Developing the Leaders Around You

Session 1: The organization’s growth potential is directly related to its personnel potential.

According to John C. Maxwells book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, “To add growth, lead followers… to multiply growth, lead leaders” (2). What I gather from this statement is that a team is only as strong as the members within, because an organization’s growth is proportional to the growth of the leaders inside their team. In class, we previously discussed the importance of having more leaders within a team/organization. We concluded that in general, having more leaders would result in more efficiency with the delegation of tasks as well as ease responsibility off of one person, among many other valid points. All discussed points directed towards the fact, that growing the leaders around us is beneficial towards the development of a team. Team members are better able to collaborate and direct productive and constructive conversations which bring the team closer to their end goal. A team is able to achieve much more than the efforts of an individual.

I decided to choose this principle, because I don’t think I’ve given the grade 9’s enough of a chance and space to grow as leaders. I also think about my own growth and potential a lot, but I have yet to engrain in my mindset the importance of multiplying growth and actively creating opportunities for potential growth within my classmates/team members.

Specific to trip planning, I want to better ensure that the grade 9’s in my committee understand the planning process, by actively including them in conversations and asking them questions to confirm understanding. I want everyone to be involved within the planning, not just those I feel the most comfortable talking to. As well, I want to stay more open towards their questions and concerns so that as a team, we can become more efficient in the completion of delegated tasks.

 

Session 2: Four types of people who affect momentum

As the name suggests, there are four categories that distinguish people who affect momentum. Momentum breakers stop momentum, momentum takers sap momentum, momentum fakers stage momentum, and momentum makers start momentum. This principle seems to evaluate the magnitude of your influence as a leader. The idea behind this principle is that momentum and your growth as a leader always starts with yourself. One of the ideas brought up within the video was that “you can’t make things happen for others, if you can’t make things happen for yourself.” Leaders are able to create their own vision/agenda and don’t sit around for momentum to move them. Leaders have the ability to move momentum

This principle is relevant towards my growth as a leader, because at this point in time, I’m not consistently a momentum maker who starts or creates momentum. I fully agree with the statement that “you can’t make things happen for others, if you can’t make things happen for yourself,” which is why I need to work on developing a clear vision and agenda.

In future trip planning, I hope to stick by this principle and have a clear understanding and sense of clarity before I begin to look towards helping the grade 9’s. I want to immerse myself more within the planning process and try to lead some discussions to create momentum. Overall, I need to take more opportunities to step in and move momentum instead of relying on other grade 10 TALONS team members and wait for momentum.

 

Session 3: People do what people see

The premise of this principle is that a leader should lead by example in order for their team to follow suit. An example used within the video is that “a Pint of example is equal to a Gallon of advice” (16). According to the statistics that were brought up, “89% [of our learning is] visual” (16). If a leader gives advice but doesn’t model what they’re advising, they are contradicting themselves, and will only result in the confusion of other team members. In order for people to learn, a leader must set a visual example which exemplifies the behavior which needs to be replicated. This concept ties into the principle that a leader should work on themselves before working before others. A leader needs to go first in order for others to be motivated and visually comprehend the tasks which need to be accomplished. Without fully understanding what is being asked of you, following through and completing a task can become very difficult.

I connect with this principle a lot, because I firmly believe in the importance and magnitude modeling the advice which you set. That being said, there are still times where I contradict myself and fail to model what I teach. From personal experience, I’ve realized that when people fail to model the advice they dish out, others are discouraged to follow the advice they produce. I want to improve upon this weakness, as having your team trust and believe what you’re saying is true is very important to the harmony and relationships between you and your team members.

While planning, to aid in the learning of the grade 9’s and their development as leaders, I need to set an example for them whenever I provide feedback or advice. I need to preach what I teach in order to prevent confusion and decrease efficiency while planning.

 

Session 4: Characteristics of an effective mentor

The characteristics of an effective mentor encapsulates six different traits. These traits include maturity, compassion, respect, confidentiality, self-disclosure, and the ability to evaluate others’ progress. While these characteristics range very widely in content, they all center around and are achieved through thorough reflection of one’s progress. While maturity can come with age, more years doesn’t necessarily equate to more wisdom. Without self-reflection, progress cannot be achieved. Leaders only grow through the recognition of their strengths and weaknesses. Only through the acknowledgment of faults and strengths can a leader understand what they need to build off of in order to efficiently manage their time and focus on what improvements can be made for them to grow.

Personally, I’ve always stuck by the saying that there’s always room for improvement. I chose the characteristics of an effective mentor because I want to become a more well-rounded leader who is able to exemplify these traits to the grade 9’s. Grade 10 within the TALONS program heavily revolves around mentoring the new grade 9’s, and helping them grow as leaders and develop skills to plan. Because of this, I believe working on my mentoring abilities is very important both for my time in the TALONS program, but also for my future career.

For TALONS events in the future, I plan to fully utilize compassionate hearing begin to understand the feelings of my team members, as well as any ideas they can contribute. I want to incorporate self-disclosure by sharing more stories about my TALONS experiences with the grade 9’s. At the same time, I want to share how I could’ve improved as a grade 9 TALONS student so that they can be their best leader, even though they’re already doing such a great job. Overall, I want to build a connection of trust which is essential for planning and focus a lot of my attention towards improving my ability to evaluate their development as leaders.