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.

Servant Leadership

   1.  In your own words, briefly describe the "servant leadership" model we discussed in class.

Servant leaders have pure motives for service. They serve because they love others and desire to help them. Servant leaders make helping others their highest priority. They judge success in leadership on the impact for good they have in the lives of others, not merely meeting organizational goals and objectives. Servant leaders see their influence as stewardship and not aggrandizing power. I believe that the "servant leadership" model is largely encompassed by these words of Thomas S. Monson, "remember that the mantle of leadership is not the cloak of comfort but the robe of responsibility."

   2.  Identify someone with whom you have been personally acquainted and who exemplifies the concept of servant leadership.  Briefly describe the leadership/life style of this person(s).

I believe that there is not a sole in this world that demonstrates servant leadership as well as my Mother. She is truly a leader both in the lives of her children and others. I think my Mom's success as a leader can be seen in both the tangibles and intangibles: She has sent three sons on missions, all of her children to-date have attended college, she has a happy marriage, and she has seven (maybe only six :) amazing children. However these exterior are only ancillary to the heart of her success as a servant leader. More profoundly, she has deeply touched my life--as well as others, I am sure, but I will only focus on my experience--in many ways. It is from my mother that I have learned what it truly means to be selflessly devoted. I have learned from her example what it means to put the needs of others ahead of your own. She has consistently demonstrated what it means to where out your life in the service of those she loves. I could go on but I will simply say that her leadership style is completely embodied by selfless devotion, pure love, and sacrifice.

   3.  Some argue that a servant leader will not have much success in his/her career because they will give too much attention to others and too little consideration of their own professional advancement.  How would you counter this argument?

I would say that it totally depends on what you define as success--but even then, their argument is shaky. Effective leaders impact and influence the lives of others in meaningful ways. A leader without influence isn't a leader at all and the most effective way to truly influence others is to serve them. I believe that history has reiterated this profound truth over and over. From Abraham Lincoln, to FDR, to George Washington, each of these exceptional leaders made a priority to serve others. This being said, the unquestionably  most influential person of all-time, even Jesus Christ, did nothing but serve.