Lindsey Wilson MLSD

Think about the distinction between seeing the discipline of organizational leadership as a system of thinking vs. seeing organizational leadership as a body of information. What would you say are the key differences between the two? The Oxford dictionary defines a system as, “a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole.” (English Oxford Living Dictionary, 2017). When I think of a system I think of gears that are interlocked with each other, and by moving one gear there is a cascading effect of the other gears moving as well. To apply this thinking the discipline of organizational leadership, each gear is be a fundamental and powerful concept in which the body of information is reasoned through using the elements of reasoning. As the information gets processed through the elements of reasoning there are still the standards of reasoning and the discipline of organizational leadership that the information must get filtered...

What are some standards that are most important in your life? How did you acquire those standards? How have they changed over the years? To me, in this context, a standard is something that I measure others and myself by. After giving this some thought, integrity and empathy were by far the most important standards for me. Integrity to me is doing your best when no one is watching. It is taking pride in something that others may not appreciate or even notice. Growing up I often worked with my dad doing handyman work or putting up siding on houses. I learned that old homes settle and because of the settling you have to install the siding slightly off level to trick your eye into thinking everything is level. I remember my dad explaining to me how we needed to measure everything out and run chalk lines against the house. Knowing that this would add hours to our work I asked my dad, “Can’t we just put the siding up? Are they even going to notice?” My dad responded, “But I’ll notice...

When I was young I felt that a leader was the person who stood on a stage and gave speeches. To me this individual had somehow managed to obtain this authority without having to ask permission; they just took it. At the school assemblies the principal never asked for permission to talk to the student body. The pastor at church needed no introduction to start giving the sermon to the congregation, and in other formal events it was usually a subordinate that introduced the person who would ultimately be given the power of the podium and microphone. In my naïve mind leaders were just lucky people that were given a job where they talked to large groups of people.  I now know that leadership is so much more than giving speeches, and through experience I’ve learned that any skill or ability must be carefully studied and practiced, hence why I’ve started this educational journey in leadership. In the first week of class my perception of leadership has already been challenged, especiall...