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Personal essay about leadership
My career choice as a teacher
Personal essay about leadership
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According to Hans Urs von Balthasar “a vocation is something lived, something enacted and a concrete life story” (Contino, 2004, p. 85). My vocational life story has developed over the past forty years with my first job at twelve babysitting six children to where I stand today teaching home economics at Chowchilla high school. “I build my own life story through the decisions of projects I undertake” and the choices I have made regarding my career path (Contino, 2004, p. 85). Someone looking from the outside at my wandering path might believe of my career changes seem a bit radical. Moving bicoastal, leaving a stable career of twenty five plus years to go back to college, take a pay cut and joining the unstable labor market of Home Economic teachers to some seem strange. In retrospect my personal values, leadership strengths and leadership lens validate many of these career choices in the past and will continue to play an important part in my future as an educational leader.
My “five top personal values” according to the “Core Leadership Values Identification” are “Creativity, Fun, Learning, Relationships and Relevance” ("Core leadership values," ). These personal values have dictated much of my career path choices and help fulfilled my vocation calling. They are also interrelated and link directly with my “five top leadership strengths” according to the Gallup Clifton Strength Finder 2.0 of “Ideation, Input, Adaptability, Empathy and Activator” (Gallup, Inc., 2014). My career vocation is at the core of how I view myself as a person. In order for me to view my métier as rewarding it needs to have elements to allow me to create, grow mentally, be part of a community, have an element of fun and feel that the work is relevant. If a...
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... strength finder 2.0. Retrieved from http://strengths.gallup.com/default.aspx
Kaplan-Leiserson, E. (2005). Integrated leadership a new model from experts in human performance improvement. American Society for Training & Development, 59(7), 12-13. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cu-portland.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b971418c-9582-4ec1-948a-d0289c44cd81@sessionmgr115&vid=8&hid=117
Rath, T. (2007). Strengths finder 2.0. New York, NY: Gallup Press. ISBN. 978-1-59562-015-6
Saunders, M. US Army, ROTC. (2008). Situational leadership. Retrieved from website:http://www.mc.edu/rotc/files/9213/1471/9571/MSL_202_L09b_Situational_Leadership.pdf
Virginia Department of Education, Commonwealth of Virginia, (2012). High schools that work. Retrieved from website:http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/career_technical/programs/highschools_work/index.shtm
There are several core values I appreciate most. The first one that stood out is an adventure, which is defined as “new and challenging opportunities, excitement, risk”. For some people, adventure always represents tough challenges and high risk with low return. They prefer a stable job because they can earn guaranteed wages without
Leading organizations of school administrators offer educators various opportunities to encourage educators to become leaders. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has mandated that leaders be better prepared for the task of providing quality education to all. NCLB “… is forcing all educational stakeholders to face the weakness of contemporary school leadership and is making it impossible to ignore the need for higher quality principals” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.1). It is believed that all educators can be and are leaders in their own right. A leader is a visionary and has the ability to inspire others to aspire to greatness. Of the numerous opportunities that are offered, those that are most beneficial include but are not limited to leadership training programs, professional development, and creating shared leadership opportunities for teachers to become leaders. The systems “…that produce our nation’s principals are complex and interrelated – and governed by the states. Each state establishes licensing, certification and re-certification” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.1). States use the ISLLC standards “…as the framework for preparation programs and in service professional development of school superintendents, principals, and other leaders” (Hale & Moorman, 2003, p.3).
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B., (2007). The leadership challenge, (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Lord, R. (2000). Leadership. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology, vol. 4. (pp. 499-505). Doi:10.1037/10519-216
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Throughout my life, my experiences and role models have shaped my understanding of leadership. I believe leadership is responsibly guiding and motivating others to use both my strengths and their own to obtain success. My personal leadership philosophy is guided by my core values of my family, relationships, loyalty, harmony, and responsibility. My ever-changing definition of philosophy helps my leadership and decision making routinely. New experience’s and external forces effect my translation of leadership daily which, in turn, helps shape me into a successful leader.
Values remind me of ethics and morals, necessary in any walk of life and imperative in the work place. These concepts are guidelines in which employees need to follow to be successful. “Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.” (Robbins, 136) Integrity, courage, service, wisdom, respect and goal setting are a few of the values that are most crucial to me and what I hope to achieve within any work place setting. Values should be lived every day in the work place and should exemplify the
My biggest personal leadership failure occurred earlier this year when I worked at Einstein Bros Bagels at Coffman Union. I stayed there from January until April making and serving bagels to customers. However, I had the morning shift, the busiest period of the day. Long lines would form every time I was there, and sometimes I couldn’t catch up. One day in April, my co-worker, a veteran making bagels, was absent, and someone who didn’t have as much experience replaced her. What followed was a mess. My team chemistry with the replacement was dreadful, and a ton of people had to wait a while for their orders. My manager saw the incident, and after my shift was over, he gave me the option of leaving my job. I accepted, but my self-confidence was in a state that was beyond repair. It was one of the first times that I felt I let others down with my work performance. I learned that I shouldn’t expect to be great at everything and that I should analyze my weaknesses before taking on something challenging.
Leaders will no matter what have an influence on our world. They have missions, dreams and ambition, and with these things they are bound to go far. For leaders, what makes these dreams come true is having strong qualities such as leadership practices, values and strengths. If developed and learned how to use correctly, these are what take leaders to the next level and accomplish great things. In the following paper I will talk about leadership in our ever-changing world, explore my leadership practices, values and strengths as well as elaborate on the goals I have made to challenge myself as a leader.
The personal leadership development plan is to capture the self-awareness of an individual. People in general have a difficult time trying to figure out who they are and how they view themselves plus how others may see them. This plan will touch on my personal strengths, areas of improvement, and also identify me as a person more in-depth. The Personal Profile System and the Team Dimensions Profile will be used to provide an understanding.
Is a leader as defined in the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, merely one who leads - synonymous with a boss? Or something more? I believe that a leader is much more than that and can be defined in any number of ways. In attempting to define a leader personally, I will use both myself and others as examples.
In developing my own educational leadership model (MELM) I began with establishing what I believe the goal of education should be, since leaders by definition are leading people towards something. The goal of education is to effectively teach students the essential skills and knowledge they will need to establish a productive, positive, self-sufficient life where they can be active members of their communities. An effective leader, while working towards this goal will need to consider the present conditions and demands of the environment they are a part of. In the field of education, both internal and external factors are of crucial importance when developing a plan to lead for success. However, one must note the variables in education are different than those the business sector face, for example; student performance, ability and cultural differences; availability/condition of supplies and materials; goal; educator’s capability, views and attitudes; conditionality of economic support; openness/hostility of influencing communities; state or government performance mandates. A leader who knows where they (students, school, district, community) are now, can approach goals more clearly and develop more effective strategies to arrive at them.
Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
Some people were born to be great leaders and some were born to be great learners. I ask myself this question, “How was I created?” Was I born a leader or was I molded to lead. As I explain my philosophy on how I want to lead, I will first dive into my past to recognize and pin point my creator. October 27th 2004 I raise my right hand in order to serve and protect the United State against all enemies, foreign and domestic. At this moment in my young personal leadership journey, I get my first glimpse of a leadership style, “shut up and listen.”
Education is a very important aspect in the life of a child. The level of success a student has in the classroom is greatly influenced by their teachers. Students, as well as their parents, depend on the teachers to guide them through their education. But who guides a teacher to perform successfully in the classroom? Principals and teachers play an important role in schools. A good relationship among school leaders and teachers is necessary and play an important role in making improvements in the school. Leadership refers to the “process in which one person successfully exerts influence over others to reach desired objectives”. (Okoji, 2015) Good leadership involves honesty, vision, confidence and commitment. It is the ability to inspire a