Voicethread Credo

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Direction Alignment Commitment

We spent time in class talking about the Direction/Alignment/Commitment stool. This is a key concept in leadership because it is very important to be going in the right direction, align your words with the actions you are taking in this direction, and stay committed to your goal. Kouzes and Posner talked about the concept of credibility being a foundation of leadership. Somebody who is credible always follows the saying, “Do What You Say You Will Do.” Followers will be more wiling to follow a leader who is they can trust because their words and actions align.

One person who has been an extremely influential leader in my life is my dad. My dad has always been there for me throughout my life and he has shaped my view of a leader. My dad does everything that he can to guide me in the right direction. An example of this is his choice to send me to Parish in Pre-K. He knew that starting me out with a good education would point me in the right direction in life. My dad also influences my alignment because he makes it a point to be consistent with his words and actions. He leads by example and he has influenced me in more ways than I can even explain.

My mom has always been a very influential person in my life. She is the one of nicest and most gracious people I know. My mom always puts others in front of herself and she always go out of her way to help others. She provides direction in my life by showing me that giving is better than receiving. Also, when my mom says she is going to do something, I am confident she will. She respects all the commitments she makes in life no matter how big or small they are. My mom leads others with her gracious nature and kind heart.

Another great leader in my life is my lacrosse coach, Randy. All of the lacrosse team respects Randy because he respects us. Rather than yelling senselessly and insulting players, which seems to be a tactic used by many coaches, Randy listens to what we are having trouble with and tries his hardest to help us. The main reason the team respects Randy is because he does a great job of aligning his words and actions. This causes us to trust Randy, which has built up a mutual respect in the team. Randy is a great leader and a great coach.

Resonant Leadership

A Resonant leader is a leader who truly makes an impact on all the people that they lead. A key component that makes up a resonant leader is emotional intelligence. An emotionally intelligent leader has mastered the skills of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. Each of these skills applies to different aspects of leadership. For instance, a self-aware leader does a good job making an assessment of how their emotions are affecting others around them and judging their own capabilities. Also, self-regulation is very important because people who are in control of their emotions are better at creating a fair environment for the followers. Next, empathy is an important part of leadership because the ability to sense the emotions of the people around the leader will help them make a connection with the people and improve collaboration. Lastly, social skill, which relates to empathy, is important because making connections and creating bonds with many people will definitely help out when in time of need. Resonant leadership is the kind of leadership that has an enduring effect on others; therefore a high level of emotional intelligence is very significant.

Goleman Quote

Goleman pg 26:
“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.”
I think that this means that a leader needs to be passionate at heart and strong minded toward their cause to effectively lead. If a leader is passionate at heart but they lack the mental capability to think of ways to lead, they are not effective leaders. On the other hand, if somebody is very smart and have thought out a very good plan but they lack the compassion towards their cause, they will not effectively lead. It is pertinent that a leader possesses both of these qualities in order to effectively lead others toward a common cause. This type of leadership is apparent in one of the captains of the lacrosse team, Paul Dixon. When we voted for captains, Paul was elected by a unanimous decision. I think the reason the decision was unanimous is because he clearly exhibits the knowledge of the game and he shows his passion by coming to every practice and leading our huddle-breaks. These qualities are what separate Paul from the rest of the leaders, allowing him to soar.

Myers-Briggs Reflection

We recently took Myers-Briggs personality tests in class and the result I got was ENTP. I think this category was an overall good fit for me, although I also see myself as an INTP. People in this category are described as quick, ingenious, stimulating, alert, and outspoken. It also said this category is good at solving new and challenging problems, adept at generating possibilities and analyzing them, and bored by routine. I think that the two that describe me the best are generating possibilities and bored by routine. I am willing to admit that I do get bored easily and doing the same thing over and over is a big challenge for me, therefore I like to keep myself interested and stimulated by thinking of new ideas on how to attack routine things or challenges. I believe that taking this personality test and the activity we did in class has definitely helped me develop leadership skills because it showed me my strengths and weaknesses. Knowing strength’s and weaknesses is very important because it helps show me which ways I will be most effective in leading others.

My Credo

My Credo

• Positive Attitude: I will approach my day to day challenges with a positive attitude to help me achieve goals and be successful without giving up.

• Family and Friends: I will value and respect the commitments I make to my family and friends because they are always there for me whenever I need anything.

• Challenge: Never do less than my ability and always seek to challenge myself in all that I do. Nothing worth having comes easy so it is important to take challenges every day.

• My Values and Commitments: Enjoyment, family and friends, challenge, competence, freedom.


My Sentence:
He faces his day-to-day challenges with a positive attitude and enjoys living his life to the fullest.

How has your view of leadership changed?

Before taking this class, I didn’t think too much about leadership and how I could personally lead. I pictured a leader to strictly be somebody who is in charge of a group or organization. However leadership class has shown me that there are many more ways to lead in all different types of situations. At first I thought leaders were just born that way, but I now know that there are ways for anybody to learn how to lead. Ways to learn how to lead include taking a class, trial and error, and observing other leaders. Also, I already had some characteristics in mind of a good leader but we collaborated in class and came up with our class top 7 list of traits. A few that really stood out to me were perseverance, keeping cool, and lead by example. Perseverance stood out because a true leader must be 100% committed to his goal in order to effectively lead others. Keeping one’s cool is very important because the leader is who the followers look up to and if the leader loses his composure, that directly affects the attitude of all the followers. Last, I included leading by example as a very important trait because actions speak louder than words and a leader must do a good job of setting an example for their followers. Leadership class has made me put a lot more thought into how to lead and I plan on utilizing the information I have learned in this class in the real world.

Leadership Interview Reflection

I decided to do my leadership interview on Terry Brown. Terry is the Vice President of Commercial Services at Crosstex Energy and I got the chance to work with him over the summer as an intern. In observing the ways that Terry interacted with his employees and associates and the positive responses they had towards him, I could tell that he was a very effective leader. Terry touched on many of the things that we talked about in class, but he also had some very good input on things that we never talked about. When I asked Terry what are some traits he has observed of effective leaders he said effective communication, fairness, confidence, and planning. I thought fairness was interesting because although we didn’t talk about it much in class, it is very relevant. A follower will respond more positively to a leader if they feel like they are in an environment where everyone is treated equally, and Terry did a great job of creating this environment in his workplace. I also asked Terry what steps he took to reach his position of leadership and the main thing he talked about was competence. As he became more competent, he began asking for more responsibilities and challenges from his supervisors, which made him a more likely candidate for a leadership role. When I asked Terry what the hardest thing he does as a leader every day, he talked about maintaining consistency with actions and decisions, which we talked about a lot in class. He said that remaining consistent allows followers to anticipate needs of the organization and support of the leader to complete tasks with minimal interference. Terry expanded on many things that we talked about in class and introduced new things that we never talked about. He is a great leader and I look forward to learning more from him next summer.