by Lori Lawson

As leaders, many of us tend to focus more on what is said rather than how it is said. What my goal here is today is to have you reevaluate one of the most prevalent tools that leaders use to present information: the PowerPoint. Recently my History 390 course brought up how slideware programs are the latest craze in information sharing, yet they are often severely detrimental to the information being presented. Need proof? Here is my personal blog entry on the topic.

Slide from “The Gettysburg Address PowerPoint.”

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Forms of Civic Engagement chart

When we think of civic engagement – do we think of all of these?

When you think of peacocks, the image that comes to mind is probably the male peacock.  Like the one below –>

If you didn’t know the male peacocks are the really beautiful ones; they have pretty colors on their feathers in hopes of attracting a female to them. The brighter and bigger the feathers the more likely they are to get that attention because it means they’re more fertile – so better chances of the female’s offspring to becoming healthy.

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Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership

(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821659,00.html)

This response is a simple one. 8 Lessons to be a good leader.

No. 1
Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it

No. 2
Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind

No. 3
Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front

No. 4
Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport

No. 5
Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer

No. 6
Appearances matter — and remember to smile

No. 7
Nothing is black or white

No. 8
Quitting is leading too

I really like points 7 and 8. In point 7 Mandela states life is never either/or. A good leader has to make tough decisions. But these decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. You have to look at alllllllll factors leading into any decision. Just remember, nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears.

The last point is that leading involves quitting. It is vital to know when to stop. You may never be able to stop going as a leader but you must slow down. Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make.

When was there a leadership opportunity that you had to quit or give up? Why?

Now that I got your attention, I wanted to talk about hypocrisy that we all probably went through or even acted upon. The majority or all of us LLC Leadership members are probably one of the most honest and law abiding citizens that aren’t involved in criminal activities due to the fact that we all are sort of leaders. However, we are still human beings and do things against the law sometimes. For example, I am pretty sure that every one of us has once in their life time “movie hopped” (definition). I never thought that it was a crime, but it is. I see myself as a law abiding citizen, but when I think back on the small things I did that didn’t seem serious could actually be labelled as illegal or a crime. I believe that even the best or most perfect leaders make mistakes consciously or unconsciously that would interfere with the law. Here is my question of whether small offenses should reflect on the character of a leader or should leaders be also seen as normal human beings? Some people criticize the President for “wearing jeans” or “drinking beer at a baseball game” or even making laws that go against the constitution (Obamacare). One has to see the human side of a leader, who is just a person like everyone else or do you see it otherwise? Just because I “movie hopped” in the past, did that make me a bad Junior and Senior Class President, where I went above and beyond all the events and community service projects? I am not promoting acts such as “movie hopping”, but wanted to put in perspective of it possibly or not possibly reflecting on my leadership status. Do different levels of crimes reflect more or less on a leader? Think about President Clinton. In my opinion, Clinton was an amazing president, who implemented Medicaid and helped the economy greatly. I didn’t think that his affair made him a bad president or leader. He shouldn’t have lied under oath and perjury is a serious offense, but I didn’t think that he should have left his office. I see both sides of the Clinton incident. How do you guys feel?

I’ve been wondering about this a lot lately, as it’s especially relevant in this election season…
Are leaders who are elected to their positions supposed to act according to what the people who voted for them believe, or what they themselves believe?

To further flesh that out…
There are leaders who believe that they must represent the people who voted for them, no matter if they themselves do or do not believe the same thing. This is the representation theory of leadership. This means that if the leader changes his or her mind on a certain position after they are elected, and their new view does not coincide with the majority of the people, they are not free to act on this view.

There are other leaders who believe that the people voted for them, for their brains, and ability to make decisions, and that in so doing the people have entrusted themselves to their judgment. This is the trustee style of leadership. This means that if the leader changes his or her mind on a certain position after they are elected, they are free to act in accordance with their new view.

As leaders, ought we to adopt a representation or a trustee approach to leadership? Which is most appropriate for the leaders we will be electing in less than a week?

Over the course of the past 10 weeks of having been at Mason, I feel like I have learned more about myself than I did all of high school. Through choosing to attend GMU I chose to do something completely out of my comfort zone and as a result, I’ve learned to push myself to learn both about myself and others in ways I realized I had really never done before. The best way to learn is to challenge yourself and to take risks. When we forget to challenge ourselves we tend to get trapped in repetition and what feels comfortable and not only do we lose sight of progress and can often get extremely complacent. Challenging yourself to be out of your comfort zone is a great way to view life through the perspectives of others and to confront yourself with questions of who you are, who you want to be and why.

Being willing to take risks is a challenge within itself. I feel that most people have this preconceived notion that our leaders today are leaders because they worked to produce this image that they have it all together when in reality it’s the opposite. The point is this, while comfort does provide stability, by taking risks you challenge yourself to go beyond your pre conceived notions and to experience life whole heartedly.

The strongest advocates of social change throughout history all share a commonality of being willing to go beyond the social norms to advocate what they truly believed in. In this same way, this should serve as a challenge to each of us to step out and to not only discover ourselves but what we believe in and to pursue it wholeheartedly.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF ?

Hello my friends :). Let’s conquer our fears today ! Yay! Whether it’s a physical fear, fear of injury, an emotional fear, fear of feeling certain emotions, or a mental fear, fear of heights, let’s conquer them today ! ^^

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With Hurricane Sandy now behind us it is time to start picking up the pieces that were left behind in its destruction. While some of us were fortunate enough to treat this storm as an opportunity to dance in the rain, others were left with damage and despair. In the wake of this, we are reminded of what was quite possibly one of the worst natural disasters this generation has ever seen: Hurricane Katrina.    Read the rest of this entry »