I also look forward to. He also pointed out that our country needs the youth to step up and participate in what is going on. He wants us to get involved and I totally agree. The more that people get involved the better our country will become. I also think that he really won the crowd over when he said that we should not be fighting a war that shouldn’t be fought like in Iraq. But with all these great things said, I also found myself second guessing him later in the night because instead of being gullible with a great talker I wanted to think critically. I wanted to look up what his stand on the Iraq war was when it was first beginning. A lot of Americans were onboard at first but then changed their minds later when the war began to get drug out. I wanted to know what this plan was that people kept mentioning about invading countries and why he wanted to help Israel with Iran if he was against our war in Iraq? It seemed a bit like a double standard. At first I thought his ideas of getting jobs with coal and oil in Montana or new sources of energy was great until I thought about how much he was over simplifying things and how that kind of coal economy might hurt Montana and many of the people here would really hate it. It could turn into another fiasco like in Sidney where the oil pulled in some of the nastiest human beings and crime rates have sky rocketed. I have friends there and they confirm that they do not feel safe and they worry that when the oil leaves the men that came with it will stay. He really over simplified that matter on energy jobs in Montana.

   Another point I disagreed with was the fact that he wanted the United States to return to being an ultimate super power. When the founding fathers created this country they did not want us to be a super power. They were trying to be free from a power and we have now reversed. I think the United States should focus on itself and helping their own and getting our economy stable and not police the world or become some great dominant power. That scares me.

Over all I think he was a great speaker and had a lot of great points. He held himself well and knew what to say. It was more than an honor to see him.