Good Eve Prof.Jorge,
Submitting to you my final integrative paper.
TS Leadership Final Integrative Paper
Jackelyn H. Aspiras
Ateneo-Regis MBA Program
Prof. Jorge Saguinsin
Ateneo De Manila University
Graduate School of Business
ABSTRACT
In this course I really feel that I gained the necessary self-awareness, skills and knowledge of leadership as well as explore quality of life issues, evaluate and mobilize collective actions that advance positive change for individuals, communities, organizations and society. When it comes to developing my leadership skills, some of the best leadership lessons come from my professor and my co-leaders' work and life experiences. But how do I make the most of those opportunities? By tapping into a variety of learning tactics and not depending on what's most comfortable and familiar to me, as Professor Jorge reminds, a true leader should be someone who's tough and flexible, yet still retain "face" (having a "thick face") who can speak and stand out in a crowd and make a difference. Because of these transformational learning in leadership, I now consider myself more frequently involved and engaged in leadership behaviors.
KEY WORDS
Debate on: Leaders are leaders, born, made or transformed
Authentic leadership, leadership from within, masks of leadership, Campbell monomyth, blog posts.
Group work:
Crimes
Team building outdoors at Clear Water Country Club
Unstructured group activity
Enneagrams
Genograms
Blog comments
DISCUSSION
Debate on: Leaders are born, made or transformed and Situational
In this group activity, we formed three groups and had a good debate about an age old question of whether leaders are born or made. The debate considers various leadership theories and discusses different viewpoints to on how people learn and the other is about how people lead. My groupmates concluded that there is no one definitive answer which has successfully been proven. If they cannot be made, then this debate should be concluded here, and we should be investing our time in genetic research to identify the genes which have these traits pre-programmed in DNA. If they can be made, then this justifies the industry that has emerged over the last ten or so years for leadership consultants and experts in the field. This paper examines this question and examines and attempts to provide an insight on different leadership theories to that end.
Authentic Leadership
Authentic leaders genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership. They are more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference than they are in power, money, or prestige for themselves. They are as guided by qualities of the heart, by passion and compassion, as they are by qualities of the mind." "They lead with purpose, meaning, and values. They build enduring relationships with people. Others follow them because they know where they stand. They are consistent and self-disciplined.
I learned that authentic leader should possess the following traits:
Understanding their purpose Practicing solid values Leading with heart Establishing connected relationships Demonstrating self-discipline
Leaders are defined by their values and their characters. The values of the authentic leader are shaped by personal beliefs, developed through study, introspection, and consultation with others-and a lifetime of experience. These values define their holder's moral compass. Such leaders know the 'true north' of their compass, the deep sense of the right thing to do." "Integrity is the one value that is required in every authentic leader. Integrity is not just the absence of lying, but telling the whole truth, as painful as it may be. If you don't exercise complete integrity in your interactions, no one can trust you. In addition, you can't really lead authentically without compassion. I realized that it is my life experiences that open up my heart to have compassion for the most difficult challenges that I face along my life's journey.
Leadership from within
The most powerful leader is the one who leads "from within." Not by a set of texts or what they learned in business school. Those help. But the power that comes from purpose and experience, and the leadership that comes from vision, are qualities that reside within us.
Powerful leadership comes from knowing yourself. Some lessons that I have learned along the way is to have vision and passion; take risks; communicate; check progress and results. As a leader, you can inspire and motivate your team to tremendous effect by communicating a vision in a clear, straight-forward way. But don't think small - raise the bar really really high. But the most important I've learned about this lesson is to: LEAD MYSELF. That, before I can lead anyone I have to lead myself. I have to read. I have to try and improve per day. I have a handful of interests and I have a lot of experience and should be inspired to use it. I have to get better at the things I'm interested in. I have to understand more deeply the painful experiences I've had, I have to every day practice the health: physical emotional mental spiritual, which I suggest to everyone else is.
For this session, we were asked to relate our favorite movie to Campbell's Monomyth.
The concept was introduced by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), who described the basic narrative pattern as follows:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
Its stages are:
1. THE ORDINARY WORLD. The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma. The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history. Some kind of polarity in the hero's life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.
2. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE. Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.
3. REFUSAL OF THE CALL. The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly. Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.
4. MEETING WITH THE MENTOR. The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey. Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.
5. CROSSING THE THRESHOLD. At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.
6. TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES. The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.
7. APPROACH. The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.
8. THE ORDEAL. Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear. Out of the moment of death comes a new life.
9. THE REWARD. The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death. There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.
10. THE ROAD BACK. About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home. Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.
11. THE RESURRECTION. At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home. He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level. By the hero's action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.
12. RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR. The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.
I chose the movie "A Walk To Remember" . This movie teaches everyone to search for their purpose, listening to their hearts in order to come to those decisions, rather than making logical choices for which they may not feel strongly.
It has helped me realize about finding myself; who I am as a person and the type of person I want to be. It expresses many difficult situations in which I have to make it through somehow. Like in this movie, Jamie and Landon's story exemplifies how life throws us for a loop. It gives us the most tragic and painful hardships of our lives. But in turn we also receive the greatest gift God has given us and that's love. Through faith, Jamie lives her remaining days on earth the best way she knows how to - by not giving up on her faith for God. As for me, through love (love for God, love for my parents and siblings, love for my friends.) I made a leap of faith and decided to go on and strive, think and reflect back and be a much better person.
Bad boss (Crimes) and Team building outdoors at Clear Water Country Club and Unstructured group activity
We performed various activities that are both fun and challenging, and that also have the "side effects" of building teamwork skills that helped me improve on my performance and productivity at the office. These activities have had wonderful effects on us such as improving our communication, boosting morale, motivation. Moreover, it helped us to get to know each other better, learn effective strategies, and most importantly-- building trust within a team of peers.
Ennagrams
My test result for this is Type number 6, "The Loyalist" The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious
It indicates that type sixes are committed, security-oriented types. Sixes are reliable, hard-working, responsible, and trustworthy. Excellent "troubleshooters," they foresee problems and foster cooperation, but can also become defensive, evasive, and anxious—running on stress while complaining about it. They can be cautious and indecisive, but also reactive, defiant and rebellious. They typically have problems with self-doubt and suspicion. At their best: internally stable and self-reliant, courageously championing themselves and others –
Key Motivations Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity.
Sixes are the most loyal to their friends and to their beliefs. They will "go down with the ship" and hang on to relationships of all kinds far longer than most other types. Sixes are also loyal to ideas, systems, and beliefs—even to the belief that all ideas or authorities should be questioned or defied. Indeed, not all Sixes go along with the "status quo:" their beliefs may be rebellious and anti-authoritarian, even revolutionary. In any case, they will typically fight for their beliefs more fiercely than they will fight for themselves, and they will defend their community or family more tenaciously than they will defend themselves.
The reason Sixes are so loyal to others is that they do not want to be abandoned and left without support—their Basic Fear. Thus, the central issue for type Six is a failure of self-confidence. Sixes come to believe that they do not possess the internal resources to handle life's challenges and vagaries alone, and so increasingly rely on structures, allies, beliefs, and supports outside themselves for guidance to survive. If suitable structures do not exist, they will help create and maintain them.
Sixes are the primary type in the Thinking Center, meaning that they have the most trouble contacting their own inner guidance. As a result, they do not have confidence in their own minds and judgments.
Sixes are always aware of their anxieties and are always looking for ways to construct "social security" bulwarks against them. If Sixes feel that they have sufficient back up, they can move forward with some degree of confidence. But if that crumbles, they become anxious and self-doubting, reawakening their Basic Fear. ("I'm on my own! What am I going to do now?") A good question for Sixes might therefore be: "When will I know that I have enough security?" Or, to get right to the heart of it, "What is security?" Without Essential inner guidance and the deep sense of support that it brings, Sixes are constantly struggling to find firm ground.
Sixes attempt to build a network of trust over a background of unsteadiness and fear. They are often filled with a nameless anxiety and then try to find or create reasons why. Wanting to feel that there is something solid and clear-cut in their lives, they can become attached to explanations or positions that seem to explain their situation. Because "belief" (trust, faith, convictions, positions) is difficult for Sixes to achieve, and because it is so important to their sense of stability, once they establish a trustworthy belief, they do not easily question it, nor do they want others to do so.
Genograms
A genogram is a family map or history that uses special symbols to describe relationships, major events, and the dynamics of a family over multiple generations. I think of it as an extremely detailed family tree. Mental health and medical professionals often use genograms to identify patterns of mental and physical illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, cancer and other genetic diseases. To begin my genogram I have interviewed t my family members first. Then, learned from leader Janelle that we can use standard genogram symbols to create a diagram that documents my family's specialized history.
Blog Comments
I've learned the importance of blogging and to get engaged is to post comments on the blog of other
Visiting blogs and posting comments on the blog section can always help in generating new ideas after I have read other blogs. Realizing the importance of it, I am now inspired to start a nice blog about one of my passions—travelling.
CONCLUSION
Engaging the life experience in a critically reflective manner is a necessary condition for transformation. Indeed, the entire process of learning is a journey of change – change that is growth enhancing.
I have learned that in leadership, there is a symbiotic relationship between leaders and followers, and what makes it collective is the subtle interplay between the follower's needs and wants and the leader's capacity to understand, one way or another, these collective aspirations. It is also causative, meaning that leadership can invent and create institutions that can empower everyone. Leadership is closely connected with the concept of change, and change, is at the essence of the learning process. Indeed, it is because I have successfully navigated deep personal change and transformation and the search for for magis a reflexive, daily habit. A magis-driven leader is not content to go through the motions or settle for the status quo but is restlessly inclined to look for something more, something greater. Instead of wishing circumstances were different, magis-driven leaders either make them different or make the most of them. Instead of waiting for golden opportunities, they find the gold in the opportunities at hand.
Heroes lift themselves up and make themselves greater by pursuing something greater than their own self-interest.
Thank You!
Best Regards,
Jackelyn Aspiras 3.25
