NOTE: for those of you in my class I will label each one of my post under the category EDL 900 to make access to reading our family blog a little easier for you.
So this is my start at blogging about what I think of leadership and how it fits into my research agenda. We had several questions proposed to answer. Here are the one's I have chosen.
Does this give you a hint of how to conceptualize the leader and the impact of the leader?How could you use that knowledge to start thinking about a research question?
After the readings from this past week I have really been pondering the concepts of incorporating both humility and unwavering resolve in to this idea of leadership. It is hard to put into words the definition of leadership. I do believe leadership is not about the "great man" theory which in short states the leader is always right and should make all the decisions and everyone they work with is underneath them. In the chat we had in AET zone the one thing I said all the articles had in common was change. I now take that answer back because upon further reflection I realize the underlying theme to all the articles is leadership is based around created relationships. The success or failure of a leader depends upon the relationships one creates with those people the leader works with. Another concept I found important to be a part of leadership is the idea of being an example or "modeling the way". Taking this concept one step further I would argue implies sometimes a leader has to be a follower. And in this follower roles is being a paragon of a relational leader.
Two other concepts I believe to be important is empowering with those you work with and encouraging the heart of those you work with. See how this all fits into relationships. I believe both of these concepts provide the leader with the opportunity to develop trust and respect. These to characteristics being the foundation of a healthy relationship. As you can see the word relationship continues to arise in my discussion of leadership. This leads my reflection back to the beginning of my post. The "great man theory" or being a lion is not all leadership is about. To quote Jerome Murphy: "To be a lion, one must first be a lamb" (pg. 58).
So now to the discussion about my research topic. I am working with the concepts of living learning programs specially looking at Resident Assistants and Program Assistants. I am interested in seeing how these two positions provide leadership to the student involved in living learning programs. Right now I am struggling with the design part of this project. I am not sure if I want to look at qualities of the people in these positions or to find out from the residents living in these communities if they are more engaged and successful because of the interactions they have with these two positions. At this point, I am not sure where else to go with this. But check back in a couple of weeks because I have lined up several meetings with professors to continue to discuss this idea and figure out a way of how to measure these aspects in the LLCs.
Anyone feel free to give me feedback through the comments. Any help is much appreciated.
So this is my start at blogging about what I think of leadership and how it fits into my research agenda. We had several questions proposed to answer. Here are the one's I have chosen.
Does this give you a hint of how to conceptualize the leader and the impact of the leader?How could you use that knowledge to start thinking about a research question?
After the readings from this past week I have really been pondering the concepts of incorporating both humility and unwavering resolve in to this idea of leadership. It is hard to put into words the definition of leadership. I do believe leadership is not about the "great man" theory which in short states the leader is always right and should make all the decisions and everyone they work with is underneath them. In the chat we had in AET zone the one thing I said all the articles had in common was change. I now take that answer back because upon further reflection I realize the underlying theme to all the articles is leadership is based around created relationships. The success or failure of a leader depends upon the relationships one creates with those people the leader works with. Another concept I found important to be a part of leadership is the idea of being an example or "modeling the way". Taking this concept one step further I would argue implies sometimes a leader has to be a follower. And in this follower roles is being a paragon of a relational leader.
Two other concepts I believe to be important is empowering with those you work with and encouraging the heart of those you work with. See how this all fits into relationships. I believe both of these concepts provide the leader with the opportunity to develop trust and respect. These to characteristics being the foundation of a healthy relationship. As you can see the word relationship continues to arise in my discussion of leadership. This leads my reflection back to the beginning of my post. The "great man theory" or being a lion is not all leadership is about. To quote Jerome Murphy: "To be a lion, one must first be a lamb" (pg. 58).
So now to the discussion about my research topic. I am working with the concepts of living learning programs specially looking at Resident Assistants and Program Assistants. I am interested in seeing how these two positions provide leadership to the student involved in living learning programs. Right now I am struggling with the design part of this project. I am not sure if I want to look at qualities of the people in these positions or to find out from the residents living in these communities if they are more engaged and successful because of the interactions they have with these two positions. At this point, I am not sure where else to go with this. But check back in a couple of weeks because I have lined up several meetings with professors to continue to discuss this idea and figure out a way of how to measure these aspects in the LLCs.
Anyone feel free to give me feedback through the comments. Any help is much appreciated.
1 comment:
Wylie, Thanks for the reflection. I can see that you are grappling with this question. I'm going to give you some input by asking a question - which I realize is not always the most helpful input! I do think that relationships are a key theme to the readings. I wonder if these questions don't also have something to do with power. How does a leader exercise power within the context of a relationship? In today's reading, I think that the authors distinguish the power over from power to. This is very interesting to me. I speaks to leadership belief systems as well as behavior and those certainly take place in the context of the relationship. Something to think about. Maybe that's another dimension to your question.
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