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.