Session one:

The idea I chose for this session was The Law of Explosive Growth. This states that “to add growth lead followers, but to multiply growth lead leaders”.  In all parts of your everyday life you should strive to lead others around you. This doesn’t have to be something to focus on one hundred percent of the time, just every now and then work towards it. This is especially important to me because of the program I am in. Talons works on creating leaders but this can only work if we develop each other as much as the teachers develop us. The example was 10+10 is 20 but 10×10 is 100. If we all followed each other instead of building off each other then there would exponentially less getting done. I chose this idea especially because I have the tendency to want and just follow along with what other people are doing. Following is so much easier than being a leader yourself and I tend to fall into the former more than I would like. But you have to push through that if you want to multiply and be the best leader you can. In the future, I plan to take the head and be the leader that I’ve shown I can be. When planning trips I can work to be the head of a committee instead of just another person in it. I can also work to teach the grade nines how to be leaders so I can help simultaneously work on leading two classes instead of just the one I already know.

 

Session two:

For this session, I picked the 9 types of thinkers that leaders are. The nine types of thinking include big picture, focused, creative, realistic, strategic, possibility, reflective, shared, bottom-line, and unselfish. Different leaders have different combinations of these thinking types. The optimal idea when working with these leaders is to put them in areas where these different ideas can work to the best of their abilities. For example, while coming up with ideas it may be useful to have someone who is a creative thinker. However, once ideas are found a strategic or possibility thinker may be more useful to follow through with them. The reason I chose this principle for myself is, though difficult, I want to work to expand my styles of thinking. Right now I believe I am a realistic and strategic thinker, but that doesn’t work very well when I need to start a project and look at the big picture or create ideas to move it along. One way to overcome this would be to branch out my way of thinking to cover more options, but this may not exactly do it. The other option is, when working on big projects or projects with more than a few people, to ask for help from more people. Since other leaders may already be a big picture or creative thinker naturally, I could ask for their help in areas of hardship and lend my own expertise in areas that I know well.  This works especially well for larger planning events since we can create committees of either like-minded or opposite-minded individuals to maximize efficiency. The amount of people also works to increase the possibility of hitting most of if not all of the thinking styles.

 

Session three:

For this third session, I decided to focus on the principle of the travel agent leader versus the tour guide leader. These two types of leaders relate to two styles of leading. First, the travel agent leader says and tells others what to do without being there with them. They have either only been there sparingly themselves or have never gone and done what they are telling others to do. The tour guide leader on the other hand has and possibly still is where they tell you you need to be. Looking at it from the point of each name, a travel agent can show you exactly where you need to get to and what to do when you get there, but once you do get there you’re on your own. A tour guide always leads the way directly in front of you. They have probably walked the same path many, many times before. In most cases, I hope to be a tour guide leader and sometimes I accomplish that. But more than a few times I fall back into the travel agent persona. This could be possibly just because I haven’t done what I want to teach yet. I have only been truly leading and developing my leadership for one year so there are still a great many things I don’t understand. When planning events this year, since I may or may not have previously planned them no one knows whether or not I can tour guide for my peers. However, I can push off the travel agent mindset enough by simply going and attempting what I ask others to do a little beforehand or with them so we can learn together.

 

Session four:

Final session, final idea. That idea would be of the pools of leadership growth. There are six or more accurately seven pools of leadership growth starting at no growth or some growth all the way up to growth that allows you to handle any job. As the pools reach upwards the number of people shrinks but the achievement of those people increases by leaps and bounds. Going from someone who is just good at their job, upwards to someone who can reproduce themselves, to those who can bring themselves and others up the ranks with them. This means that even if you are good at what you do you can still only be on level two of six. The true test of what pool they belong is if they can take others with them while still maintaining a good work ability. Bringing others with them? Sounds almost like the name of the whole booklet. I chose this idea for my own because as with some of the other ideas stated above, it’s so easy to just sit back and not reach for those higher levels. Staying at a level two seems easy but then you don’t get anywhere in your life. Only when reproducing others do you both create better leaders to fill in the gap you leave behind while also bringing your own abilities and capabilities to brand new levels. I am working on trying to reach those higher levels. Possibly not a five or six, but at least a three before this year in Talons is up. The grade nines are still learning and it is my duty to teach them the skills I already know so they can surpass me when they get to where I am. A good example of this is cultural events. My cultural event this year is the movie night which I previously have not planned. However, if I can teach the grade nines what to do this year they can streamline it next already knowing what to do.