Leadership in the 21st Century: Generation X Approach

A Feminine Epistemology with an Integrity Compass

Reflective Journal, 2011, Leadership Integrity, Jonas

Keisha L. Merchant-Logan

Jones International University, 2011

I and II Leadership Term Project

Today, I realize that I have hoped for diversity, leadership and opportunity, but

overall equality and equity in love, contribution and distribution of resources. I have learned

in this class that leadership is not just service of others, but in the appetites of men and

women who hunger for injustice and greed, it is the authentic self that propels us to find

higher grounds to make a difference to serve those who hunger after responsibility, ethical

righteousness and accountability for creating actions that are meant to bring health and

sustainability to our environment and our global economy and communities.

I have learned that this reflective journal does not reflect who I am completely, but

snippets of who I desire to be revealed. I do not want to be remembered as the girl troubled,

but the woman who overcame trouble.

November 27, 2011

As I have created this epistemology of a feminine self I realize that my perspective

on leadership is multi-dimensional which explains the intersections of complex and

complicated intersects with my social location. Therefore, my leadership identity and

language will develop over time. At this moment of life, I am investigating all areas of my

leadership identity to calculate an equation/formula that will function and have the

capability to excel people in their own fields, but especially my own. In this study and

discussion, I will analysis, reflect, and critical search for solutions to my own problematic

entanglements to the construction of identity and wholeness in my role as a leader and my

style as a leader. My goal is to clearly demonstrate my growth and development over this

term my perspective, inspirations and scholarly investigation into ethics and integrity of a

global view of serving locally and globally. I can only suggest one element through this

journey, one should keep your hands to the plow, and when looking back, investigate,

discover new solutions as you move forward. Looking back becomes an educator and not a

ghost. Thank you for the opportunity to share this discussion of epistemology and

standpoint with my audience.

Keisha L. Merchant-Logan

Scholar

October 29, 2011

Definition Leadership

Reflective Journal October 05, 2011 Entry

Throughout the course, you will be adding your personal entries into the following sections:

(A) My “First” Definition of Leadership

(B) My “Evolving” Definition of Leadership

(C) Areas in which I can Apply Leadership Actions

(D) My Own Leadership Actions

(E) My Own Leadership Traits and Behaviors

(F) Sources of Inspiration

Keisha L. Merchant-Logan

(A) My “First” Definition of Leadership

November 27. 2011. I have chosen to follow the mission statement of the NAACP as an

excellent leadership definition. I have learned that people are leaders when they follow

their true north. They are able to understand who they are achieving to become in their

authentic selves. It is within this hope that we as a people are able to find the “great

man” the idealism around heroes and this is the leader of super unity to build creative

forces that allows cultures to sustain themselves in a corporate world of greed and

disenfranchisement of values and worth. I hope that my definition of leadership will

continue to grow and mature as I learn how to be a leader of the global age. It is within

my heart and dignity that my integrity does not begin or end, but it processes into a truth

that will prevail over decay and dismantle the injustices of our system and broken

promises of political corruption and dissatisfaction of poverty and homelessness.

Having love for your own country when there is not genocide, population control

and slum or ghettos that represent neglect, abuse and dysfunction, lack of resources,

educational institutions that does not meet the needs of those with lack of resources

should be a dinosaur, part of the past, and the future a well rounded system that does

not represent colonization or imperialism that show good and healthy stewardship

with principles that meet the needs of all people. This is leadership, good

stewardship that provides access to resources a great distribution system that meets

the needs of all people. For start, leadership is not just talk or empty promises of

policies, but I have very high and hard expectations for leaders. "Great privilege

comes with great (and heavy) responsibilities."

Inspirational Leadership Working Definition:

Excerpt, 2011, Jones International University, “Leadership Definition Evolving”

“The Action Learning Approach to the Organization

November 27, 2011, I have learned that action learning approaches in an organization begins

with visionaries. They are the ones who have to hold visions that may or may not be popular. I

have learned that a life time of integrity is not knowledge per say, but duty of fairness and

sustainable means for people that are cast outside in the cold without resources. I have learned

that libraries and parks are the first learning organizations in the American history to allow

equality and equity before their time. They were the pioneer organizations that kept people

hopeful that people of color, marginalization of lifestyles can all joined together under one

umbrella in the action plan of learning. The organization of civil rights and the movements to

pursue is the counter productive method to greed and corruption in the corporation and

organization of capitalism. It is within my courage to investigate and examine organizations as

to Walmart, Disney and others to promote responsibility and strive toward excellence to balance

the notion that the rich and powerful are super structures, and the poor and neglected are the

defects. This falsehood has become our educational system and our political value of what is

measurable and how we determine our approach to the wealthy and those who are not wealthy. I

find that this organization system of learning behavior becomes our evidence of what we choose

to practice through our own self methodology of survival. It is within this perspective that action

learning becomes a tool to fortify practices of injustices using the systems of oppression; the

institutionalized racism is a prime example of action learning organizations excusing the

inabilities of people to correct their errors while learning. Therefore, the shortcomings of action

learning organizations are that our framers can only see as far as they are allowed and taught to

perceive. In order to change these dimensions, to push our limitations, someone must begin to

think without approval. Sometimes, leadership is not always an approved theory. Sometimes

leadership is not a learned behavior or a learning organization that promote action learning, but it

is the outreach to change what we have been familiarized with and sometimes it is useless to the

naked eye. The reason for the leadership model of action learning organizations to prevent

people to ignore errors; it is the reason for growth and maturity.

October, 2011

Revans began to define the organization as a center of knowledge constantly evolving and

improving the knowledge base of its people through problem solving and experience. This is the

beginning of what we have more recently identified as a learning organization. You might

think of it like this: The work organization is the business school for its employee participants,

from the workers to the CEO.”

October 27, 2011

My “evolving” definition to leadership:

Leadership is a laboratory experience that people and leaders work together to

explore and discover in partnership to make solutions, win/win solutions. This approach to

learning and leading is another demonstration of servants and stewardship, but also

mentorship and instruction. This is building consciousness and awareness, so the autonomy

and authentic values of others can perform in their own individual light. Though, ethics and

social responsibility is very important and a key ingredient to creating solutions, making

resolutions and restoring people from errors, it is not the only ingredient in management and

developing organization of people, resources and information. Leaders’ wisdom to discern

and understand fundamental human rights, needs assessment and evaluate a circumstance is

not only based on integrity, but also balance, moderation and adjustments. It is within a

leadership scope to pursue social evolution, advancements and progress by building and

restructuring when needed.

(B) My “Evolving” Definition of Leadership

“My work is done when my world is civil.” Evolving Leadership definition, November

2011, Keisha Merchant-Logan

Note: In some of the course assignments, you will be directed to add to this section.

a. Does the definition make sense for the type of experiences I encounter day-to-day in my

current business environment?

November, 2011, I have learned that our daily working environments are those that we

choose. We are forced to live in an environment that practices corruption and greed. It is

great risk to go against such popular means to an end, but it is still a choice. I have

learned that a life lead by fear is not a life at all. It is within this hope that my sense of

experience and encounters taught me this term that my business environment begins with

my “choice” to conform or transform by the decisions I create.

October, 2011

My current business environment is social and environmental justice. I have

walked away from the corporate, government and nonprofit, religious industries to

become self made. I had to because I am a witness of poverty and abuse. I could not

expect my leaders to be responsible. They enjoyed their privileges way too much and

forgot the people as though they were properties neglected. Therefore, I had to change

my plans for the future. I wanted more in life but I had to work with little to nothing, so

my definition is definitely a response to my stressors.

b. Does the definition take into account the complexities of business?

November 2011, I have the simplicity of business through working relationships that

described in my evolving definitions because I had to choose whether or not to commit to

those relationships, sometimes it meant life or death, but in the end, I was the one who

had to perform in both accounts. I have learned that my decisions become my own work

ethics. I have touched the business complexities of making a deal. It is not the person we

are dealing with that becomes our moments of critical complexities but the moments that

we deal with ourselves that becomes the complication to our complexities of the

intersections of external and internal means to our end. We have to suggest that our own

business model begins with our own life decisions on a daily basis with each moment

with the public and with our own private lives.

October 2011,

Yes, the complexities of business are to make money not give it away. I found

that my own business is not successful in the theories of business because I do not make

money. I do not generate wealth; I cannot become a hoarder of capital because my heart

grieves to the injustices of the environments around me. I cannot see myself wealthy

because I must give to the poor through building awareness and consciousness. I give my

services freely therefore, my principles are opposite from business profits. The only time

I make money without giving it back into the community is through living expenses. I

live off of ten percent of my own wealth, and the rest I give back into the environment

and communities. I figure if I expect leaders to be responsible then I must be responsible

over the little I have. No, greatness comes from storing up wealth, and I cannot see

myself storing up any wealth besides knowledge and wisdom. In business, wealth is part

of the equation.

c. Can I actually do what the definition states as a best approach or practice, especially

under stress?

November, 2011, I have gained access to the essential workings of who we truly are in

the moments of our personal lives. It is within this construction we build our own future

by our own suggestions in our privacy of our lives. It is not that our stress moves us, but

our inner beliefs that create rifts in our consciousness to promote approaches that work

against us by our own failures to stand up against our oppressors.

October 2011,

I do find myself sometimes desiring more to live better, but my heart will not

allow it. My mind is so accountable that it will not allow me to use business principles or

practices to be a hoarder of wealth. I am in the struggle of how can I continue to reach

my business goals of producing higher returns to generate more resources for a broader

audience without wealth, but my heart, mind, soul and spirit has not built or constructed

as of yet a strong system to swallow up business principles of profit and access to capital.

I do not have the experience people say to pull off a company that will change the

paradigm of our society and culture to realize the impact of greed and over consumption,

waste. I find that our management systems to business and wealth create a fallacy of

productivity. My approach and practice is very stressful, and I do not think people see

the integrity of my business without the wealth or numbers behind it. Our complexity

and complicated society and economy stigmatize against poverty and association to the

struggle of living below your means. I have a past with great debt, still making up for

poor decision making in the chasing the business models of hard work and generating

money that meant nothing but waste and consumption not productivity and distribution.

d. What problems will occur if I implement the practices suggested by the definition and

how does that affect my behavior?

November 2011,

I have learned that our diversity of behavior begins with our construction of our own

identity. We have to implement in small amounts our own individuality whether we are

approved and supported. Our problems become our definition to our behavior. It is

within this hope that our change begins with our awareness that self can change. In order

for our working definitions to change, we must first change our belief system that we

create the science around behavior that is susceptible to change. Therefore, our errors

must be acknowledged by our ability to address the issues at hand with the authority that

is given to our own facts of faith that we are managing our own destination by what we

choose to perceive as valuable and worthy.

October 2011

It has affected my ability to be effective and resourceful. I have knowledge,

wisdom and principles, but to distribute and implement does take mastery. I agree with

Professor that the implementation and mastery over these principles are not easy. I see a

new horizon of business principles in this program, but as a practice from the past,

accountability or fairness was never part of the formula. I have learned that integrity was

not people’s wellness or health, but the opportunity to exploit resources for the benefit to

gain entitlement. I used this definition to manifest my own destiny in reaching a new

climax of business principle within my life time that is accountability and responsibility.

The motto of life is fair. Leaders can change the paradigms to unfair practices to what is

fair for the unprotected. Who is the unprotected are those who are without resources.

They are not protected with medical advancements, they do not have clean water, clean

air or clean environments, but they are blamed for their devastation as though they are

responsible for their poverties’ conditions. They are citizens of a system that does not

work for them, and that is the problem in the dynamics of business. Leadership models

have excluded these populations as though they were not valuable, and that is not

leadership I find in our current globalization. As a child, I had admired the wealthy

because I thought rags to riches were the iconic methods to bridge the gap from laziness

and ambition, but I was so wrong in my own calculations as a child. I have grown and

now I find that systematic foolishness that is a dysfunctional cycle that need

improvements in our global economy and business practices, but who am I to judge

people say, and I reply, who am I to look away as well am. Working parents whether

they are at home or away are kept in situations of underground drug trafficking that meets

their medical needs. Whether we agree with the systems, the systems do not differ from

what is legal and what is illegal; both systems have broken promises of health. We have

in our culture high regimes of violence both illegal and legal, and both of them bring

home body bags of victims over deaths of those who are high risk components. At the

lasts, the billions that come into the environment are susceptible to the mistreatment and

neglect in the distribution of product and services not because they cannot have access to

the system, but because they are denied and rejected. Most systems cost beyond what the

populations that need it the most, therefore, my definition of leadership is a manifestation

of my audience, those who have died and who are survivors of casualties.

(C) Areas in which I can Apply Leadership Actions

November, 2011, though we have come to this conclusion in this term as integrity meets

actions. My application to be a model of leadership with actions begin with my idealism

and vision to what actions I chose to take and why. I have remembered the life stories of

those in my inner circle and in my own life understood that our reflections are the

sentiments that we hold valuable and those memories we cherish to build or break our

own self. In this, I have gained some valuable perspectives around building my own

vocabulary and structures of what I choose to speak over my own life in educating my

life to the point that my actions reflect my growth of knowledge and comprehension or

interpretation of that knowledge. I have seen that people have make certain ideas and

actions as to what is acceptable behavior and what is not, then I have found the dismissal

of corruption and greed as though it was acceptable behavior through my research for

this term’s corporations mission and actions around industrial leadership. I have learned

that our ability to lead by actions is not the focus, but our outcome in the environment

and world communities is the measuring cup to our ability to be great leaders. Our world

becomes our harvest. It is within this business model that ethics become our physics and

our science becomes our responsibility and accountability to others.

October 2011,

I cannot deny how I have chosen to make a difference. I live as a vegetarian to

change the population control over disease and abuse of medical neglect through animal

consumption. I found that in order for my own life to matter we need opportunities to heal

without costs. The first demonstration of health is steroid free society and disease free

society that is infectious through animal consumption. I found that most diseases are linked

to bacteria in animals. The diseases animals carry are consumed by our daily consumption.

The meat is not clean or healthy in the regards to bacteria, virus and disease. In the case of

tree disease that most trees are infected by some sort of beetle invasion or disease that the

disease that is spread from trees is less probable to affect people’s membranes then animal

disease that have a higher effect on the body. This is awareness that most people are not

able to discipline themselves from animal consumption. The notion that our diseases are

mostly from animal consumption still remain as not a scientific theory, but why is that? My

leadership approach is to model that disease can cause death, but animal consumption is the

link to disease.

My second leadership action is walking away from corruption in corporation hiring

processes. I have chosen to work for companies that meet the needs of the people. The

equal opportunity employer stamp is another hidden agenda to practice discrimination and

false advertisements to gain access to free money through grants that associate with minority

benefits that are written in false reports that accumulate from a high turn over therefore,

corporations’ fraud continue to generate million dollar tax breaks and million dollar grants

from the government to create a mask face to the real issues of lack of accountability and

responsibility in the business world and government affairs of labor and population control.

My final action as a leader demonstrates my ability to swallow critics without losing

my focus and drive. The announcements that I am inexperience, not qualified and do not

fulfill the competitive edge of the capital ceiling reminds me of a formula of slavery,

segregation and the Jim Crow laws to the extent that our 21st century globalization includes

sex trafficking and drug trafficking with the lines of rape, violence and genocides that I

cannot find the integrity to get some creditability and “kudos” as a leader that implement

social evolution and advancement into a new model of infinite progress for the common

good of people and the wealthy. As though the rejection of the rich and famous along with

their body guards of the government and military, we find that social justice and

environmental justice along with business ethics is bought with a price in a slave trade

notion that lines us up in prison sentencing or silencing by censorship. But, in all, the

leadership that brings me to my last action is the opportunity and resource of knowledge,

experience and rejected critiques that prove my actions are going in the right direction.

These are applied actions that I struggle with because I am not the popular vote in

regards to these actions, so I have a struggle to maintain a singular motion of comfort to

knowing that these actions may not make a difference, but again, it may.

(D) My Own Leadership Actions

November, 2011, my own leadership action plan is to build one voice at a time. I am

starting with my own voice. I want to understand the word of God, and self. I

understand the think and grow rich books by Napoleon Hill, but I want to understand the

system of beliefs and behavior in the thought process of actualization to the examination

of self and others. I want to bring my own leadership plan to create actions rather copy

them by the network of others and those of an orthodox dogmatic approach to scientific

and political aggression to blind people from their health and wellness in our economy

and communities of culture and government.

What is ethical and working ethics for the rich begins with my own action plan as the

poverty status to the reason why I must not wait to let go of those falsehoods that have

been classified as truths to the business model of capitalism, and what is fit for the

strong.

I have found that the lower edge of life may become the upper edge of love. It is what

fits me most, love or life. I have found love is an emotional intelligence that keeps

people searching for the true north in their own authentic selves and processes in their

journey. Life becomes an abstract motion but love becomes an action plan to the

progression of others while self becomes the integrity of growth and maturity.

October, 2011,

What have I to account for in this path of leadership? My actions have been a great

life experience. I started my first leadership action when I was in high school. My

opportunity to be a leader as a black female soccer player who became known for her

basketball abilities did not give me the fame and fortune that most basketball stars would

have achieved on the All American list. My stardom was full of stress and rejection. I was

out casted and mistreated. I was cut my senior year because I was unable to respond to one

question. I did not say I would sell out. I had principles to respect as to take care of a

family, work a job to meet my bills and to use sports as an opportunity to release stress. I

was not in the business of serving my neighbors. I remember my five starter players, the

favorites were announced All Americans and among other titles, I knew that my rough edges

demonstrated my future as a leader. I can hear the roar of the audience scream and cry my

name, Keisha. I was loved, but unfortunately hated by my team and coach. I did not get the

support of the team or the coach. My wild antics destroyed my credibility on the team, and

lead me to be a robin hood. My coach said, I will keep you on the team if you do your

friend will be cut. What would you do? I knew my friend spent her whole summer

practicing and who was I to change her destiny. My destiny I had a feeling was already

written for disaster. I walked away from a promise I knew was empty. I was a leader

because everyone would stop me in the hall and ask why aren’t you on the team? I would

reply I was not good enough. I had people ask me sign their petitions and autograph their

notebooks, as though they thought I would become great one day. No, that was not written

in my sleeve. I was a leader not because I made the basketball team nor had colleges

begging for me to join their team. I did not have anything at that time, not even a college

lined up. I had people ask me for my autograph, but nothing came with that leadership but

the responsibility to give up my seat to my friend who will never know the truth, or she may

if she reads this. This is the responsibility that I know that none of the girls on the team

would have done for me. I would be left on the street corner if they had a choice to stand up

for me.

These are foreshadows of my actions toward social progression and environmental

evolution. I wanted our world to be better but I did not have the financial power or legal

protection to make any difference in the world which I came from... I knew at that time, I

would have a hard road ahead of me as a leader. I was chosen to be a leader before I

completely chose it myself. People would say you should be a leader because I stood for the

people when I did not have to, yet they did not know the sacrifice I had to make, it was a

huge sacrifice. Sometimes a sacrifice I became bitter and resentful because of it. I knew in

the end, I was accountable and it was my duty to lead a life of leadership not because of the

privilege but because of the integrity. My reason was to bridge the gap to injustice and

fairness. Life was not fair because we “chose” to be unfair. Leaders choose others’

unfairness by our own choices. My basketball experience taught me how my actions ripple

down to others. I could not be in denial to that truth. I wanted to lead of life eliminating

ignorance, so I had make a confession to that reality as a leader that my own happiness was

postponed not because of the broken promises or should I say empty promises of my coach

and hateful actions of my backstabbing team, but the knowledge that my coach would pin

me against someone as a competitive approach to discriminate us against each other rather

facing the real principle of him being accountable, but passing the buck. I would break that

cycle in me. I became committed toward leadership as a different business model and

personal model to be accountable for my actions alone then I can teach others to be

accountable for their own actions. Self government, self business is my new theories into

self transformation.

(E) My Own Leadership Traits and Behaviors

November 2011, if I could do over again, I would behave as if it was my last day, and I

would qualify the trait of hunger and thirsty to the sense that integrity is never filled. I

approach life now differently, that we are journalists and in that mandatory mandate, we

are obligated to be a witness of environmental behavior. It is selfish to walk away

without a pen, but it is self resilience to pass on the message.

October 2011,

Note: You will be placing the results of Assignment 2.1: Leadership Behavior Inventories in

this

Leadership Inventory: Cultural Communication and Construction of Leadership

Leadership Inventory

1. I can easily deal with the unknown, the unfamiliar, or the unanticipated.

2. I like people around me to be independent, self-reliant, and self-assured.

3. In making decisions, I refuse to allow the models of "how things should be" to inhibit

my behavior or my thinking.

4. I work to deal with situations as they are rather than how I wish they might be.

5. I use the past, the organization's history, as a guide rather than as an imperative.

6. I make an effort to improve my skills.

7. I avoid involvement and engagement in silly and pointless arguments.

8. I refuse to blame those around me when things do not go well.

9. I spend more time doing rather than "talking about doing."

10. Rather than trying to ascribe blame, I devote my energies to trying to fix and solve.

I scored 100% in problem analysis, 80% in judgment, 60% in decisiveness,

Organizational 40%, leadership 22%, sensitivity 80%, Oral communication 65%; Written

Communication 85% is my assessment to the skills I have as a leadership model.

“…most will ignore disconfirming data or rationalize it away…” (Schein, 1997)

This is the section that I do not agree with completely. I do not consider leadership as

someone who can handle the unknown, the unfamiliar and the unanticipated. It is common sense

to know that leaders have courage, and that is what allows them to overcome their personal fears.

Their love empowers them to forge through thickets, and dangers unknown, but I would not say

that all leaders are interested and die hard for living in disturbances of life or should I say the eye

of the tornado. I understand now why I cannot get promotions and opportunities that allows me

to been seen as leadership material in corporations or work places. I find that employers trust me

with the keys to the company to clean their buildings, but they do not trust me with their safes or

decisions that they feel will make or break their companies. According to this skills assessment,

I do not have the leadership skills for employers to recruit me as a leader. I understand why

cultural barriers for marginalized populations have a hard time winning or landing an excellent

career or making income as a leader role such as management, coordinator, executives and

directors because if this was the measuring tool for employers to choose or follow the models in

leadership many cultures would not make the team because it is not cultural base.

Excerpt GLOBE research for discussion:

“To what extent is leadership culturally contingent? The Global Leadership and

Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research Program (GLOBE), as well as a substantial

amount of other empirical research (House, Wright, & Aditya, 1997), has demonstrated that

what

is expected of leaders, what leaders may and may not do, and the status and influence bestowed

on leaders vary considerably as a result of the cultural forces in the countries or regions in

which

the leaders function. For instance, Americans, Arabs, Asians, English, Eastern Europeans,

French, Germans, Latin Americans, and Russians tend to glorify the concept of leadership and

Consider it reasonable to discuss leadership in the context of both the political and the

Organizational arenas.”

For example, my social location living a life of the unknown, unfamiliar and

unanticipated as marginalized populations, I do not enjoy dysfunction and I do not always or

even sometimes face the unknown as motivated, but in hesitation and caution. I do not step out

into the unknown because my comfort zone is to stay in the known since my life is the unknown,

having some grounding and stability is not normal. Therefore, I would not answer this question

as I always look forward to exploring the unknown, but if I had a privileged life, full of comfort,

stability and security, I would take on the challenge as if it was a thrill or enjoyable leisure as

playing video games. Unfortunately, I do not have this leisure or luxury to use my life as a

commodity to play with the unknown. The unknown is not a safe investment in my own social

location, but that does not mean I am not a leader. If I had to forge through the unknown I

would, but I rather build from security and establish a sense of strong roots first. Most privileged

communities have established rooting system to delve into the unknown as a toy factory.

Why must I want people self-assured, self-reliant and independent? It depends on the

social location again. I find that most well established and wealthy communities do not

showcase their weaknesses because they have the capital to hide their flaws, but in the social

locations as to the homeless, addicts, criminals and diseased, hospitalized, the luxury to be self-

reliant and self-independency, would mean eliminating leaders from these categories due to their

circumstances to be reliant of someone as a buddy system to keep some formula of checks and

balancing systems. I find that the reflective notion of this exercise is to demonstrate a

dominance or perspective of how to choose leaders, or weigh out who can be a model in an

organization and working environment, but I can analyze this as a cultural discrimination factor

because the “digital dividing lines and haves’ and have not’s” prove that our economy is based

on perspective and identity the construction of our social norm and binaries that create a

stereotype that eliminates potential candidates that have strengths in all areas, but manifestations

of those strengths in different levels of opportunities. The ability to live and survive on the

streets are different then the ability to run a company at an age of 16. These two worlds have a

hard to balancing the estimates of skills and performance. Therefore, this assessment is solely

based on social location. In this age, social location does not mean strengths and weaknesses,

but it means diversity and multilevel demonstration of creativity and ability to adapt to an

environment and disturbances. I find that blaming others is another cultural issue that most

institutions are in denial. The opportunity to blame self is the key component of any

organization to use as a prerequisite to admire a person to take the fall or when the buck is

passed, willing to take on a burden not necessary their own. A team completely uses the blame

game on one person as though the process is not part of the journey. It takes a unit to complete

an operation, therefore, the cooperation of others means a dance or should I say highly

sophisticated parts of a unit. For an example, the body is a unit. You cannot blame the brain for

the leg not walking. You cannot blame the finger for not moving. It is not that easy in the

process of development and organisms/organizations. In order for people to blame themselves is

still a faulty system because the system cannot be corrected if the root of the matter is not

developed or improved. So, a person hinders progress by blaming themselves, and ignoring the

components that are involved to completely understand the error.

The Leadership Quarterly addresses these issues I have discussed in my reflective

journal. “There have been advances and refinement in the definition of ‘‘culture’’ – (The

Leadership Quarterly, 2003)

Identification of dimensions of culture, with clear application of these dimensions to

Cultural variation in leadership;”

I usually do not try to fix or solve problems because if a person is involved. One cannot

fix a person, but companionship on the journey is effective. Our culture believes that

individuality is the key to resolving our world’s failures, but that is not the case. The component

that is necessary to change our global network is the ability to become units and communicate as

a system not as parts. Our body cannot function as parts, our cells, organisms, blood and

circulatory system, and the list of the anatomy cannot function in parts, and therefore, our global

system cannot function in parts. In order for us to truly evolve, we must understand our ability to

transform into a unit is important to our future as a surviving humanity. Our extinction is based

on living separate from the body, metaphoric speaking, we are greater in numbers then as

individuals, so my ability to function alone is ineffective as a whole, but it matters for me to

survive, but the process is a journey that must not be done alone completely.

Resources

Retrieved by 2011, Schein, Edgar, 1997, http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/schein.html

Retrieved by 2011, Thunder Bird, GLOBE,

http://www.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/sites/globe/pdf/process.pdf

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Leadership Quarterly, 2003, http://www.ila-net.org/Publications/LQArticles/DenHartog.pdf

section.

(F) Sources of Inspiration

Note: This section is a list of references. Please format references in APA style. Refer to your

copy of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (text) as needed.

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EBSCOhost.

Bennis, W, The Essential Bennis (text), 2009, “The Coming Death of Bureaucracy” and

“Learning Some Basic Truisms About Leadership”

George, B, True North, 2007 (text), Chapter 4

Kinsella, E. (2005). Action learning leadership skills. Jones International University.

Marquardt, M. (2004). Harnessing the Power of Action Learning. T&D, 58(6), 26-32. [Jones e-

global library®: Business Source Premier]

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Leadership Quarterly, 2003, http://www.ila-net.org/Publications/LQArticles/DenHartog.pdf

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Entrepreneur Rookie, 2011, http://www.entrepreneurrookie.com/blog/raven-symone-25-

celebrity-young-entrepreneur-and-actress-musician/

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coddling-the-super-rich.html

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Leadership Integrity

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II. Leadership Assessment and Personal Analysis Results

November 2011,

“Mary McLeod Bethune created schools for black students and worked with several US

presidents to make sure all children received a good education. Linda Brown was a little girl

when she became famous for fighting the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in the Supreme

Court.  Her case, Brown v. Board of Education, helped all black children get a better education.

Ruby Bridges also helped end segregation in schools.  She was the first black student at her

elementary school, and Ruby had to be very brave to stand up to all the people who didn't want

her there. Sojourner Truth was also a slave, but she won her freedom by running away.  After she

was free, she preached to others about ending slavery and fought for free Blacks and women to

be treated as equals with Whites and men. Harriet Tubman was another slave who worked to free

slaves.  She ran away because she was afraid of being shipped further south where slaves were

treated very badly.” (Oracle Think Quest, 2011)

My assessment is to be an educator, healer, and champion over civil injustices and coach

for others to become socially independent from binaries that push the agendas of poverty and

disparities of communities and health. I have understood that within my lifetime, the validation

of a woman is justified as a mummification to classify the double shift of a working mother. It is

evident that mothers can simplify the terms of motherhood, but to transition into the equity of

dominance and power, the woman and marginalized populations of culture and esteem pressures

an identity to progress in financial wealth and financial securities of ownership and capital.

Therefore, my personal assessment that my lifetime may not allow me to fund my own dreams,

but I will assist others to find their own way into creative construction of liberties and privileges

of the unknown.

October, 2011,

I will include analysis and a critical review over my discussions about my own

leadership. These discussions have allowed me to assess my leadership skills, and my personal

analysis will show the results of my own development and growth through our four weeks.

October 15, 2011 Entry

Thank you Stacey for this discussion is very important.  I have seasons.  Sometimes I can

run miles around crowds, and I love it, and other times, I am ready to go into the mountains and

never be seen again.  I have heard counselors and therapists say that I have a dual ego due to my

experiences in life.  I have learned that since I learned at a young age how to be around people,

my extrovert is a learned behavior and my introvert is a natural behavior.  It is funny, but I do not

love being alone, so when I say my natural instinct is to be alone comes off as confusing to

people that know I love people and can manage people, or huge crowds.  Honestly, over the

years, I've learned trauma changes people as well.  It shifts your personality.  I love this week's

discussion about "understanding one's personality" it is obvious that without knowing who you

are and what collections you have in your life as to your personality it is hard to be effective and

manageable or stress management. 

 

I learned how to manage my stress through learning about my own personality.  These

assessments are directed at my personality as an indicator how people see me, but as I said in our

last class, astrology is so much alike in these assessments, having indicators of how people view

you can be incomplete because they do not have the historical factor as a chef would say "these

assessments do not have the ingredients in the pie."  They only have the outcome of what and

who you are.  This can cause problems for accuracy.  In this case, this indicator was general, and

as I said before in the last class, my horoscope says the same thing these assessments say, and do

you think these things are reliable?  How can our personality be reliable?  I have learned no, you

have to be flexible, and learn how to manage your life accordingly to the change. 

 

For instance, sometimes when I am around aggressive crowds I tend to be an introvert,

and I know this is the time these crowds need me to be strong vocally, but I get mousy, and shy

away.  It is not that I am intimidated, but it is a trigger that a trauma experience happened when I

was a child.  This trigger of police violence, and "racial confrontation" I tend to walk away from

aggressive crowds.  I do not want to be part of the scene, so to give you an example, I was

chosen to speak at a police citizen’s board meeting, and I could not believe this, I came

prepared.  I was ready, and then, I stood up, and gave my speech almost in tears.  I went home,

and was like what in the world Keisha, get it together.  I had to learn how to control the stressors

in my triggers to be successful by working through the pain or the actual hardship of police

brutality, and I had to separate what happened to me as a child with what was going on in the

present moment.  I was drained in that experience.  If I was to do an assessment at that moment, I

would answer differently than today.  They would have pinned me as an introvert and another

personality trait based on how I processed at that moment.  I have done these assessments

throughout my life and I have been all over the place.  I like what my assessment was for this

week, but I am at a good place right now in my life, balanced, flexible and secure.  I have so

many solutions that I am perceived as an idealist, so I am an idealist when I have solutions and

believe in the impossibilities which are found in teachers, healers, champions and counselors. 

They have to believe in solutions or they cannot do their jobs.  They are the "mediators" or

channels to solutions.

 

I remember taking this test in high school, or a test similar to this one, and I was an artist

trait.  They pinned me as an entertainer, film director, engineer, mechanic, and I had to look at

jobs with the media, engineering, technical and mechanics which brings me up to my season as a

journalist, technician and as an entertainer.  People see me now and would be not you, but I am

at a different place.  People ask me to draw a picture, and I only can scribble, but if you go back

into my history, you would see I was a trained artist getting positive feedback to move toward

entertainment and animation. (Can you believe that, when I was recruited for the military, my

tests indicated my jobs would be engineering, electrician and airplane mechanics and seaman?) I

know right, I thought that test was wrong. Now, I barely draw lines and circles, or have the

attention span to do any hand dexterous movements.  I have to admit my mother knew since I

was born I was a teacher, but everyone else including myself had to catch up with that who I

truly am when I am aligned, "balance of the introvert and extrovert" persona.  Did I answer your

question? 

 

Yes, is the answer, I do have those moments that I feel I have to revive depending on the

personality types, trauma triggers, coping mechanisms and lifestyle I have at that moment.  Other

times, I would do circles around the very same groups if I am at a better place.  I gave several

speeches with the Police Citizen Board, and I won some and I lost some meaning, some of them

I was an extrovert and some of them I was an introvert.  (small chuckle) 

 

Extra Information for the sake of Finishing my Thought:

I was a rationalist as a child though, that is where some psychologists would call it split

personality disorder which I disagree, if anything it would have been PTSD, and over the years I

transformed by shaping and growing in self help acknowledgment progress programs.  When I

was a child, living in a highly racial controversial environment, as this week speaks about control

locus, which is another part of this week's lesson I do not see eye to eye since we live in a

complicated and complex dimensional and aggressive society.  I do not agree about locus control

for multi-level systems, but for a singular, homogeneous and singular motion system, maybe. 

I was highly controlled by my environment.  I did not see a chance in life after the age

nine, then it was 16, and then it was 18.  I did not have a future.  I was waiting for my death

because life was not fair, and trust me it was a pity party of hardship and challenge. (They met

me every day at the playground, (this is a metaphorical poet sentimental value phrase.)  Those

days were my rationalist days.  (I am not saying all rationalists perceive only based on concrete

means or evidence of traditional value) I calculated everything based on what I could see, taste,

touch and smell, on my senses.  Trust me, those days, I am glad I am balanced, experienced that

season, so I can coach others in those seasons, to be balanced and not extreme but overall, your

personality/persona is shaped by your environment until you develop your own environment

from within, then you can shape your collection of consciousness.  This collective of

consciousness is when people start picking and choosing their identity based on affirmations and

confirmations of what they are searching for and not what is given to them.

 

I choose my moments now, whereas before, I did not know how to choose my moments. 

I did not have the luxury as a child, but now I have that luxury, and it is called internal realism

and idealism rather external means, you learn to live with internal means.  This happened to me

because the doctor told me if you do not change from your rigid belief system, you will die due

to stress.  Learn how to meditate, stretch and breathe, and here I am or should I say, the indicator,

idealism finding my true perspective and not the construction of others and the journey to

manifest that suggestion to create a new level in my own dynamics.  Thank you for this

discussion Stacey.  I know this was more than what you asked, but I was so reflective, and on a

roll, I wanted to finish a complete thought, and this is the finish product of that thought.  I

figured why not, the juices are flowing, so why not go with it. (Smile)

I look forward in my transformation, reinvention and future restoration of who I am and

desire to construct based on my own perspective.  I am truly glad to have this discussion with

you Stacey.

October 15, 2011

Barbara, I apologize for taking a moment to respond.  I wanted to meditate on what

you've said to be sure I came full circle with that question.  I can remember reading the story of

John the Baptist.  My vacation bible school teachers as a child, would tell me that he doubted his

calling, the Christ (character) in the world, and the time was at hand that he would beheaded with

the gift of his head to the wife of the empire that he could not leave alone.  As I grew up, I

realize that story would materialize for my own life as a leader.  Today, you ask this, do I doubt? 

I do.  I doubt not the kind of doubt, am I qualified, sometimes people take my passion as too

defensive because I am disappointed when people cannot see what I see as an idealist we have

visions that are extraordinary and we want to share, teach it, and apply it, but it is yes, I do

completely put my heart on the table, and in that I do not doubt if I am qualified.  But, do I doubt

that my (character and my calling as to what type of leadership should I manifest the most as to

drawing straws) I doubt every day and rededicate my life daily because no one wants to be

rejected and persecuted.  As an idealist people do not "desire" for the rejection.  Leadership you

think of as glorious, popularity, wealthy, approval, loved and honored, but then when you are

cast out, rejected, fired, and receive daily skeptical responses that push you to the edge of

"beheading" you feel did I miss something?

Yes, Barbara, to your question I doubt daily whether or not I choose the most "effective"

most "righteous" most "fulfilling" life I possibly can give myself and others.  In that, I question

whether or not my teaching skills are fluent enough, flow like water, and soothing as a cold drink

in the desert breeze.  Yes, my tears are a witness of the hardship that leaders as us contemplate is

this the "best" way, or there must be a better way.  Then one makes that final decision, and the

rooster crows, and there is no turning back.  Yes, I completely hear your soft request to strength,

power and forging solidarity comes in different shapes, forms and causes.  Do we see the deer as

leaders? Yes, I do even if they have more predators then the lion.  Do I doubt they can protect

their young, lead their family and find rest for their young?  No, and so, the doubt becomes

complex and intrinsic to what we are weaving in life.  Thank you for your discussion.  I

appreciate your response and comments.  I love digging in the deep (researching in the depths of

my soul as a scholar and leader) for treasure.  Yes, your life as a leader, idealist, visionary,

pioneer blazing new grounds come with a price that sometimes no one else can afford, but you,

as an eagle, your path is alone at times, and the flights are dangerous when rejected, but the

young behind you learn and a new generation is born.  I know we need diversity, and I feel some

doubt is healthy, it keeps you checking your work and staying focus through your pressure

because when you ask yourself am I and why am I, you must show up first to the vision you are

asking others to receive, the refinement of moving forward, higher, and greater.  Now do I sound

way too sentimental this week?  It has been one of those weeks.  It must be the season and time

for me to grow, expand and build emotionally.  I feel deeply touched.  Thank you again for the

discussion. (We are healers, teachers, counselors and champions, and sometimes we cannot find

or protect that which is valuable for our own, and I think that makes us doubt who we are and if

we are valuable because we lose so much in the process, and we look at guardians and wish we

could be protectors...when we lose our students or our own children, we question if we could do

more, see more, act faster, be approved now, would that have changed the equation, at least I am

speaking for myself.)  For the brighter side, as we look to the right and see all those who have

achieved greatness due to our "idealism" we count our loss, count our blessings, and keep

forging ahead as a beckon of light and hope that maybe we will be able to pull our own dead out

of the graves, at least that is what keep me strong...because the idealist believes in the

impossibility that is why we get into trouble...  I agree.

October 10, 2011, Entry

Patricia, I appreciate you bringing up Nick Canon.  I can see you as a Guardian from the

responses this far.

I was glad to see my favorite idealists were on the list as Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung and Plato. 

I was disappointed not to see Einstein or Martin Luther King Jr., and many others that I would

have loved to see on the list, but I definitely was happy to see on the list these three.  I would

think being a Guardian is hard for my type of personality.  I could not imagine being a Guardian,

so I applaud your personality traits.  The challenge that comes with being a Guardian is difficult

to keep someone that does not want to be kept, and so forth. 

October 14, 2011 Entry

Barbara, thank you for your discussion and trusting me enough to vent is special.  I know

exactly how you feel.  This is the reason why we are here.  I have a deep passion to prove

scientifically to myself and my family, but greater to those who want to be confident that social

responsibility/accountability is greater than exploitation and discrimination.  I have learned that

integrity cannot be worn on the sleeve, but those who know your integrity wrestle against their

own.  I know your team valued you.  You are a breath of fresh air for your teams though you

were passing through.  I remember the employments I were hired always someone would say

you are passing through because you do not fit here.  I stood out because I was unable to fit into

the mold.  I remember I was working for a doctor who had discovered a chemical

(Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM)) that could help joint inflammation.  Of course, I was hired to

be his sports and health coordinator, and yet I wrestled with the veterans before me, but I was

hired to bring life and creativity to the company.  The first month they chose to push me out of

the door by making my life miserable.  I did not think all the money in the world matter than my

own peace.  I had a million dollar contract with a University who wanted the chemical for their

research lab, and I would have received a one percent commission because I was a new hire. 

The trainer who at the time was my boss took the contract from me after convincing the

employer that I was too young and what does a 22 year old minority (for the sake of academic)

know about sales.  They were afraid I couldn't close the deal.  The University did not want to

work with her, and my employer was disrespectful that he tried to keep the contract, but the

University decided to go to another company, and buy another type of the chemical or the

relative of the chemical for the research. 

At that moment, I was tired, and I resigned.  I decided that at 22 I could not work as a

career because I did not like the undercurrents of office politics and the exploitation employers

took advantage of my skills.  I walked away from corporate America as a career choice, and

found way to pay for my bills, cleaning Universities, corporations, businesses and mansions.  I

knew the job was peaceful, and I was an independent contractor.  I could come and go as I

please.  I was able to make my own contracts with their contractors.  I was moving up in my own

professional company, and I was only 24 years old, and a government contractor wanted me to

mentor me to learn how to get the bids on my own.  He wanted me to work minimum wage at the

time, $5 hour while I received free training.  I told him no and walked away because he paid his

coordinator more than I, and I was getting $20 to $30 an hour at the time.  He thought I was a

naive child, and wanted to exploit me. I worked since I was 12 years old, and by the time of 19 I

was able to work at my High School with the Principal and Athletic Director and their Office

Administration, worked for the government in the summers as Parks Assistant and Librarian

Assistant.  I will remember as if it was yesterday, they told me that since I was an At Risk teen, I

would never have the opportunity to go far, so be use to lower wages because I could not get

paid the same as they were paid for the same job remember these government jobs paid me $5 an

hour for these titles.  This was the conclusion to my story, by 21; I was an independent

contractor closing deals with corporations like Professional Services Industries was my first

contract that I walked away. They promised me a higher income at the time $10, (for me was

better it was not $5) and sat me in the office, and said, your resume was perfect, but you are

black.  They wanted to hire me minimum wage because they thought I was an established

organization, and they never intended to keep their commitment.  The vice president of the

regional office sent his assistant to cut me at $4 an hour. The contract was to restructure his

administration with filing systems, archiving and proofreading, and be his assistant to all his

assistants and office help.  I walked away, and told them to keep their money. (Remember no

benefits as a contractor.)

I am an idealist because I kept moving and pushing forward; I believed the world I would

serve would honor and approve of my work, and my contributions would matter and be valuable,

that was my idealism, what kept me working hard when I was not inspired.  I gave everyone my

best, but it was not enough, not because I was not valuable, but because they were unable to

receive my worth.  By the age of 24, I was appointed as a volunteer commissioner and worked

for the Forest Service, Board Director on the Northwest NOW, and preparing to run for House

Representative, finally, I was serving as a civil leader, and then when I shared my ideas they said

we just wanted you to take pictures and be quiet. (Oh, I walked away).  Then at my peak of my

company, schooling, and life, my father dies, and I was not given any sick leave or vacation

because it was a contract as a vendor, (I was not able to get any more contracts after they let me

go they say, I walked away and went to my father's bed side.)  I tried to hire a substitute they

denied me of hiring, and they told me no.  This is the moment you are going to say wow...they

fired me after I left, and gave my contract to my substitute. I came home to my husband cheating

on me, wanting a divorce, lost my home, furniture, car, and all my settlements because I was too

young and in idealistic, in love to be a good steward and smart about my life, business, ministry,

civil duties, academics and my own present moment.  I could only think I need time to grieve.

By the age of 30, I was homeless; starting all over...long story short, Idealism is my number one

passion because the possibilities are endless.  Now here I am working hard to work for myself

completely...it is not easy.    My renewed direction, next chapter is to become my own entity as a

scientist, professor and motivational speaker/entrepreneur by having my own research center,

laboratories, my own elementary school system, junior, and high school, institution and

university in my own disciplines and coach people how to embrace responsibility and

accountability as a child hunger for candy by building resorts and retreats by the age of 65, as

Bethune and Ida B. Wells, among other great women leaders.  Then, maybe I can sit around the

table with family and friends from the city bring them here to a sequoia tree, and teach them how

to hear the language of trees.  Now that is my idealistic approach to my past into my future.

   I understand the struggle of an idealist.  I have lived the struggle, but please know

Barbara, it is not you.  Trust me I did not even touch the experiences of my life; I gave you my

favorite snippets.  I shared them because I appreciate you sharing and trusting me, so I wanted to

bond with you in the mission to have integrity in your personality.  I would be supportive.  I

enjoy lifting up my allies and hopefully that is why we are here to network and build our

research, master our skills and walk away more established then what we came into these

classes.  I have to agree, this class is very empowering.

Thank you for the discussion.  All you can do is give your leadership, as a service, if they

cannot receive your worth, it is their error not yours.  (Please remember this is a reflection and

not a statement or an account of these experiences.)

Theme 1, Jones International University, Reflective Moments:

"True understanding means having a dialogue with yourself and asking questions about motives

and meanings in order to discover a greater truth about yourself and your life. This understanding

is the basis of leadership and allows leaders to provide direction to the organization."

Analysis

I have learned that conversations are tools of reflection and construction for critical

moments of growth and maturity. It is very important to have conversations to develop my own

construction of perspective and stand point. I learned that my ideas about leadership do reflect

my location in life, my upbringing and my experiences. I have learned that my location has

constructed my ability to process information and collect certain type of solutions as a leader as

far as style, traits, characteristics and influences. For instance, it is almost as a car in different

locations of weather from trucks for heavy terrains, small cars for plains and curves, SUV’s for

traveling and luxury, and minivans for families and groups. These are illustrations of how

people design fashion in clothing, transportation, and housing. The location as an environment

influences the direction of a person’s adaptation and adjustments. I have found that in order for

me to understand people better as a leader I must understand their location. I know now it is

very important to have conversations with people. It is not for me to judge their location, but to

understand how to create and construct solutions to fit their location and preferences. I am

walking away from this experience with excellent tools that will assist me in leading people into

resources. I could not understand business dynamics before this experience in this class as a

leadership style, but in this course, I understand that social location does not mean desire and

greed alone, but also family dynamics, traditions, belief systems, location in environment, and

construction of behavior to a response. I have grown to understand how others communicate

through nonverbal and verbal communication begins with their decision making and

conversation.

November 2011, the evolving factor to this journal is that I have learned that my choices become

my leadership model therefore, I must choose wisely.

a.     A link to your article, or APA reference of your source if a direct link is not

available Retrieved by 2011, Guardian UK, 2005, Ethnic minority women face

employment barriers,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/oct/21/workandcareers.business

A section from the Article, Excerpt, Retrieved by 2011, The discussion around the

article is based on this segment taken from the article.  Thank you for the

discussion.

2.      “Women from ethnic minorities are facing a huge struggle to find work and are much

more likely than white women to take a job for which they are overqualified, a report

showed today.”

3.      “Research by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has revealed that Pakistani

and Bangladeshi women aged under 35 are between three and four times more likely to

be unemployed than their white counterparts, while black Caribbean females are twice as

likely to be out of work.”

4.      “For graduates the figures are worse - young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women who

had been to university were five times more likely to still be looking for a job than white

women with degrees, and black Caribbean women three times more likely to be

unemployed.”

5.      “In July, the government said that Muslim graduates were struggling to find work, with

only 76% of those in working age in jobs, compared with 87% of all graduates. The EOC

estimates that 90% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are Muslims.”

Finding Diversity: Healthy and The Unification to Where the Work Place Is

Going in the 21st Century

a.     A summary of the key points in the article

Minority women are going to be hired at lower pay scales. The struggle minority

women have to find work in their field, and in their expertise. This article breaks

down the pay scale of women in society and culture because women minorities

are struggling to find work in their fields. This is a problem in 2005, and still

today, the society still hold to the same traditions against women, religion and

dress codes.

b.    An analysis of the situation for key leadership actions and attitudes, adding your

own opinions and attitudes regarding how the situation was handled

“To integrate your life, you must remain grounded in your authentic self,

especially when the outside world is chaotic.” (George, pp. 141, 2007)

Our traditional role as a society to have a “social norm” only hinders our ability to

use contributions that are valuable. In order for me to be a leader I must

understand the responsibility I have to approve contributions and not focus on the

people that perform those skills.

c.     Recommendations as to how you, as a leader, would handle the situation

presented

“Stripped to its essentials, leadership involves just three things—leader, followers,

and a common goal.” (Bennis, pp. 267, 2009)

I would focus on the contribution rather the person. It is the only way to change

the future by allowing people to sit at the table who want to contribute and add to

the productivity of making a difference. I can only harm myself eliminating

intelligent and skillful contributions that will afford my community the

opportunity to arrive in our own goals of sustainability and longevity in the search

for health, happiness and wholeness.

d.    How you think the bottom line of a company is affected by diversity problems

“You simply cannot lead if you cannot tell the other guy what it is you want and

expect.” Bob Crandall (Bennis, pp. 267, 2009)

The bottom line could only be problematic if people I hire cannot manage their

personal belief systems. This would create a rift and segregate the company. I

would educate and have discussions to study culture and community. It would be

my responsibility as a leader to maximize the opportunities for people to

contribute and be awarded for their contributions. It is the common goal to

understand “what is in it for me” and to achieve success through trust and

commitment. My leadership will affect the bottom line, or I can allow the

diversity problems to continue by ignoring the lack of commitment of each group

due to misconceptions or preconceive notions of who they should be or what the

other person should do.

e.    Insights on what you learned about yourself as you assessed this article

“If you can’t rouse the crowd, you cannot lead effectively.” Dee Hock (Bennis,

2009, pp. 267)

The insights I have learned is to gather as much information as possible. Keep

receiving and collecting information because without it I risk knowing people and

their process of who they desire to become and why their identity is consumed

with tradition and constructions of colonization. It is the only way to create

resolutions, negotiate solutions and restore unity when I am accountable for what

I perceive.

With maturity should come an appreciation for diversity in one's self. (JIU,

Theme 1, 2011)

 

 

References

George, Bill, True North, 2007.

Bennis, Warren, The Essential Bennis, 2009

Jones International University, Theme One, 2011

Retrieved by 2011, Guardian UK, 2005, Ethnic minority women face employment barriers,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/oct/21/workandcareers.business

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Vision Statement:

"At JPMorgan Chase, we want to be the best financial services company in the world. Because

of our great heritage

and excellent platform, we believe this is within our reach."

Retrieved by 2011, Company Statements Slogans Info, 2011, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-j/j-p-morgan-chase-co.htm

General Electric Mission Statement from their Core Values:

"Passionate

Curious

Resourceful

Accountable

Teamwork

Committed

Open

Energizing

Always With Unyielding Integrity"

Retrieved by 2011, Company Statements, Slogans Info, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-g/general-electric.htm

Bank of America Corp. Philosophy, similar to a Mission Statement:

Our Philosophy

“We believe, very simply, that it is the actions of individuals working together that build strong

communities ... and that business has an obligation to support those actions in the communities it

serves.”

Kenneth D. Lewis, Chairman and CEO

Retrieved by 2011, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-b/bank-of-america-corp.htm

Exxon Mobil Mission Statement from their Guiding Principles:

"Exxon Mobil Corporation is committed to being the world's premier petroleum and

petrochemical company. To that end, we must continuously achieve superior financial and

operating results while adhering to the highest standards of business conduct. These unwavering

expectations provide the foundation for our commitments to those with whom we interact."

 

Retrieved by 2011, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-e/exxon-mobil.htm

VISIONICBC (Thai) aspires to be a NOBLE and INNOVATIVE financial institution acclaimed by the public for its excellent services, sought by prospective employees for its happy working environment and valued by its stakeholders for its fair practices. MISSION Our mission is to offer customised banking-related services to Small and Medium Enterprises as a SOLUTION BANK and to Large Corporate Customers as an ALTERNATIVE BANK.Retrieved by, 2011, http://www.icbcthai.com/en/about/vmv.aspx

Banco SantanderVision

Towards a global bank

Santander wants to consolidate itself as a large international financial group, which provides an increasingly high return to its shareholders and meets all the financial needs of its customers. In order to achieve this, it combines a strong presence in local markets with corporate policies and global capacities.

Retrieved by, 2011, http://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite?canal=CAccionistas&cid=1148925257170&empr=SANCorporativo&leng=en_GB&pagename=SANCorporativo/Page/SC_ContenedorGeneral

Wells Fargo

Our Vision

We want to satisfy all of our customers’ insurance needs, be the premier provider of insurance

services in every one of our markets, and be known as one of America’s great companies.  We

all share in the same vision and know how we each, individually, contribute to achieving this

vision.

Our Mission

At Wells Fargo Insurance Services, our mission is to be the leader in providing unparalleled

customer service, trusted advice, superior, and cost-effective insurance solutions to each and

every one of our customers.  We work with you personally to identify your risks and design the

right comprehensive insurance solutions to satisfy your insurance needs.

Retrieved by 2011, https://wfis.wellsfargo.com/AboutUs/Vision%20Values%20Mission/Pages/

Default.aspx

Strategic Intent: JP Morgan Chase

Political Contributions and Business Principles

JPMorgan Chase believes that responsible corporate citizenship demands a strong commitment

to a healthy and informed democracy through civic and community involvement. Meaningful

involvement requires JPMorgan Chase to be an effective participant in the legislative and

regulatory process and to support the electoral process by making prudent political contributions.

Our business is subject to extensive laws and regulations at the federal and state levels, and

changes to such laws can significantly affect how we operate, our revenues and the costs we

incur. Because of the potential impact public policy can have on our businesses, employees and

communities, we proactively engage in the political process in order to advance and protect the

long-term interests of the Firm and its constituents.

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can

move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.

— Winston Churchill

I chose JP Morgan Chase because according to Forbes top ten companies for the year of

2010, their number one company is JP Morgan Chase. I have noticed that the banks are very

strong in their assets and visibility in the world. I thought about the critical component in this

choice because I realize the bail out for the banks made them overcome their financial struggle. I

wonder would they have kept their position in the Forbes top ten picks. I honestly have to

question their effectiveness and position in our global economy as a business and as an ethical

component to human rights for the populations. In this evaluation, I chose these top six

business/corporations to suggest that our ability to judge who the better businesses are; should be

determined by what factors: Authentic inspiration, Drama, Stimulus to change, Provides hope,

Concern for all involved. (Jones International University, Theme 1, 2, 3, 4, 2011) Though, I went

for the Forbes top ten list, I still examined the missions, vision and strategic intent to summarize

this analysis that people are what they eat, so to speak. I do not think that small businesses have

an effective approach to their companies due to their markets’ interest. They have a hard time

providing services to the population. This first account of choosing these banks, I realize that

these banks had a vision to reach everyone. The greater their opportunity to be inclusive, the

stronger their effectiveness in their approach is the key component I noticed in their success to

provide service to a wider scale in population. I felt that JP Morgan Chase met all the criteria for

all three of the choices of vision, mission and strategic intent.

Personally, I still do not completely agree with Forbes. I see that the skills that allow

people to be positioned in the world are created by the support system that keeps them in front of

others. I still do not agree with the banks effectiveness. Homes, cars, and small businesses of

middle class and lower class citizens do not have the access to their assets due to their banks

inability to negotiate. Therefore, I would not have selected these companies. I chose these

companies to examine the success of positioning as a global entity, and what made them part of

the formula that positions themselves highly over others. I have learned that banks as JP Morgan

Chase do not provide services for everyone, and their ability to sit highly over others is based on

their “support allies” that give them the financial stability to meet the downfall of their mission

and vision statement. It is all who you know, and that is the ineffective component to this list.

General Electric and Exxon Mobil was also another two companies that I felt could have

been replaced by smaller companies that would never be found on this list, but for the sake of

global recognition, and global impact, I found that these companies were exposed to a greater

audience due to the political component of lobbyist and governmental grants that provide them

million, billion dollar support structures along with their population generate their financial

positioning in their ability to set a vision and mission. They would not have been chosen on my

own personal list because they enforce much of the lack of social responsibility for corporate

greed. This particular company if I had to choose, General Electric, has not provided any

recycling system for the lowering costs of people’s electricity needs. Therefore, their

opportunity to capitalize on the lower class and middle class shows their inability to be effective.

Therefore, the oil company Exxon Mobil is another company that I disagree with in this list as a

global entity, but it makes complete sense as to global entity that is highly supported by our

governmental entities. These top selections I have seen a pattern that proves the strength and

effective approach is to gather as many investors from political entities as well as private

investors that can generate enough financial securities to ensure the weakness of the companies’

mission, values and strategic intent can be ignored, and therefore, people can ignore the lack of

responsibility and accountability that these companies have promised comes through their lack of

integrity and commitment.

I was not inspired by these companies. I thought their vision, mission and strategic intent

was going to blow my mind, and make sense why they were on top of their game, but as always,

I discovered as most mega power structures in western societies would have some formula of

substance. I was concern that the China’s bank, ICBC, made me question how effective their

vision, mission and goals to the populations. These companies are the leaders of the global

market at this time, but my own reflection is that their vision, mission and values are not based

on inspiration, but based on financial support. Their vision, values, mission and strategic intent

was not inspirational in my vote. They did not have a focus to protect people’s investments, or

their credit when it came to the banks, or their restructuring of where they are at now and where

are they going. The oil company, Exxon Mobil did not mention any environmental justice issues

to inspire others to show some formula to create different elements to oil to change the dynamics

to their oil consumption, and lastly the General Electric did not show any need to change the fact

that people need electric and what were they going to do to help the economy during the time of

recession. I have found the loose ends to these visions, missions and intent that I was looking for

the strength and the effectiveness in their goals. I found that they had programs that mislead

people into debt, high consumption and promised empty futures. Yet, they are the leaders and

global entities that populations are forced to buy into their fallacies.

ReferencesRetrieved by 2011, Forbes, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/18/global-2000-10_The-Global-2000_Rank.htmlRetrieved by 2011, Company Statements Slogans Info, 2011, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-j/j-p-morgan-chase-co.htmRetrieved by 2011, Company Statements, Slogans Info, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-g/general-electric.htm

Retrieved by 2011, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-b/bank-of-america-corp.htmRetrieved by 2011, http://www.company-statements-slogans.info/list-of-companies-e/exxon-mobil.htmRetrieved by, 2011, http://www.icbcthai.com/en/about/vmv.aspxRetrieved by, 2011, http://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite?canal=CAccionistas&cid=1148925257170&empr=SANCorporativo&leng=en_GB&pagename=SANCorporativo/Page/SC_ContenedorGeneral

Retrieved by 2011, https://wfis.wellsfargo.com/AboutUs/Vision%20Values%20Mission/Pages/Default.aspxJones International University, Theme 1, 2, 3, 4, 2011

Part I  

  In this discussion, I want to emphasis the analytical component of problem solving as a part of a learning organization. It is within my own goals to use problem solving by culturally providing access to resources to people from diverse backgrounds. It is a system created to bridge the gap to exclusion to inclusivity by preparing others to communicate and associate with people different from their own background without feeling intimidated or alienated.References

50 top black executives in corporate America. (1992). Ebony, 47(3), 108-116.

 

The summary is fifty black executives in corporate America that broke the glass ceiling. They

were able to find their own true north. In their leadership they were hired by learning

organizations that were willing to empower and train their leaders and their employees, so they

all can be successful in their systems to plan and be improved.

 

They manage their knowledge and information through choosing their leaders who have the

skills to improve their systems. These leaders were problem solvers.

 

They are able to lead by example. Their journey proves their ability to resolve problems. Most

corporations need problem solvers as leaders because they need to overcome barriers, challenges

and hurdles.

 

My own leaders in my own organization should be responsible first then become problem solvers

because if they are able to manage people and knowledge they should be able to handle their

problems through improving their circumstance through creativity and flexibility which is

diversity and the suggestion to handle diverse circumstances.

 

Thank you for the discussion in this opportunity to grow as a leader in my own organization.

 -----

References

 

50 top black executives in corporate America. (1992). Ebony, 47(3), 108-116.

George, Bill, True North, 1807 and 2007.

 

            (Reatha Clark King, pp. 12, 2007)

 

Retrieved by 2011, Conference Southwest Foundation, 2004,

 

http://www.c-s-f.org/default/update%20newsletter%20su2004.pdf

 

 

 

General Mills, 2011, http://www.generalmills.com/Responsibility/Community_Engagement/general_mills_foundation_2010.aspx

 

Jones International University, 2011,

 

Theme 1, 2, 3, 4, Week Five Discussion and Assignment

 

The Essential Bennis (text), “Understanding the Basics” and “Deploying Yourself: Strike Hard, Try Everything”

 

True North (text), chapters 5 and 6

 

Örtenblad, A. (2004). Organizational learning: A radical perspective. International Journal of Management Reviews, 4(1), 71–86. [Jones e-global library®: Business Source Premier]

 

Senge, P. (1999). Learning leaders. Executive Excellence, 16(11), 12–14. [Jones e-global library®: Business Source Premier]

 

Part II

 

 

    This is what improvements can become in a fast pace global system of distribution and

technology of information and services. Do we need leaders to improve or be masterful, skillful

immediately? I find that our courage keep us prompt, but our learning keeps us not vain. I do

think we can grow as we learn, heal and restore. As coaches we must mentor our students, but in

order for us to be educators, coaches, mentors and healers, champions, a transcending of skills

must show manifestations of maturity and established stability and security that creates

confidence, trust and safety. This concept is what I have learned why learning organizations and

action learning leaders are better as innovators and risk investors, but in an action plan our

leaders must pass the test of implementation and precision. Our learning abilities must be part of

our training. We are guardians, idealists, and artists full of rationalists and innovators, but at the

end of the day, we must learn how to use our time wisely in the organizations that create

capitalism, economy and inequality. I find that organizations can develop a strategic plan to add

to their dimensions and departments for a learning environment as an educator as a laboratory for

a class. It is a temporary section of growing and developing muscles, skills and talents to

accomplish a goal to mature and master their own field. The goal to become a champion to

award others with safety, equality and security comes from a training session of a learning

organization and then a student must becomes a teacher, healer and champion, but at heart

remain a student to grow then master, then grow continuously. Therefore, the overall evaluation

to practice while learning is a complex and complicated progress that must be strategic and

skillfully adjusted from each circumstance as needed. I have learned personally to gather

information, collect information, but to skillfully apply knowledge to generate power and

precision.

 

 

 

   My critical component is to evaluate the learning leader and organization, General Mills and

Reatha Clark King as learning leaders. My critical moments are the 200 million dollars in 61

years they have helped organizations to grow and expand their business practices, but why is our

world still rising in deficiencies of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, starvation, premature deaths,

and of course increase in disease, and high mortality rates for children. It still does not explain

how 200 million dollars can be provided to build and assist communities, yet the actions seem to

be implemented unsuccessful to establish sustainability. This comes is my own reflection that the

learning leaders and organizations are not masters of their strategies to implement sustainability

and longevity, but to bandage the problems by creating roles of charity rather roles of mentorship

and healing for the communities they serve. This is a lifetime of commitment and a student

cannot master such detriments of historical oppression and infrastructure damage from unjust

laws. These students were learning how to "break a glass ceiling, in order to be hired." They

could have been spending their life learning how to manage people toward sustainability and

longevity to increase the populations’ opportunity to overcome dysfunction and infrastructure

problems of oppression and systematic oversights in business and the justice/political system.

 

How does the information in this module and the module readings impact your plan?

I have to build my leadership plan because at this time, I found the tools to leadership is

providing perspectives as a multi-dimensional perspective as a learning organization for social

networking. I am having difficulty into how to pull this off because I have not seen it done often

without confusing people with my own perspective as I weave the conversation of other

perspectives to initiate credible conversations of lifestyles not revealing my own lifestyle as an

illustration. I am working hard to build testaments of others who are public figures and entities

whereas it is as emotionally tied if it was my own. I have calculated that a learning organization

is a compilation of many working ideas that come together to become a great plan rather an

average or normal response. It is my own goal to have conversations that demonstrate a wealth

of mastery of biographies that is masterfully implemented to create social reports that become

great tips and advice for leaders to be inspired and develop their own systems using these

collaborations that I have skillfully created as a network.

 \

Yes, that is my stumbling block so far.  I have to understand the pros and cons, the critical

component and the evaluation is to organize and create a design that examine the strengths and

weaknesses of a perspective to build sustainability in an age of dysfunction and unhealthy

practices.

 

How is the structuring of your plan coming along? Does anyone need to discuss a new item

along these lines?

 

It is coming along. It is still under construction, but somehow I will find the way to connect all

the elements together where it becomes a road map for my own leadership team and organization

to learn how to solve problems quickly in any circumstance to assist organizations in their own

paths to success.

 

 

 

Do you agree that action learning organizations are a good solution to the constant change we

face? Defend your position for either a pro or con point of view.

 

The idea of learning organizations is important in the next generation. My only concern is a

traditional wise old saying that there is a point we must be skillful and masterful in our skills to

implement change. (I was also reminded in one of our class discussions by the suggestion to the

class and response to a scholar of Dr. Jonas that mastery and implementation is very important:

also learning is equally important, so the juggle is the task.) I know it is hard to receive that

learning is a life time as a luxury, but as an urgency and emergency mastery is very important,

even the sick need a doctor not a student. We must be able to repair and surgery removes

dysfunction in our operations, systems and failures that keep us in denial. Therefore, a learning

action organization needs to be adjusted in certain circumstances as a training system versus a

"heroic" system of teams that implement change masterfully in a timely manner. Learning

techniques must be balanced with; there is a time to learn and a time to heal. Unless... healing is

learning. Then my defense is in vain.

 

 

References

 

50 top black executives in corporate America. (1992). Ebony, 47(3), 108-116.

George, Bill, True North, 1807 and 2007.

 

            (Reatha Clark King, pp. 12, 2007)

 

Retrieved by 2011, Conference Southwest Foundation, 2004,

 

http://www.c-s-f.org/default/update%20newsletter%20su2004.pdf

 

 

 

General Mills, 2011, http://www.generalmills.com/Responsibility/Community_Engagement/general_mills_foundation_2010.aspx

 

Jones International University, 2011,

 

Theme 1, 2, 3, 4, Week Five Discussion and Assignment

 

The Essential Bennis (text), “Understanding the Basics” and “Deploying Yourself: Strike Hard, Try Everything”

 

True North (text), chapters 5 and 6

 

Örtenblad, A. (2004). Organizational learning: A radical perspective. International Journal of Management Reviews, 4(1), 71–86. [Jones e-global library®: Business Source Premier]

 

Senge, P. (1999). Learning leaders. Executive Excellence, 16(11), 12–14. [Jones e-global library®: Business Source Premier]

Thomas Edison: Leadership Styles and the Reflections Of a Leader Within Self

Keisha L. Merchant-Logan

Jones International University, 2011

“Although he went to school as a young man, Edison preferred to read, study, and learn from the

world and from his experiments.” (Business Week, 1999)

My leadership style is being a coach, instructor and mentor. (Kinsella, 2005) I have

decided this is my style because I seen my life resemble this the most. I personally would love to

see myself move toward the direction as an innovator and inventor, but I know now my strength

is mentoring, instructing and coaching. I find that I have coached many teams even as a child, I

have lead groups without the titles. People seem to lean on me for counsel. I have always had

the “ask questions now, and then walk until I became an athlete, basketball player, then I learned

creativity, speed and accuracy.” I do not like mistakes, but I rebound quickly. I figure if I am

going to make mistakes I should have a plan of rebound, or an emergency exit. I do not leave

my life unturned unless I have plans or alternatives to expect the unexpected with a come back. I

chose Thomas Edison because I find that he was one of the greatest business men who chose to

use his “intuition” over academics. Though, I find that his academics directed him to his

expertise in telegraph, he was able to perform higher feats with his intuition. He was not afraid

of challenge, mistakes, and finding stronger conclusions then what was set before him. Instead

of trying to reinvent the wheel, he made a difference by improving the wheel. He was not

threatened by his peers’ dominance. His focus reminds me of my own. We both do not have the

opportunity to master an object, process or method, but we improve them. I found that I have a

mentorship ability to invest in people. I know that if I could become stronger in my skills over

time with forestry, I could possibly be an innovator or inventor of tree science. I do not think I

have enough time to build those skills because most of my life was spent on working with people

as an athlete, not a investigator of trees, but investigator of movement.

“He went to earn, 1093 US patents in a career that continued until his death in 1931. His style of

invention, resting heavily on intuition and only loosely on academic study, has been eclipsed.”

(Business Week, 1999)

My skills are not defined in True North because I “rebuild and rebound” but I prefer

mistakes to be my midnight hour. I do not rest in the promise of correction, I depend on making

better choices faster to a point one cannot see the mistake. The correction becomes the left hand

to the right hand of mistake. On the other hand, I realize some people have the opportunity and

luxury to make mistakes, and have them linger, as to rest in their mistakes. As a business

woman, I am not strong in “chasing money, my market approach is weak, and I am not a leader

in marketing and selling my own self” but I am strong in instructing others to find their “true

north” instead of finding my own. Personally, I do not think there is a true north, but I do

believe in “choice” and if someone wants a true north, they should have that opportunity. How

can I be a mentor if I am unable to live with my own true north? I live knowing due to

circumstances, I do not live in a true north circumstance. People may claim that is an error, but

due to “unjust” laws and rules, examining my own heart is enough. I do not have the leisure to

keep rules. I must know the rules, and that gives me the authority to break them. As an

instructor, I must be able to break down rules, and build them up to help someone in their own

position to move through their own damage.

But behind his arcane dexterity lay Edison's exhaustive research and his tenacious unwillingness

to quit tinkering until a technical challenge had been met. "Genius," he famously remarked, "is

about 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration." Or again, as he said in his autobiography, "There is

no substitute for hard work." (Time International South Pacific Edition, 1999)

Therefore, my own life is not a “true north” because I must live where people choose not

to live, to understand the compass, I must travel all directions. This is what I have learned in my

reflexive journey into my journal as a leader. Mistakes are for those who must make them, but

for those who do understand them, must be prepared to make them if required. What do I mean

by that? I remember I had a friend who was a teenager, who wanted to strip. As some women

who are rejected by society, she did not want anyone to tell her no. Of course, people would say

you made a mistake by taking her to a club and asking the wrong questions. In fact, in my mind,

I knew it was risky and I could not reinvent the rules, and I do not enjoy taking risk, but I

understood if she was unsafe, she would be killed if someone took her to a place not safe. I

wanted to teach her and guide her through her mistake, “not mine.” She is still alive, and she

says, why did you take me there, I was too young. I told her I wanted safety as your priority.

Everyone told her no, and she still went. Instead it was me, and not her as a runaway teenager.

Now, I asked her a question why did you let me? You know it is wrong? She told me it was her

dream. I told her it was not the best dream. The reason why she told me that she just wanted to

go and leave was to prove to her own personal self that she could follow her dreams when no one

told her she could. Beyond, my better judgment, I coached her through the experience of the

club. I asked her to speak to the manager, and then see what they said, to my surprise, they

allowed her. “Go figure.” She comes to the car, excited, in love, and thanking me. Now, what

did I choose to do? I shared with her, if she was going to do this for the rest of her life, she

should be safe. Do not allow men to take her; do not leave with men, and such. Do not allow

women to introduce her to pimps. She becomes an independent dancer/stripper in charge of her

life. Of course, she would never tell me if she was fulfilled. She asked me again even today,

why would I take a teenager to a club? The question is always in the back of my mind, if you

were my sister, I would want her to have someone in her life to keep her from those who would

take advantage of her to coach her through her “mistakes.” Of course, my own.

Even though Edison never produced rays strong enough to penetrate the thick human cranium,

he succeeded in other areas. (Seelhorst, 2003)

This type of leadership reminds me of coaching and mentorship. I took her under my

wings, but everyone thought I was wrong in taking her to the strip club. I even sat in the car,

hoping the manager would say no. Today’s discussion and reflection, someone’s teenager needs

a guardian, but some teenagers need a coach. I couldn’t do both, I had to choose one, and I had

chose to be a coach. I had to break a rule to understand another rule. I had to transcend my “true

north” because I am from the city; too many teenagers are kidnapped, killed and left in the

ocean. Those types of mistakes can only make someone who cares go mad. I made my mistake,

and saved a life, where was her parents, and her models, I was passing through, an adult who

found her walking. I could have taken her home, and I did. She end up running away to Hawaii,

and no one could save her then. Today, she calls me, friend, sister, mentor and advisor.

By the time he was 16, he had learned telegraphy and began working as an operator at various

points in the Middle West; in 1868 he joined the Boston office of Western Union. It was here

that he read Michael Faraday's Experimental Researches in Electricity and decided to work full-

time as an inventor. (Time International South Pacific Edition, 1999)

I have learned that my leadership style started when I was 10, when a physical education

teacher told me that he noticed that I had a gift in athletics. He wanted me to learn how to play

basketball, and at 13 I learned competitive sports. I decided to play professional sports, when I

found out he was dating Lynette Woodards, at the time the first female globetrotters, I began to

live my life to become a globetrotter. It was through my own mistakes, I learned that it cost me

my team’s success, and those mistakes became my rebounds. I discovered the faster I recovered

from mistakes, the faster I could restore from them, and my team could benefit from my

discovery to quickly respond. As a young adult, I learned how to be a team leader, coaching

came because I understood the movement of the body, and that helped me instruct, mentor and

coach others to learn how to move the body masterfully. Thomas Edison and I have these

leadership qualities, we are mentors. We do not focus our lives around reinventing the wheel,

but we improve our decisions to make our skills work for us in the best light and that becomes

our business model, “…action learning has become the centerpiece and an integral part of all of

our public management programs because of its extraordinary capacity to enhance how people

manage and lead public service organizations.” (Marquardt, 2003) My choice to use actions to

learn and learning keeps me making mistakes; this is the process as to ask the wrong questions

after I made the right action and to ask the right questions to make the wrong actions is to

develop and trust myself to rebound and improve that process.

References

THOMAS EDISON. (1999). BusinessWeek, (3630A), 88. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Gray, P. (1999). Thomas Edison. Time International (South Pacific Edition), (1), 134. Retrieved

from EBSCOhost.

Seelhorst, M. (2003). Thomas Alva Edison. Popular Mechanics, 180(1), 36. Retrieved from

EBSCOhost.

Bennis, W, The Essential Bennis (text), 2009, “The Coming Death of Bureaucracy” and

“Learning Some Basic Truisms About Leadership”

George, B, True North, 2007 (text), Chapter 4

Kinsella, E. (2005). Action learning leadership skills. Jones International University. Marquardt, M. (2004). Harnessing the Power of Action Learning. T&D, 58(6), 26-32. [Jones e-global library®: Business Source Premier]

Note: The example in this report is confidential information. This information is used only for the assignment for this report to reflect leadership and the style of leadership.

 The Role Model: The Swedish Company of Sixty

The Methodology of Relationships and Health Productivity in a Working

Environment

 

\

“Workplace is an important setting for health

promotion. Studies have shown that the organization

of work affects the health of the employees”

(Van der Hek and Plomp, 1997; Chu et al.,

2000).

 \

    The reason the workplace is a very important discussion in leadership and

integrity is because employers have not upheld maximum requirements for

employee’s health and security or displayed higher standards for their employees in

health ethics. Employers generate profits, and in those profits they are able to

pocket. The issue around health becomes complicated. The employer’s health

insurance does not cover daily expenses as to regular check ups, holistic healing as

to physical, occupational and athletic therapy. The employers decrease their

employee wages to supplement the low end health package employers’ offer as a

benefit, retirement depreciation and defective health insurance for employees who

stay on the job for a continuous cycle. Companies as the hospitals and education

system may have better health insurance for their employees but overall the global

systems of employment of employers retain the right to neglect their employees and

their employees’ families.

 

Jones International University, Theme 1 Excerpt, 2011

“Fiedler (1987) believes that a leader who is effective in one situation may

not be so in another. He bases his contingency theory on the assumption

that no single way of leadership is always effective and that different

situations call for different actions.”

 

    In this case study,

“A Swedish industrial company with a low sickness rate was selected as a

case for this study. The company is a family firm in the Stockholm area,

constructing and producing cable machines for industrial applications. It is

a leading performer in the market and constantly has to find innovative

technical solutions to stay in that position. When the study was

undertaken, the company had about 60 employees in three countries,

including Sweden.” (Eriksson, Jansson, Haglund, Axelsso, pp. 129, 2008)

 

The method in this case study of leadership is to have a close connection with your

employees. Fiedler believes that leadership is effective if leaders are able to respond

according to an individual basis to promote health to the case at hand as different

actions are needed for every situation according to the personal needs of the person

who is involved in the situation. In this case study the Swedish industrial company

is only sixty large in three countries. Their formula to keep each station small has

helped them be effective leaders in their methodology. The results to this Swedish

company prove that the ratio of employees per leader or operation should determine

the number of its populations. For example, this reminds me of a great example of a

day care operation. According to the law, children requirements per team of

teachers are required now for each classroom setting. This method proves that

effective management begins with the ratio of employees to a team of leaders. In

this case study this Swedish Company has a high productivity and their health is

increased by the relationship the leaders have with their employees.

 

Jones International University, Theme One Excerpt, 2011, “It focuses on the

relationship between the leader's style, the characteristics of subordinates, and the

context of the work setting.” On the other hand, the ideas around leadership and

health in the workforce create a rift in the controversial issue of who should be

responsible for individual’s health. For example, if a woman wants to have children,

should the employer deny her access to resources to have a pregnancy if it is not in

the contract? It has been a complicated topic around gender issues whether or not

women should have extra health coverage’s to increase their productivity in the

work force, yet the argument to the health care coverage for women when they

become pregnant has been discussed with employers to socially control whether or

not they want to hire women or families as part of the work crew. The stipulation in

this argument is the discrimination act of equal opportunity employers who have

complied to access tax breaks, and other benefits through affirmative actions to hire

women and marginalized populations that are not in the formula of men and youth,

has determined whether or not if it is effective to bridge the gap with women,

pregnant mothers and the stress in health coverage on budget for families’

health. The increase of concern is that families need more health coverage than a

working male under the age of twenty five. What type of relationship should an

employer have with their employee, and what type of social control should they

have over their personal lives?

 

This discussion in this case study is centered on the relationship the employer has

with their employees. This company in Sweden has a low turn over and health

increase in this company’s longevity comes from the founder’s principle of building

teams, building awareness and creating a healthy environment with hierarchy.

 

“The company has a flat and decentralized structure. It has no formal

hierarchy, no foremen and no time clocks. Instead, it is organized in self-

managed teams. In these teams, the employees are expected to take

initiative, try new things, take responsibility, adapt and co-operate.”

(Eriksson, Jansson, Haglund, Axelsso, pp. 130, 2008)

In theme two, the situational leadership style this founder has combined both task

and relationship behavior as a high/high relationship and task oriented company to

increase productivity and health to be effective as a global company that produce

profits and satisfaction in the founder’s goals and employees personal goals in

life. In this case study I have a hard time believing this case as a method that

promotes better health. In this case, they eliminate the age factor, the cultural

background, the historical background of their employees and they eliminate all the

other external factors that can cause stressors in these individual cases whether or

not health care was resolved, or was their employees fired, discriminated through a

heavy and lengthy profiling process. This case study did not touch on any basis on

how effective and diverse their culture maintain in their environment as individuals

instead of as a unit. Thus, the methodology of teams, lack of hierarchy demonstrates

a utopia world that presses the issue of socio-economics of the individual chosen to

be hired, their competency of the work done, and what the prerequisites through the

hiring process, trial period and their exiting plans for that employee. This case study

did not go into details into their lifestyles, their personal goals or their ability to

handle pressure. This case study did not include the factors of other internal and

external resistances that are involved in having relationships as to their ability,

learning curves, styles, and their health care limitations or boundaries as to how

much they are willing to offer for the employee. This case did not disclose the

factors of commute, travel, whether or not these employees were all men under

twenty-five or without families. The situational behavior may be limited in this case

because this case study excluded the study of people and their health as a life time

work in progress or even under construction into what needs would be met to keep

their employees healthy or below the average line of in need of health care. This

study did not focus on whether or not accidents would be made in a report, nor

would they be committed to hospitalization costs if an accident had happened. This

case did not discuss retirement and health issues after termination. 

 

    In this discussion, this case study brings this methodology to the forefront that

people are able to remain healthy under stronger ethics and responsibility in the

company framework as a working environment with greater worth and value in

culture and relationships. The cost effectiveness into health proves that employees

are able to maintain their health better on an individual level if the company protects

their working environment by using strong responsibility of health promotion with

the employees. They have not made this case study clear whether the employer does

provide health care on a daily basis or as a right to the employee, but it is very clear

that this company promote health and individuals seem to take on healthier roles in

their own personal lives when they are able to come to work and work in their own

pace.

 

 

“Several persons interviewed pointed out that there is no competition

between the employees. Instead, co-operation was described as a condition

for the organization of work, and the team work was regarded as both

positive and sensible. One explanation for the good co-operation was that

there are no divisions where employees only mind their own work tasks,

‘everything is woven together, and everyone is dependent on each other,

no matter what area they work in’. In all the interviews it was expressed

that the good companionship and support from colleagues strongly

contribute to a feeling of well-being at work.” (Eriksson, Jansson,

Haglund, Axelsso, pp. 131, 2008)

 

In this discussion, the analysis that employers find ways to promote health through

ethics of keeping the working environment safe, clean and give employees the

human rights to exercise the freedom to express and make decisions can lead to

healthier means to productivity, cost effective benefit packages and longevity for a

company and their future productivity as a competitive entity without the pressure

of competition in the work stations. On some level, that case works, in the case of

other mass production corporations as Nike, Wal-Mart, The Gap,  and Oil

Production companies, BP, Chevron, Exxon, or service entities as to the military

and NGO’s, all have similar attributes in the work place, health promotion and

employee’s health that ratio of leadership relationship with the employee and their

families. In my conclusion, I have evaluated that the utopia model I have discussed

with the Swedish company may be effective with the perfect formula, and hiring

techniques of discrimination, that may keep the founder in his own carrying

capacity of leadership ratio to employees. I still find that the calculation of any

operation must be evaluated and assessed to the situation in its entirety of dynamics

and complexity of demographics and exploitation. On the other hand, whether the

leadership and employee ratio may have increased, the responsibility of both

behaviors of relationship and task must calculate into a formula and method of

practice to generate health on any level of an employee’s livelihood whether it is for

the longevity of their life at the company and beyond their assignments. The real

issue is whether or not corporations, companies and organizations need to have

ethics and responsibilities to their employees, contractors and those who are

committed in service to their entities.

    

  References

Eriksson A; Jansson B; Haglund BJ; Axelsson, R. R. (n.d). Leadership, organization

and health at work: a case study of a Swedish industrial company. Health Promot

Int, 23(2), 127-33. Retrieved from EBSCOhost, 2008.

               

            Jones International University, 2011, Theme One, Two, Three, Cases for Leadership

 

Rothacher, A. (n.d). Corporate Cultures and Global Brands. Retrieved from

EBSCOhost, 2004.

 

Haley, U. V. (n.d). Multinational Corporations in Political Environments : Ethics,

Values and Strategies. Retrieved from EBSCOhost, 2001.