What do you truly care about?

 When trying to understand why people behave the way the do, one area to start looking at is what do they care about?  This question can explain quite a bit about why someone may act in a certain way.  For example, if someone always is telling people about recycling and reusing materials they probably care strongly for the environment.  By understanding the aspects for what people care about, we can start understanding their values.

Values are critical to leadership because everyone who is a leader is still human.  Values become interesting because as a leader you will have your own personal values, the things you truly care about but your followers also have values.  Whether their values are aligned with yours or not, you must be accepting of everyone’s own values.

While this might sound quite obvious, respecting everyone for what they believe in is fundamental.  Imagine how you would feel if the first day you joined a group, the leader stood up and said what he believed and ignored any other opinion or even labeled people based on their beliefs.  As a new member, if you held a differing opinion you would instantly feel unwelcomed and may even drop out.

Now imagine, if the leader stood up and spook about what he believed in and then asked the group to share what they believe.  While you may feel uncomfortable at first being new, if other members felt comfortable enough with everyone they could share their own beliefs.  When a group can get to a level of where they are comfortable sharing their personal values they have reached a special place.  By reaching this point where members can “agree to disagree,” a level of higher group autonomy is present.

As a leader, values can also be used for gaining support in explaining decisions.  While people may disagree with a certain decision you make, if you can explain why you did based on what your values are, members would be more willing to come to this level of agreeing to disagree.  When members support your decision, they can also now believe in what you believe, which is much stronger than simply agreeing to your decisions.

I personally value passion.  I love being able to see people in their prime.  Whether it is getting to go on a trip with friends who are climbers first and students second or getting to see a friend perform in their band, when someone’s heart is there it shows.  Due to me valuing passion, as a leader I seek our what people truly enjoy doing.  Often times in an organization, you may only see one side of person.  By seeking out what they truly love doing, you can better understood them for who they are.

Going from "Faking It, to Making It"

As a student studying environmental education, I have been very fortunate to teach for a wide variety of organizations.  When your friends one day tell you that they counted all of the different jobs you have and they can't believe you've had six (now seven), you start to realize that you have been quite busy.  From working with organizations ranging from the Columbus Zoo to outdoor education camps and now with a high ropes team-building course and the Outdoor Adventure Center on campus, I've started picking up a thing or two about teaching and serving as a leader.
I first heard about this course through an email sent from my boss at the OAC describing the course.  He mentioned that it would more than likely touch on some interesting subjects that would pertain to our programs.  After looking more at what the course is focusing on, I decided to sign up for it to take a look at leadership focusing within organizational structures.  I am looking forward to studying various styles of leadership and learning about the pluses and deltas of each style.

My understanding of leadership has largely came through my experiences of studying how to effectively manage a group of individuals.  Through my different work experiences, I have learned many techniques on how to lead different activities.  For me, I enjoy seeing leaders step up within a group especially when you are challenging people to step out of their comfort zone, such as zipping off of a 55ft. ropes course.  While I am often acting as the leader for a group, I usually look at the actions that happen behind-the-scenes for examples of true leadership.

I feel that leadership is truly demonstrated amongst peers when someone steps up simply because they know they should.  Often times when a situation arises, people will avoid the conflict simply because they know what may happen if they were to take a leadership role.  This notion is brought to light with the prompt of: “If not you, then who?”  In this simple statement, we are able to understand that leadership can exist in all of us and helps demonstrate the importance of the responsibility that a leader takes.

One large area of focus of mine is trying to create a truly organic experience within individuals and groups that I work with, to help demonstrate and develop an understanding of leadership.  For me, I am hoping to learn as much as I can in our time together about how to get from simply leading a group (faking the experience) to truly making an inspirational experience.  I plan on taking the messages and lessons from our course and relating them towards my position as a group leader.  I also hope to share my experiences with others to help give a unique perspective on developing leadership within others.