Whitlock Resume

Fall Semester Final Reflection

Jeffrey Whitlock

Nathan Ward

STDEV 358 R

12/5/11           

Final Reflection Paper

                        This semester has been uncomfortable. Often, this word is used in a negative context but I am actually using it in a quite positive way. I say that it has been uncomfortable because I have felt myself continually stretched this semester. And it has been said that when you feel yourself stretching, you are growing. After serving a full-time mission for the church, I felt that I had actually grown tremendously in leadership capacities. However, after two years of less intense leadership practice, I have witnessed my leadership skills retrogress quite a bit. At first, it was rather disheartening; however, I believe that this class has given me effective tools, applicable concepts, and meaningful inspiration to facilitate the growth I needed to return to the level that I was at post mission and beyond. However, only one semester is down, and there is still a lot of leading and growing to do. Therefore, it is quite apropos that I take a moment to reflect on three of the principles that I have learned this semester and highlight how I will apply them to my leadership next semester (I may also be doing this for an assignment, but it will be beneficial nonetheless). The three areas are: servant leadership, character, and focus on results.  

Servant Leadership

To me servant leadership is at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because Christ’s entire life mission was the penultimate example of servant leadership. Servant leadership is a lot of things but I think that the concept can best be concisely expresses by the words of Thomas S. Monson, “Remember that the mantle of leadership is not the cloak of comfort but rather the mantle of responsibility.” As this quote shows, servant leaders are motivated by love for others and the accountability that they feel for the success, happiness, growth, and development of those whom they work with. I have come to better understand through my experiences this semester that true servant leaders focus on the individual and see them acutely as just that, individuals, rather than cogs in an organizational machine.

So how will I apply this concept to my leadership next semester? I have thought of three specific things that I will do in order to

1.      Develop greater charity by praying for charity: Charity, the pure love of Christ, is the biggest driver of servant leadership. Furthermore, Mormon taught that we should “pray unto the father with all energy of heart” for charity. Therefore, my goal is to pray fervently for charity daily. I believe that as I do this sincerely, and work hard to show kindness to others, then charity will become a greater part of my being.

2.      Change my focus from inside-out to outside-in by thinking more about the wellbeing of others rather than the wellbeing of myself: Stephen R. Covey taught that “You'll find that as you care less about what others think of you and more about what others think of themselves and their worlds, including their relationship with you. You'll no longer build your emotional life on other people’s weaknesses.” I love this quote but it is much easier said than done. After thinking about way to become better at this—though it might sounds strange—I will practice this by pondering about others while falling asleep instead of my usual self-aggrandizing dreaming prior to falling asleep.

3.      Put higher focus on building personal relationship through better planned stewardships: Rather than simply planning for organization needs during my stewardships, I will think of what the individual needs. I will plan sincere questions that check-up on the individual and help me better understand how they are doing.

Character

I’ve grown fond of the quote, “character is the essence of leadership.” I have learned the truth of this statement more profoundly through my experiences this year. Good leadership requires trust from those you lead. Nothing builds trust better than sterling character. As I have lead and been lead, I have come to realize that people are more willing to learn from and be led by those who have a strong character.  Strong character means having integrity, being properly motivated, possessing honesty, and being transparent. Character can be built but it also builds our attitudes and behavior. The model below visually illustrates this:

I believe that having a strong character is one of my strengths, however, I believe that there are two goals I need to make in order to improve my character:

1.      Always Deliver on Commitments by making realistic commitments: I have learned through experience—often frustrating ones at that—that the number one reason why I fail to keep commitments is not usually because I forget but because I make unreasonable commitments; commitments that if I took a second to think about, I would know that I could not keep them. I am confident that if I change this, I will be much better at keeping commitments.

2.      Work on making my thoughts lie in harmony with my actions by thinking about the Savior when I have negative or improperly-critical thoughts

Focus on Results

If it can be said that character is the essence of leadership, then I believe that it is fair to say that results are the purpose of leadership. Without results, leadership is void, hollow, and meaningless. Therefore, I believe that a focus on results is essential for effective leadership. I think it is important to caveat that area of leadership with a personal reminder that I have learned: That in focusing on results, it is important to focus on the right results and to constantly reevaluate and refocus which results you are seeking.

1.      Help drive results not only in the organization but in the development of those I lead by helping those I lead establish stretch goals: Helping my PDs set and keep goals will be a more formalized and routinized process in my stewardships next semester.

2.      Don’t only create results that are explicitly required of me but create results outside of what lies explicitly within my “position description:” Just as the graphic below depicts, I will seek to expand my effort out from what is “required” to that which is needed.

 

Teamwork

1) Give an example of a time in your life when you've seen successful teamwork or collaboration in action. What can you learn from that example that you can apply today?

While playing Rugby at Occidental college, I saw first-hand how how teamwork can make all the difference in world as to whether or not a group has success. Individually, our team did not have any incredible athletes. However, we played as a single unit. This lead tremendous success. We had a strong, winning record and beat much larger teams, such as USC.

Why did we play together as a team? It's because we understood and trusted each other. I think the number one reason for this, and this is a lesson that can be applied today is that we spent time together off the field--we had built personal friendships outside of "work" by doing things together on weekends, travelling together, eating together, etc. I believe that this is an important part of team-building. 

2) What challenges do you face with teamwork/collaboration and how can you overcome them?

I think the biggest challenge that often comes to teams can summarized in one word: differences. Differences of abilities, goals, understanding, buy-in, motives are often roadblocks to a team becoming a single, cohesive unit. However, I believe that this challenge is one that can be overcome--turning a challenge into a strength. Differences can also make a team more robust, nimble, and effective. However, this challenge--like most--can only be overcome when team members are willing to sacrifice and make adjustments for the the good of the team. 

1. What are some ways you can build integrity and trust with your team?

The number one ways that you can build trust with your team is by being consistent in making and keeping commitments. Another way to build trust with your team is by treating everyone the same regardless of who they are or what the circumstances. 

1.  In what ways do you make sure your team is in agreement with a project before moving forward?

By making sure that everyone is on board before moving forward with any project. A lot of groups operate under a "majoritarian" decision making process but the Quorum of the Twelve will not move forward with any decision without complete "buy-in" from everyone involved. I believe that this is a divinely inspired pattern. This accomplished by:

• Trust
• Love
• Everyone being motivated by what's best for the group rather than what's best for the individual
• Compromise 

1. What are a couple of creative ways you can communicate a new idea to your team?

• By telling a choose-your-own adventure story in a compelling way.
• Object lessons
• Games/simulations 

Focus on Results

1) In your oppinion, what are the most important behaviors (as defined in your student manual) in getting results with a project or problem? Explain why you have chosen these and use specific, personal examples to add merit to your claim.

Three key skills/important behaviors that I believe to be essential for getting results in any circumstance are:

• Planning and organization
• Is quick to act
• Creates high-performance team

I'll share a personal story that demonstrates the importance of these skills:

I have been involved with many student organizations. Aside from BYUSA, The Management Consulting Club is the most effective and impactful organization that I have seen on campus. The reason for this is that the the leadership demonstrates these three key leadership skills. I have been in organizations--even lead organizations--in which two of these three behaviors were present but the absence of one greatly diminished our effectiveness. For example, while serving as a leader in one organization, I worked hard to plan and organize effectively, acted quickly whenever something needed my attention, but failed--in my estimation--to build a high-performance team. This ended up leaving may overburdened and worn down. I can also think of examples in which the other two said behaviors where missing, leading to a similar result.

2) What are your personal strengths in getting results on projects or problems  I hand how can you use and implement them in your current leadership position to benefit your team?

• Communicating powerfully and prolifically: I can use this strength 
• Technical and professional expertise: I can use this strength
• Netowrking: I can use this strength to help gather information and ideas from people in other networks and organization, bringing fresh insight and perspective to SAC. I can also use my connections to help bring strong, reliable volunteers to SAC to all of BYUSA.

Leadership Skills

1)      Share one personal experience where you have seen the Technical/Professional Expertise leadership competency in action.

While playing on Occidental College's football team, I had the opportunity to play with one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Andy was excellent. He was a leader that worked hard and motivated others. Andy had many strengths as a leader but among his top was his expertise in the position at quarterback. Andy had worked long and hard to refine his skills and knowledge for the position and any time Andy walked onto the field, he delivered results. Among all of Andy's strengths this expertise led to him being a great leader of our team. People trusted him because he knew how to get his hands dirty and perform in way that gave him success but also helped those around him become better.

Sure, without these technical skills, Andy still would have been motivational, a hard worker, full of integrity but he would never have a) been put in a position to have as much impact as he did nor b) been as effective of a leader if he did not posses the skills that acted a catalyst to enable his other skills to shine through.

2)      Share one personal experience where you have applied skills from the Solves Problems and Analyzes Issues leadership competency.

While serving as Vice President of the Utah College Republicans, I had the opportunity to help solve a major problem for the UVU chapter. UVU has long had a strong College Republican chapter but recently, the organization was on the verge of collapsing. The club President, after winning a very bitterly contested election decided to drop out of college, leaving the chapter without leadership. When I became aware of the situation, I had only a few days to reach out to some of the old club leaders, help them decide to step up, and aid them in the the task of rechartering  the club before the University deadline.

3)      How does innovation apply to your specific responsibilities?  How do you show support of innovation in others?

To innovate means to make changes in something established, esp. by introducing new methods, ideas, or products or to introduce something new, There are only two ways to improve: do the same things better or do new things. Innovation is a key ingredient in the former and is essentially synonmous with the latter. In esssence, innovation is essential for improveing effectiveness and efficiency. Without innovation, growth and progress would come to a near standstill; processes and organizations can only marginally improve so far. 

With this in mind, here are three specific ways that innovation applies to my duties:

• Presenting: I can innovate in the way that I present. Rather than simply presenting the same way everytime, I can think of new and creative ways to convey inspiration and inspire.
• Brightideas: I can work with program director to help do things differently and better. Bright ideas is more "open ended" program. As such, there is a lot of room creativity not only in the way we run the program but also the way we encourage innovation in students. In fact, the enitre program runs on innovation.
• Focus groups: Although focus groups is a clearly defined program, I can work with my program directors to think of new ways of working with others within BYUSA and even more avant guarde ways of hosting a focus group.

You can support innovation in others by:

• Listening to others ideas without rejecting them
• Compimenting innovation when you see it
• Sharing your ideas openly and freely with others
• Bounce ideas back in a supportive matter
• Encourage others to challenge the status quo by showing your confidence in them

This is in no way an exhaustive list but they are a few suggestions.

Character: the Essence of Leadership

1. Why is character the center pole of the leadership tent? Give an example of a leader in your life who has demonstrated character and how that affected you.

Character is the center pole of the leadership tent because character is the essence of leadership. Without character, a leader has absolutely no chance of being effective. To me, character is consistency of action in ethics, honesty, and integrity to the point where it is internalized to the very core of the person. An example of a leader in my life who demonstrated Character is President Squires, my Mission President.

2. Share one or two things from the lesson that impacted you personally.  Why? How will you apply it to your life?

I was personally impacted by three principles/insights from last Monday's lesson:

1) It is never too late to be what you might have been: I greatly appreciated being reminded of this principle. I think it is far to easy to get down on yourself and regret about your current deficiencies and past mistakes. I think I find myself doing this occasionally. This time regretting is pure waste, thinking of this principle can motivate one to 

2) Challenge your stories: I loved the challenge to do this. I believe a good leader is always willing to challenge his own paradigms and incorporate the ideas and perspectives of others. I think that this is one of the things that I need to improve on.

3) Take action today: I had a similar experience as the young women who deleted all of here pirated music. I think it's easy to put of little things that dent your character until later--they are important but not necessarily urgent. However, as long as there are dents in your character, you are not as an effective leader as you could be.