Leadership Class 2

2124 6-6-10

Holy crap I was actually productive today.

I woke up early, finished my homework assignments, and even got to class early.  But before we get into that let's talk about last night.

Last night we went to celebrate Elkin's birthday at a very nice European restaurant.  I had a great hamburger though it wasn't an awesome Texas BBQ Burger, o well.  The taste was quite different, the lettuce was different, the mustard was different and they actually had some weird mayonnaise on it.  I HATE mayonnaise, but this one was so strongly flavored I actually couldn't taste it.  Anyways, very strange but good.  I also talked a lot with Nathan again about employment for him; I now have his resume and will be sending around to a few people.

Relationship status update: apparently Yerim and Louise started dating and were holding hands through the dinner.  It was super cute in a "please stop" kind of way.

On to today though:

So in class today we broke up into groups a couple of times to discuss leadership examples, yadda yadda.  Overall the discussions are good; though I keep fighting the notion that I feel the class is slightly childish.  It's important that I constantly remind myself that obviously if I truly knew it and was able to embody it, I would already be an outstanding leader, and quite honestly I'm not.  As a grow older I'm beginning to understand that simply knowing the information is not enough, and these classes are more for reminding you and helping you "become" what you wish to achieve, and less about teaching you "how" to become what we wish.  I know "how" to run up a wall and flip backwards, actually being able to "become" someone that can do it is a completely different thing.

And with that I'll start posting a "leadership" mini blog at the bottom of my posts (yesterday has already been updated with one) while this class is going on.  This is actually a class assignment but I figured I would share with you what I'm writing.

I'm almost done with my essay for my last class as well.  It's due on Friday so I've got time and I'm just going to sleep on it before turning it in.  That's all for today folks.

The Concept of a Leadership Aura

a)      What: In class. As I observe the Canadian in our class (even though I can't remember his name) I know he is a leader.  I think of this as a general "aura" but in reality it's merely my observations about his demeanor, his communication ability, other's "attentiveness" while he speaks, and his own honest opinions of himself and his thought process.  It should be noted that at this point I have never spoken with him.

b)       So what: I'm struggling to understand why this matter, even though I know it does.  My only thought is that we should be always mindful of who we are and how we behave because even people that we are not engaging our watching and observing us.

c)       Now what:  I think this is especially important to me because I talk a lot, which invites attention to myself.  I should be especially mindful that in social settings the words I'm saying to someone else are also being processed and judged by those outside of my intended audience.  A leader should be socially aware of the affect their words and actions can have outside of their intended audience.