1//28/09

Today's evaluation had a lot to do with leaders vs. followers. I have seen myself as both and agree that both are necessary for the other to exist, similar to the chicken and the egg situation. What is true that we learned today in class was the ability to decide which type of leader of follower to be, once that is forced (hence Eeyore) or the latter who makes the best out of the situation and commonly makes it a better environment for everyone else (aka Tigger). Our class today began a bit more leadership from the leaders who chose to speak up and walk to the front of the classroom. I will be honest, I was not one of them, and not because I was scared nor thought it was too much work. I will work just as hard as a follower, but the reason is because I believe that a person should be versatile from being a leader to a follower. Not all of us can be leaders just as Dr. Feinberg said because the leaders need followers as well and I believe after watching a few of the people I would greatly trust as a leader that I would be more effective as a follower in that situation. Sure this seemed cowardly or excuse-worthy, and I will agree that if I were to go up there I would have wanted to see who would like to follow to make the most productive team. I believe it took as much guts to give up my own leadership as it was for someone to stand up there. It is all for the good of the group.

1/26/09

Today's class was incredible. I've never seen so many college students move emotions from thoughtful to an entire class load of laughter from one second to the next. In class, all of us were paying attention and despite Dr. Feinberg stating he was a bad leader, he definitely caught our attention which is the first step of a good leader as well. I do not believe the bad leader role is intended for us to be mad, frustrated, or confused, but rather to solve our own questions with a little bit of thought. For other classes, we often ask the professor in case of getting the main point wrong, but that isn't what the real world will be like. Seeing as most of us are seniors and graduating this Spring, the point of this class is mainly leadership that we will experience in the next couple decades of our lives. Seeing what not to do is one of the easiest ways to teach and to learn and it could definitely be said about leadership. When we graduate, we won't have grades or someone to answer our questions whenever we want them, but there will be choices and many more than we have now. We choose to go to class and most do, but some may do it because they paid for it or their parents paid for it, or just that they have to get the grade to graduate, but when we do graduate, depending on what field of work there may be more bad leaders than good and it's up to us to make the best out of the situation. Once we've mastered a bad leader, then I'm assuming we can do much with a good leader. Today's class with the many clips reminded me of the movie Pay It Forward and was more on leading your life the right way which will eventually trigger the right decisions of many more people to come.

After class was over, many people were parked in the parking lot and it was amazing to see how one hour of class on leadership resulted in more courteous drivers. I never once heard tires screeching, horns honking, or even any sudden emergency stops. Everyone seemed more calm and chivalrous. If this is what happened after an hour, then I can't wait to see what happens after a semester. This was one of the highlight days of class so far.

1/21/09

It was a shame to yet again miss our Professor, but it was nice to sit back and relax to enjoy The Queen. I have taken a few notes but it normally takes me the second time to really think of great things to write about it. I, along with a couple others, are gathering together next week to watch the movie and really go in depth to what leadership was shown or lack there of in the movie. This will be a great way to not only watch the movie again but also be able to communicate different ideas with other people in the class as well since it was hard to do in class. We will also be able to pause the movie and rewind it if we need.

1/17/09

The first week of class was definitely different from all my other classes. Honestly, I was told about what this class would be like beforehand. I understand that the lack of leadership shown in the beginning is to show how bad leadership can effect multiple groups of people and individuals. I really did not enjoy the infomercial on the first day of class because I believe that although some people need to watch those to increase their self confidence and also to enhance their motivation to do what they want done, sometimes people need to learn from their mistakes too. I've seen a lot of people that have been at their worst and come back better than before because of their will and determination, both of which are important for leaders to uphold.

- During the second day of class, I'll be honest, I was one of the 14 people that walked in late because I didn't allot time for parking. When I came in, groups were already being formed and there seemed to be some leadership going on from my point of view. I knew from previous classes that groups needed to be formed with leaders, but I thought the leaders were chosen after making a speech to see who they could convince to follow them. The people that stood up and put themselves as leaders were great to have and typically they are the same people from past classes and organizations that I saw stand up to lead before. From the primary task we had, our group discussed it together and we honestly didn't know what it quite meant. We disputed if it was really what was going on in that room or if it was on how leadership in our country today was being done and to study about what is going on with that, especially with the leadership changing hands in 3 days.

- Overall, I think that this class will be very beneficial because we are so used to following very particular schedules and such and this class will allow us to pay more attention. For example, I checked the morning of our first class for assignments and read through the entire thing and listed down all the due dates. Also, checking the assignments because they were not ordered chronologically, which is fine. In the real world, we will not be getting a "syllabus" of what to do for the next 16 weeks on the job and dates will be flying at us in all directions so it's good practice.