Academy Lecture #1

Dr. Katherine Bassard

The session didn’t really impact my understanding of leadership because the meaning of leadership is so vague and it’s up to your own interpretation. Other people may have heard the lecture and it might have changed the way they saw the meaning of leadership but I didn’t feel as if she said anything I didn’t already agree with. Some of the things that Dr. Bassard put under the characteristics of leadership are, speaking up for others, speak up about things that bother you, and being able to see obstacles and knowing how to get around them. Those also being characteristics I would associate with being a leader.

What I saw between personal values, integrity, and ethicalness and what she was speaking about it that if you don’t have those then people tend to steer away from you and you can sometimes be seen as a bad leader. You need to use your personal values to judge situations how you’re going to handle them and your integrity to act on those actions in an ethical way for everyone following you and also anyone around you. You need all three to be present or your leadership skills will be unbalanced and end up not working as well as intended.

Something that I took away from her lecture was that she spoke about people using the Bible out of context for their own benefit or arguments, and I completely agree with that. I hope that other people in the lecture will also be about to take that away and use it in their leadership practices so that they can be equal to all their followers, and not try to convince them to believe the way they do. That’s also something that I apply to my leadership practice. You also need to have an open mind and be willing to listen to what other people have to say and try to accommodate to them without shoving your beliefs down their throats. Overall the lecture was great, she did an amazing job of incorporating the Bible into speaking about leadership without trying to change your views on the biblical or religious text.

 

Academy Lecture #2

Dr. Suzii Paynter

Dr. Suzii Paynter emphasized that advocacy is in itself, leadership.  Advocacy means, the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal, according to Webster’s dictionary. To Dr. Paynter it means that and so much more. She used it in the context that you would combine that, your leadership skills, and “your time” that you were born into to your advantage.

That being said, it impacted my understanding of leadership by giving it a definition per se. Leadership means something different to everyone and I thought that her saying that using advocacy for leadership was a really ingenious way of stating what leadership means to her. I completely agree with her and that you need to be active to be able to call yourself a leader. She also stated that you need to advocate for people that don’t have a voice, as a voice for a cause, and for the justice of it all together. What I got from that is that you need to be able to have motivation for a cause because without it you won’t be into it full heartedly.

What I learned about the relationship between personal values, integrity, and ethical leadership was that how much of those you have will show through your advocacy. If you have high integrity it will come through your work and people will be able to see what kind of person you are from that. Although your personal values can be iffy when it comes to leadership because some people find that to be a way to shove their beliefs down their followers throats. If they use it to better their followers’ knowledge on a cause or topic then it can be used in a good way, and that also goes into ethical leadership. What one person thinks is ethical may not be ethical to someone else, and you have to be careful not to cross the lines when leading people and to make sure you all have a common goal and are willing to work towards it.

I will apply what I learned from Dr. Paynter in my leadership practice by learning to live in “my time” and to do the best I can with the resources available to me. She also stated that you don’t know what your unfinished life has in store when it can be used as a seed to start someone else’s life. That means a lot to me because sometimes I can get caught up in what I don’t have or what I can’t do yet there are people out there that I can help with what I do have and what I can do. I need to learn to put that into my leadership practice so I can be the best leader I can be and I can also grow as a person by giving away what I can.

 

Academy Lecture #3

Dr. Colleen Coffey

The third academy lecture was about the characteristics and dangers about mental health issues. It also talked about how to deal with them yourself and how to help others in need of help also. Dr. Colleen Coffey struggled with mental health issues throughout her life and through telling her story you got a chance to see how they come about and the warning signs to look for when you think someone might be going through that.

This lecture didn’t really touch on many leadership points, so it didn’t change my understanding of leadership. Although it did talk about how to take the knowledge she was giving us and to use it in our practice of leadership. The only thing that kind of changed my understanding of leadership is that, it isn’t about getting your followers to conform to the exact way you are but to embrace their differences and help them in their weaknesses.

What I learned about the relationship between personal values and integrity going to this lecture is that when you get the strength to ask for or seek help then your integrity level appears higher to your followers or your leader, and your personal values can expand with being about to get the courage to do those things. Although I didn’t really hear anything that had to do with ethical leadership.

I will apply what I learned in this lecture to my leadership practice by making sure that my followers know I will be there for them no matter the circumstances, and that if something does come up not to be ashamed to ask me for help. In those ways I can show them ethical leadership and also my integrity, and through doing that from them their trust in me can grow a little stronger.

 

Academy Lecture #4

Jessica Cox

Jessica Cox is an inspirational speaker and a pilot. She also was born without arms, but that didn’t stop her to conquer her biggest fears. Jessica goes around the world telling her stories along with her testimony. She talked about her experiences throughout life and how she overcame what to people born with arms seems simple tasks. She also mentioned different parts of leadership throughout her lecture.

This session impacted my understanding of leadership by Jessica telling her stories about overcoming to what to me would be an easy task and how she was able to overcome them with determination and motivation. Those two qualities are extremely important in leadership and being a leader. You need determination and motivation to be able to get anything done, or to lead people in the right direction. She quoted that desire is eighty percent of success and that without that desire then you won’t be as successful. When you put that into retrospect with leadership it shows you that you can’t be an effect leader without desire because your success rate will instantly drop.

I didn’t learn much about the relationship between personal values, integrity, and ethical leadership from this academy lecture but she did leave us with multiple ideas to apply to our leadership practice. The first being that when being a leader no one can make you feel inferior without your permission, so to be a great leader that doesn’t allow people to walk all over you then you need to build a guard and not “give” them your permission. The second is that you need to think outside of the shoe. She gave this example when she talked about how she learned to tie her shoes by herself. You need to be able to see around problem and figure out the solution that way. In leadership this means that you may come across problems that don’t have a specific way to solve them and that’s when you need to “think outside the shoe”. The last idea is how we react has a bigger impact on our lives than our physical restraints. This means that we can’t let certain things hold us back. In leadership this might be used to preserver through certain situations or difficulties. Over all the lecture was very interesting and informative. She had an excellent way of putting her life experiences into ways that everyone could benefit from. Although the lecture wasn’t strictly based on leadership she made great points that you could easily interpret into skills for leadership.