FINAL INTEGRATIVE PAPER
MM Leadership
Written by: Justin Quilon
I. INTRODUCTION
This Final Integrative Paper is very timely as I am already in my 30's and this made me think deeply what I want to do with my life.
Our leadership class happened so fast. There's a lot to process and think of. There is a lot to reflect on. There were insights coming from various sources the blog, readings, Prof. Jorge, fellow leaders, activities, and a whole lot more. If we were treasure hunters, Ateneo just gave us a huge treasure chest to start with. The value of each person's insight, story, reflection and opinion is priceless because you are not always placed in a room with different leaders from all sorts of industries to discuss leadership topics.
The AGSB MM Leader Course has thought me a lot about leadership. A topic which I thought I already knew a lot about. This paper will showcase what I have learned from the course and will also serve as my personal STRAMA paper.
At this point, I am very thankful to Prof Jorge and my classmates. It was a memorable and very impact full class filled will life lessons. Since, this is my first class I am glad I took it early because now I have friends whom I shared personal life stories with.
Let me start by sharing my learning agreement objectives which was achieved though out the course.
Learning Agreement Objectives:
1. To know myself further through reflections and activities
2. To get to know my peers and learn from them, their life stories and their personal experiences
3. To be mentored and guided by our professor in knowing more about leadership
4. To understand and learn how we could be leaders in helping our country since we are already in a situation, may it bring out the situational leader in us
5. To get a grade that I deserve based on my participation and my contribution to the class
Prof Jorge always emphasized the importance of being an AUTHENTIC LEADER.
Let me quote Prof Jorge when he told us that "Being a leader is not just in what you say, not just in what you do, but in who you are".
I love helping others, may this paper serve as a guide for others who will be taking the Leadership course or even others who want to learn more about leadership.
II. Lessons from Leadership Sessions, Books, Blog Articles, Reports and Class Activities.
May this section be my leadership cook book that I can go back to when I need leadership wisdom and insights. Here are some of the topics and concepts that we discussed during the course.
Let me start with the Activities that we had.
Leadership Debate (Leaders are BORN, MADE or SITUATIONAL)
We were divided into 3 groups and debate whether a leader is born, made or situational. This was very interesting because all were true. All groups where able to present their sides. I was very lucky to be in the group representing leaders are situational. Deep in my heart and based from experience I am a situational leader. It is when a leader becomes a leader because of the events that happened in his life that he needs to eventually emerge as a leader; while the leader that was "made" is due to the process that they have gone through to become the leader. The group who won was the group who represented that leaders are born. We are all leaders or potential to be leaders as soon as we were born.
Prof Jorge shared with us that the activities that we will be doing for this class will explain this concepts better. He also told us that all three are right. For leaders are born we can verify this through our enneagram and genogram. For leaders are made, we can verify this through our reflections and readings. For leaders are situational, we can verify this through our Defining moments which we will be doing in our Reflection number 1.
This activity was a great activity to start with as it opened our eyes to the concept that leaders are indeed BORN, MADE, and SITUATIONAL.
Bad Boss Plan a Crime
In this activity, the class was split into groups. Each group will plan a crime and present that crime in class. The groups presented the smuggling of jewels with a twist wherein the least expected person is the mastermind in the end, another group presented corruption in winning the bid for a project (I think this is really happening in real life), one (1) group presented putting up a cult to earn lots of followers and earn money from their followers. Our team presented a crime of murder of a CEO of a competitor company and the highlight was burning of his bones for a clean escape.
This was another fun activity. Thanks to Prof Jorge for this. What I learned from our group is this. One (1) of our team members is fast in thinking of a concept and quick to deliver what he promised. He (Leader Richard) was able to send us a PowerPoint presentation of the crime in just 30 minutes. That for me is something; he is a true leader of ACTION. We are blessed to have him in our Team. Another member of our team showed leadership by improving the quality of our presentation (Leader Erika). We are so lucky to have another leader who is great in acting and fun-filled which made a presentation alive (Leader Gab). My role was the narrator, though I am an introvert, I just did my best to make the most out of our presentation to make it lively and fun. I became the voice of our presentation. All in all it was fun and the leaders came to life with this activity.
