Experience of lollipop moment
Drew Dudley’s vision of a leadership is very inspiring. I didn’t even think that I can speak about myself as a leader, but he made me to remember one of such lollipop moments happened in my life. Actually, I don’t have this moment in my memory in details, but I cannot deny it because I really have features of a person from that story. My close friend, Kate, told me about the situation, which, in her opinion, was crucial in our long-lasting relations. It was in school. My last grade I spent in the school, where all students in the class were new not only to me, but to each other. It was some school’s experiment to define the possibility of reeducating students from schools of the lowest level of education and make their skills more professional only for one year. As no one had a friend, it was absolutely not difficult to set up good relations with classmates. The semester started in September and after some time I had a couple friends with whom I had conversations and did homework. Once, our teacher told us that a new girl would join the class, so we should help her in the study and explain some rules. It was Kate. She came in a month later, when most students from the class united in some groups or pairs, and she should have to adapt in order to become a part of the class. As Kate sat in a row with boys, they liked her company. Therefore, the majority of girls were not satisfied with much attention from boys to Kate. However, she also tried to have friends among girls. At the time of the first credit (in three weeks of Kate’s joining) the teacher gave us a very complicated test in Algebra, which included the information from the beginning of the semester. As the program at this school required in-depth knowledge, Kate wasn’t prepared properly. At the end of the lesson, when students were passing their works to the teacher and creating an atmosphere of the chaos, I came to Kate and saw her confusion. She was lost because answered only six or seven questions, not even the half, out of twenty. I understood that if she failed the test, she could back to her school. I felt the necessity to help her because she was very interesting person. That’s why I gave her my completed test without any doubts. I knew that it was wrong, but after the test I explained her specific topics. She couldn’t even think that someone can help to complete the assignment, say nothing but come and allow cheating from the personal paper. In her school, even in our class, students tried to finish the test and check it many times without giving any support to each other, because they thought that knew the subject better than someone else. Unfortunately, many of them received negative or satisfactory marks. Thus, she stayed at new school with belief that people can make good things not requiring something from her. So, we began to be friends. Later, Kate told me that I showed her the best example of open heartedness that people can share and help without covert sense. From that time she always tries to help people, if she know how to.
Leadership development
At any stage of the life each person seeks to maximize the realization of own abilities and talents. Regardless of whether this desire is explicit or hidden, it is difficult to overestimate its importance and possible positive effects. Getting a decent education, a good mastery of the profession, career development, personal and professional growth opportunities for self-realization and full achievement of a certain level of material well-being are those interim periods, which ideally everyone should pass.
The goals of my own leadership development include:
- Positive thinking. Think thoroughly. No monsters in the closet! Leader, in principle, does not use the word “problem”. This word causes in the human brain negative momentum that can attract to itself, like a magnet, negative situations. In order to indicate that something is unpleasant, the leader uses the word “situation”. Leader watching his speech and tries not to use his dictionary words and phrases that can cause negative situations and images. Every successful entrepreneur, starting a business, sees the top of his heyday. It is the belief that it will reach this peak helps him cope and solve complex problems. Necessary actions consist of start to work through simple psychological techniques and enter the work with affirmations, visualizations and meditations in daily practice.
- Focus on results, not majority of alternative decisions. Personal effectiveness measured by the number of completed projects. It is important to pay attention to the achievements, but not the variety of decisions, because the variety will bring different results, some of which can be neutral or negative. One of the actions, for example, is to carry out one draft project per 3 days and then ask colleagues what they think about my decision and which experience they can share.
- The ability not to take emotional decisions. “Do not act rashly”. The good leader has all required information and assesses it properly. Also, he follows rational judgments. For example, when deciding on buying a new computer in the office, it is necessary to calculate the budget, evaluate management response, justify the need to purchase a computer, assess the degree of benefits and return on the purchase, the degree of joy and satisfaction from it. The specific thing to develop this goal is, for example, to read at least one book on leadership issues and develop five practical steps on its basis.
References
Dudley, Drew. “Everyday leadership”. Web. September 2010.
Joshi, Manmohan. Administration Skills. BookBoon, 2012. Print.
