Leader in the Community Blog Post

#1 “People do what people see”

For my first paragraph, I’ve chosen to talk about how “people do what people see” (Maxwell, 2014, p. 17), which was described in Session 3 of Developing the Leaders Around You by John C. Maxwell. This thought describes how people naturally mimic what they see others around them do. An example of this would be how a person cleans their own area after seeing someone around them cleaning up their area. This point is relevant to me because I find that I sometimes forget to model the expectations of my group during TALONS trips, and the group ends up often forgetting to follow those expectations, as a result, A way I can apply this point to my upcoming TALONS outdoor adventure trips will be by making sure to model how I want my group to act while on the trip. For example, if we were on a biking trip and we are expected to give right of way to faster bikers or hikers, then I would make sure to model moving to the side and letting a faster biker go past me on the trail. This will hopefully make my group members and other participants of the trip around me follow my example and do the same, moving aside for the faster biker. Modelling the expectations is important because it will encourage others around you to also do the same, creating a more effective and coordinated team overall.

 

#2 “None of us is as smart as all of us.”

For my second paragraph, I chose to talk about the quote “none of us [are] as smart as all of us” (Blanchard, n.d.), which was used in session 2 of Developing the Leaders Around You. This quote describes how when a leader thinks individually, they won’t be creating ideas that are as effective as ideas that are created from the thinking of multiple leaders as a team. Working together to create a solution is always better than doing it by yourself, as you get different perspectives and more important information that you can use to help you decide. This quote is relevant to me because I often forget about the power of thinking as a collective instead of thinking as an individual, thus resulting in me leaving my group members out of discussions sometimes. I can apply what I have learned from this quote to my upcoming TALONS outdoor adventure trips by making sure to include others (especially leaders whose potential I am confident with) in important discussions and conversations. For example, if my group and I were on a hiking trip and we got lost from the main group, I would make sure to start a group conversation to gain insights and thoughts from everyone in the group to create a stronger solution. It will also help my group members to improve their decision-making and leadership skills by allowing them to take part in creating a solution with me. Thinking as a collective is better than thinking as an individual due to the wider array of information and perspectives that you get from it, allowing you to make a better choice than you would’ve by yourself.

 

#3 “Self-disclosure, the willingness to share parts of one’s own journey when appropriate and the willingness to be honest.”

For my third and final paragraph, I chose to talk about the importance of self-disclosure, which is described in session 4 of Developing the Leaders Around You. It describes how self-disclosure is the “willingness to share parts of one’s own journey when appropriate and the willingness to be honest” (Maxwell, 2014, p. 21), and the importance of having the courage to share past experiences to allow others to learn from your mistakes and to grow from them. This quote is relevant to me because I want to continue developing my skills in this area because I lack the experience and knowledge on how to properly use self-disclosure yet. I can implement what I’ve learned from this point in my upcoming TALONS outdoor adventure trips by making sure to use past experiences and parts of my own journey with developing leaders around me. This is so that they can learn from my experiences and regain that motivation to achieve victory over a problem that they’ve been struggling with. For example, if one of my group members are having trouble with operating a TALONS Trangia stove, I could give them an example of when I struggled with the Trangia stove as well, giving them reassurance that they aren’t the only one that had experienced the same problems and that they would get through it. My self-disclosure would hopefully then remotivate them to try and learn from my mistakes and theirs to find the solution to their problem. Good self-disclosure is important for all leaders so that they can give developing leaders a different perspective on a problem and help them solve it.

 

However, as Maxwell (2014) said, you should “work on yourself before you work on others” (p. 16). I’ve linked a TED Talk by Lars Suddman regarding self-leadership below for those that want to expand their knowledge on the topic to improve how they lead others around them.

 

Thank you for reading,
Dylan

 

References

Maxwell, J. C. (2014). Developing the Leaders Around You. The John Maxwell Company.