Attitude

What does attitude mean to you? Briefly define attitude in your own words.

To me, attitude is the way that you respond to a situation presented to you. It is a representation of how you feel about something, and this can be a very positive reaction or a very negative one. Attitude is the one thing that can either keep you pushing through tough times or falling faster and faster into failure.

How does attitude affect your leadership?

Attitude affects your leadership in many ways. One of the most important ways it impacts your leadership is because it is contagious and rubs off on the people that you are around. It can motivate them or bring them down, and this impacts leadership in a huge way because it determines the will that your followers will have.

We talked about the following points about attitude. Explain each one as it pertains to your own leadership...
-Your attitude is a choice
-Your attitude determines your actions
-Your people are a mirror of your attitude

The first point, your attitude is a choice, pertains to my leadership because I have the power to choose how I want to react to something. There are days when I feel like I want to improve and show everyone what I can do, but there are also days when I just want to be done with everything. I have the choice to either keep a positive attitude and make others around me better, or I can slouch around and go with the flow of things. Attitude is a choice, and hopefully I and other people will learn that the positive attitude is the best one to have because it is what keeps you motivated and keeps you pushing to your potential.
Your attitude definitely determines your actions. In my own leadership experiences, I know that if I have a positive attitude and an attitude that leads me to play at the top of my game, that will take me to where I want to be, which is giving it my all 100% of the time. An attitude can either motivate you to be the best player, or it can make you lazy, feel frustrated with yourself, etc. until it is too much to bear and you feel like you want to give up.
Also, your people are a mirror of your attitude. As a leader, I have come to learn that your teammates do what you do, even if you might not think so. For example, this past volleyball season for club, we sometimes had energy issues when we were playing. We would seem dead on the court, not having any fun, not talking to each other, not moving around. I was to the point of frustration beyond control, and I learned that to be a leader you must lead by example and that your followers do what you do, for the most part. I tested it out at the next practice, having high energy all the time and keeping a positive attitude. It was a great practice and everyone said they had a great time. I learned that if you as a leader can keep a good attitude, it will bring everyone else's attitudes up with it. This is essential for leadership.

Respond to the following quote by Victor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning...

"The last of our human freedoms is to choose our attitude in any given circumstances."

This book is about a man that lived during the Holocaust in the concentration camps and fought hard to survive. The book focuses mainly on how he believes his attitude was what got him through those tough times. To me, this quote means that no matter what situation you are in, whether you are having a great time or being tortured in a concentration camp, you have the power to control your attitude and make the situation better or worse. Your outlook on a situation can change your reactions and therefore either get you through those difficulties or ruin your chances.

Mr. Bollinger...

1. Learn as much as you can
2. Support the leader, you can't undermine them
3. Head coach has to trust you by what you do
4. Put people in a position of leadership, empower them
5. Know your place in the hierarchy, you may have it upside down
6. Serve others
7. Stay focused on the "important" as much as the "urgent"
8. You are the glue between the leader and the followers

Choose a point that you think is the most important and why.

The point to me that is most important about leading from the middle is that you have to be the glue between the leader and the followers. I think this is the most important because of personal experience. I have been in both the following and leadership position and I understand how hard it is for the two to connect sometimes. When you are a follower, you sometimes feel like you can't approach the leader because "they might not accept my ideas" or "they won't even take my thoughts into consideration". This is not always the case, but it does happen this way. There is something missing. When you are the leader, sometimes you are afraid that you will say something to your followers that could change their mind about their trust in you, or you don't want to make them feel like they are obliged to do exactly what you want. Again, something is missing. You need a person who can be the go-between, someone that will be there to be the relay between the followers and the leader. The leaders need someone to bounce ideas off of, and the followers need that person that they can talk to, relate to, and give their real opinion to.

Pick a point that you are best at and give an example explaining why.

The point that I believe I am best at is supporting the leader and not undermining them. One example that proves this is that during one of my volleyball seasons a few years ago, I had a coach who was frustrating a lot of the players and none of us really seemed to want to follow the coach. When the girls would come complain to me, I tried to focus on the positives when I was talking about the coach with them, and I eventually proved to them that our coach was taking the right actions that we needed in order to succeed. They didn't always agree with what our coach taught, but they finally realized that that person was doing their job to the best of their abilities, and that they were succeeding in teaching us what we needed to know. All because we took the action of focusing on the positive things, many perspectives changed and we were able to support our coach instead of put them down.

Pick your weakest and pick 3 concrete ways you can improve at it.

I would have to say that my weakest is staying focused on the "important" as much as the "urgent". I am not always the one who can solve long term problems before the short term problems, and I think that can be a negative trait to have. The long term issues also tend to be more important and could have a larger affect. 3 concrete ways that I can work at improving this include: 1. Making a list of short term goals that I can accomplish that I have to do fairly quickly. 2. Take any long term goals that I have and turn them into short term goals, for example; Going to college is a long term goal of mine. I can turn this into short term goals by deciding what colleges I would like to go to, scheduling college tours, start getting applications together, etc. 3. Lastly, I can make a list of all the things I am trying to accomplish in my life right now and I can, rank them by importance, not necessarily long-term or short-term, and try to accomplish them from there.

Mr. Cain...

What did he mean when he said, "You have the choice to entertain your thoughts?" Give an example of this in your own life as it pertains to leadership?

Mr. Cain meant that you can control the way that your mind thinks. You have the power to make something seem better or worse than it really is. This quote means that you can make every situation seem positive, even when it may not seem so. We have the power to react to situations differently, and can act in any way because of that. One example of this in my life would be that sometimes after a volleyball practice, I may feel as if I did not play very well. Usually, I come from these practices feeling depressed and frustrated with not only myself but my team as well. Once I realize that I am making the situation worse, I try to look back on the night and remember the little things that I did positive. For example, I will remember some really nice serves that I had, a kill that went through the floor, or an interaction between the coach or a teammate and I.

He read a passage about handling adversity right before he left. Explain which one you are, the egg (get hardened on the inside), the carrot (get soft), or the coffee bean (change the situation) and why? If you are the egg or carrot talk about what you can do to become the coffee bean when adversity hits and if you are the bean talk about what types of things you do during adversity to make the situation better.

I would say that I try to be the bean and at most points I think I am successful, but actually at times I become the egg. The "egg" is the one that, when faced with adversity, becomes hard on the inside. I feel like when I am presented with a challenge, sometimes I "harden up," shut down, and become frustrated. When this happens, the only place to go is downhill and I keep rolling faster and faster until I just have to quit. This is definitely not a good characteristic to have, in my eyes. When adversity hits, I need to focus on the positive things and not worry so much about what I am doing, but more of what I can do to help the team out, whether that means stepping up my game or staying out of the way. I need to think about the team and our success as a whole, and not just focus on myself.

Initiative and Perseverance...

We all struggle starting things even when we know they will benefit us in the end. We all would much rather enjoy the instant gratification that is here and now. In what ways can you show better initiation in your own life and leadership capabilities? Give at least one concrete example of something you are showing a lack of initiation with and at least 3 concrete steps you are going to take in order to do that.

The steps that I am going to take in order to show better initiation in my own life and leadership capabilities that I am going to not be afraid to take as many risks and I am going to learn to understand that these risks will most likely benefit me in the end, even if I don't "feel" like doing them now. A concrete example of something I am showing a lack of initiation in now is that I am not necessarily taking all the steps needed to improve in my volleyball skills, mostly with conditioning. The 3 concrete steps that I can take in order to do that is run a mile every day, do 15-30 minutes of jump rope a few times a week, and eat healthy foods and drink a lot of water.

Respond to the following scenario as it pertains to leadership and initiative...

You are a leader on a team and one of your best players, that the team relies on heavily, is struggling with completing the season for unknown reasons. They are not performing to their best capabilities, and they seem withdrawn at practice, not lifting weights very hard, but they still are competing hard during games and finding excitement in games. Using your new knowledge of perseverance, what types of questions could you ask them to find out more and what types of advice could you give them to get them through this time and persevere?

This is a tough one: Some questions that I would ask this person would include:

Is there anything that I can do to help you live up to your potential all the time?
How can we motivate you to work a little harder in practice?
What do we need to do in order to put your excitement in games towards practice as well?

I would say as my advice: We need to work hard in practice, too. If we only play hard in games, then that will be the only real chance that we have to fix things, and that is what practice is for. If we start playing hard in practice, then we will play even harder during the game.

Mr. Diers...

What does the following quote mean to you?

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the Strongman stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man whom is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again... who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at least knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, while doing greatly, so that his places shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.

To me, this quote means that it doesn't matter what anyone says or thinks, all that matters is the person who gave everything to get to their goal and they never gave up. They are the type of person that doesn't really care if they succeed or fail, but they trust that their passion and toughness will always set them above everyone else. This person knows that in the end they will always be placed above all those who know only victory and only defeat.

How can you relate Mr. Diers' comment "integrity is something you display all the time" to your own leadership process? Be specific in what that looks like?

This comment relates to my own leadership process because it is something that I value highly and that I believe is one of the most important parts of leadership. I try to behave the same way everywhere I go, with respect, honesty, and kindness. Its important to display integrity all the time or else people will not always think of you the same way. Reputations can get around, and if you have a bad one you can only end up hurting yourself, and possibly others. So it is important to have a set of values that you live by. You cannot only say you have values, you must live your life by them. Some ways that I strive to display integrity is through school, volleyball, with family and also when I am doing things with friends.

In what ways is sacrifice "something you have to accept" and can you sacrifice the wrong things? Explain.

Sacrifice is a necessary part of leadership, and therefore needs to be accepted if you want to lead anyone. You must be willing to give things up if you want to make changes or take your team to the next level. If you aren't willing to take chances, how can you expect anyone else to? It is just something that comes with leadership. You can definitely sacrifice the wrong things. Family-for example. Never do anything that will have a negative impact on your family. These are people that love you and will always be with you and if you hurt them in any way, it will ruin lots of things. I believe that family is the biggest one. Time, for example, would be a good thing to sacrifice, but never your family.

Videos on Sacrifice and Courage

Last Thursday in class, we watched three videos that were about people with disabilities that had courage enough to do what they had dreamed of, even though the odds were against them. One particular video that affected me was the video of the golfer, DJ Gregory, who had cerebral palsy and had difficulty walking. (This video is found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUSHN5EB0v8) He had made a goal for himself that he would walk every hole of every tournament in a year. I think that DJ has A LOT of courage, because he believed in himself when not many other people did. I am sure that knowing that there are people don't think you can do something is a very difficult thing to deal with, but he had the courage to disregard that and he knew that he could do it. Also, his parents had to have a lot of courage, because they had to see their child with the disability, and they had to help him along and encourage him, all while knowing that their son could have had a better life. DJ had to sacrifice a lot of things to achieve his goal, and this made him that much more courageous because in order to have courage and conquer a fear, you need to sacrifice. DJ was a very inspirational person to me, because he had the courage to accomplish his goal and conquer his fears, even though the odds were against him.

Courage and Sacrifice

Explain the following quote as it pertains to sacrifice and leadership: "the heart of good leadership is sacrifice".

This quote means that to be a good leader, you must be willing to sacrifice the things that are close to you. If you wish to have your team succeed, you are going to have to give up all the things that would stand in your way of that success. Sacrifice falls at the top of the list of important traits of leaders. Leadership always takes sacrifice, whether it is a big sacrifice or not. The small steps may even make a bigger difference most of the time. To be a good leader, you must understand the importance of sacrifice. Coach Krueger said that "There is no success without sacrifice...No leadership without sacrifice."

In what ways do you display courage to those whom you influence?

I try to display courage to those I influence in many different ways. Sometimes my attempts may not work, but one day they will pay off. One way I try to show courage is in the face of adversity, I always stay confident, even when the odds may seem against us. As long as I continue to do this, it will portray my confidence to them. Also, if our coach presents us with a challenge, I always do my best to get it done, even if it is a difficult task or is a step outside of our comfort zone. "Courage in a leader inspires commitment from followers". -Quality 6: Courage

What does courage have to do with leadership?

Courage has so much to do with leadership. As stated above, from one of our packets is the quote, "Courage in a leader inspires commitment from followers. Courage is contagious" When someone is showing courage and other people are able to see that, a lot of times they become encouraged themselves, and sometimes even inspired. Courage leads others to believe that they have what it takes to do anything. Without courage in leadership, how would you be able to lead your team anywhere? To lead effectively, you need to take risks, and you can't take a risk that will get you anywhere new without courage. It is what is needed to step our of that comfort zone again and act on it. Courage is essential if you want to be a good leader.

Coach Krueger

Coach Krueger came in to our classroom and spoke with us about courage and sacrifice, and what sacrifice really means. He went over many things that were very important and essential for leadership. He interacted with us and asked us to write down some things, including what trait that we have that we believe makes us good leaders. I said mine was trust, becuase I know I can rely on my team and I believe that they are honest to me. I know them well enough to trust that they will be this way. He also asked us that if we had a magic wand and could just instill one leadership trait into everyone on our team that would make us better, what would it be. I said desire, because sometimes my team gives up and just goes with the flow. Sometimes it seems like they don't really care. We need to want to play the game and play with 100% effort all the time. The thing that Coach said that stood out to me the most was him saying that sacrifice = selflessness. I believe in this. He gave us some pointers as to how to be more selfless, and he said to 1) promote someone other than yourself, 2) Take a subordinate role, and 3) Give secretly. That is really what hit me the most-giving secretly. This means giving something to someone else without them knowing. That is when you don't care about the credit, you just get to make other people happy or successful, which makes doing something good for others feel so much better to you. It is just a really good feeling. Coach Krueger also gave us quotes that I thought were right on target:

"Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the 'me' for the 'we'." -Phil Jackson

Influence and Inspiration

What is influence and how do we get it?

Influence is the power that someone has to effect someone so much with either their words or actions to get that person to follow your goals and to follow what you are trying to accomplish.

How critical is it to leadership and why?

Influence is extremely critical to leadership because without it, you wouldn't even be able to lead! We would not have the power to change anyone's mind and we couldn't get anyone to follow us if we did not have any influence over them. The level of influence that you have is very important. If you have no influence, no one will want to do what you are trying to get them to do, because they don't believe that what you are doing is best. If you want to show someone what is best, then you must have influence over them to explain your point to them and then get them to change their mind and agree with you.

What are three concrete ways you can earn influence every day with your peers or teammates?

The three concrete ways that I can earn influence every day with my peers and teammates include:

1. Letting them know that I trust them and that they can trust me.

To develop influence, you need to have a good relationship with your team and then they will trust you, and this trust will lead to them believing in you and what you are doing. This will give you influence because they trust that you are making the right decision for the team.

2. Leading by example 100% of the time.

If you can show your team that you are a great player and that you do the right thing everywhere and all the time, including in school and your personal life, then they will realize what a genuine person you are and that they can trust that you will always be doing the right thing, whether it is for the team or for yourself. Again, it comes back to trust.

3. Relate to them on a personal level.

Once a deep, special relationship has formed, then your teammates will be able to know and understand where you are coming from, and how your ideas are formulated. They can understand you on a deeper level that is essential for leadership, and this will help you gain influence because they know you better and understand why and how you are going to lead them to the goal.

Vision and Goals

Share your life sentence and what your thoughts were for putting down what you did for the sentence. Share the team vision/slogan/motto that you and your teammates came up with and the explanation behind it.

I want to be known for my respect, honesty, confidence, sportsmanship, and my passion for what I do.

This is my life sentence. I wanted my legacy to be that I was someone who was the ultimate example of respect, honesty, and doing what I love with passion, and loving what I do. My thinking behind this was that I value all of these things highly and they are all very important to me. So, why not live what you preach? If you believe in something, you have to live that way. You can't hold anything back and you need to be that ultimate example. If it is something you truly believe in and a lot of passion for, why not be that ultimate example of it? I need to show people what is important in life and how to live it to the fullest.

-Invincibility always follows the passionate team-

This is the team motto that I developed for my team. My original saying was, "A team that has fun playing the game is good. A team that believes in each other is better. But a team that has fun TOGETHER and plays TOGETHER with passion every time cannot be beat." I figured that this would be a good slogan because in the beginning, our team seemed like we weren't having fun playing together as a whole. We needed to have fun and play together as a team, instead of playing as an individual. When we would play as a team, we wouldn't have any passion, and we couldn't stay focused and just played because we had to, not because we wanted to be together playing there. We wanted to be unbeatable, so I decided to be invincible like that, we were going to have to play together with passion.

Leadership...

What is leadership? What is the difference between vocal and performance leadership? Which one is your strength and why? Are leaders born or made? Why?

To me, leadership is knowing your roles and what your job is, following through with it and assisting others will being successful in their roles also. A leader does whatever they can to make their team successful.

Vocal leadership is when you have a leader who is very encouraging, positive, loud, and also comunicating with you, letting you hear what you need to do in order to achieve a goal. Performance leadership is when your leader is not as loud, but instead they lead by example. They always know how to get their job done. They work hard in practice and they show you what goal you want to achieve by actually showing you. They make it their priority to do what they think everyone needs to be doing.

I believe that my strength is being a performance leader, because I lead better by example than I do vocally. Recently, my vocal leadership has been getting stronger, because I realized that both are equally important and I needed to heighten my abilities in both of these areas. In one of the first packets that we read in this class, which was Chapter 1 of "The Team Captain's Leadership Manual", it explains that "leaders by example lead not by what they say but more in how they conduct themselves." It also states that "vocal leaders display the same commitment, confidence, composure, and character of leaders by example, but they go a critical step further in that they are willing to step outside of themselves by verbally encouraging, motivating, challenging, and holding their teammates accountable." This is implying that vocal leadership is just as important as performance leadership, however, vocal leadership goes that "critical step further".

I believe that leaders are made, not born. I think this because a person is shaped by how they are raised. They grow and learn by seeing those around them and what those people believe. They need to have the leadership qualities shaped into them. For example, a person can only learn commitment if they learn the importance of it. They gain confidence by seeing those around them and deciding how how they want to view themselves. Character is gained by learning from your parents what morals and values are "right", and then you can decide from there how you want to live your life.

Trust & Honesty Go Hand-In-Hand

1. Define Trust

In my eyes trust is when you have such a special connection with someone that you are able to confide in them when you need help, and you can share your real feelings with them and believing that they will share their same feelings with you. You know that they will always be there as someone to talk to, and they can always be that extra support when you feel you need it.

2. Define Honesty

Honesty is very important to me, and I would define it as displaying your true feelings and never holding anything back. It is when you give your real opinion about things, and you aren't afraid to tell someone what you are really thinking. However, when I think of an honest person, I don't think of someone who is blunt and rude to people, even though it is their real opinion. Honesty also entails constructive criticism and true praise. You cannot pretend to be happy for someone and then not be genuinely happy.

3. What do trust and honesty have to do with each other? Do they go hand-in-hand?

Trust and honesty have a lot to do with each other. To gain trust or trust someone, you need to be honest with each other. Also, honesty requires trust, because to be honest with someone you need to be able to trust them to not only keep your thoughts to themselves, but to believe your thoughts and understand what you are saying. They definitely go hand-in-hand, because it is difficult and awkward to have one without the other.

4. How do they both relate to leadership and what are their importance to leadership?

Trust and honesty both relate to leadership because in order to lead your peers, you need to gain their trust and you need to trust them that they will believe in what you are leading them to do. In order to gain their trust and have them trust you, you need to be honest with them. Honesty is one of the biggest ways that you can gain someone's trust. This is very important to leadership because without them leadership would be nothing. Trust and honesty is the basis as to which leadership is created, and without these two qualities, no one would lead or follow with their whole heart, which is what is needed.

Focus and Communication

Hopefully this week you have paid attention to your focus when you communicate. Is your focus on you, your material, or the people you are speaking with? If it is not on the people what types of concrete things can you do or need to change to get better at this?

When I am communicating with people, most of my attention is probably on that person and on the team, but I have to admit that some of my focus is on myself. The majority of my thinking is that when I communicate a goal to someone, I need them to commit to doing this because without them doing it the team would suffer. If they did it, it would make them better as a player and they would contribute more to the team. However, I will say that there have been instances before where I have only communicated things to my teammates and encouraged things to them because I thought it would make me look better. I realize that this is the wrong way to think, and it doesn't happen very often, but it has happened. I think that your focus when you are listening is just as important. When I am really listening to someone, my focus is on them. I am making eye contact and comprehending what they have to say. If you aren't listening to them and you are only hearing them, you can't possibly be a good leader. In an earlier post, I quoted John Maxwell from one of his works on how "The Best Leaders are Listeners". In this piece, he says "When we hear without really listening, our leadership is bound to suffer - and so will our followers". I think this is an important statement because it shows that if our focus is not on the people we are communicating with, we will never truly understand what they are trying to tell us and we won't be any more knowledgable than how we were from the beginning. So, the things that I can do to be more focused when I am communicating with people is to take my time in listening to them. By this, I mean that I need to listen and hear what they are saying, then take the time to understand what their intentions are.

Inspire and Motivate

Can you inspire and motivate people? Do you express your vision in such a way that your people are able to understand, internalize, and implement it? When you talk to people one-on-one are you able to connect with them?

It is definitely possible to inspire and motivate people. It all depends on how you portray what you are trying to get across. I would say most of the time I express my vision in such a way that people are able to understand, internalize, and implement it. But I only do if I am focusing on how I am portraying the message to them. When I am focusing, I know that it takes a lot of energy and the extra effort to motivate my team. They understand my vision through the example that I set and they are able to implement how I think that we need to go about achieving that vision. It seems that I don't lead by example as often as I should, because motivating people is one thing that I struggle with, and I can never learn enough about. When I talk to someone one-on-one, I connect with them much easier than if I was in a larger group. It is easier to connect with someone when you are only talking to them because you can focus on that one person. It is easier to listen to what they have to say and understand it. In a chapter of John Maxwell's book, Leadership Gold, he talks about how "the best leaders are listeners". He says that "understanding people precedes leading them". You cannot lead someone if you do not know where they come from and how their mind works. "Leadership finds its source in understanding. To be worthy of the responsibility of leadership, a person must have insight into the human heart. Sensitivity toward the hopes and dreams of people on your team is essential for connecting with them and motivating them". Maxwell couldn't have said it any better...
"[True] leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand".

Are you a good listener?

Are you a good listener? Why or why not? What types of things make you a good or bad listener? What types of concrete things can you start doing today to make you a better listener?

The question today was are you a good listener. Hmm... good question! I would say that I am a very good listener. I say this because I think it is important to understand a person, and you can only really understand someone on a deeper level when you listen to them. I believe one of my strengths is listening and relating to people on that level. You can tell a lot about a person when you listen to what they have to say.

There are many different types of things that separate good listeners from bad listeners. In my eyes, a good listener is someone who is humble and truly cares about other people more than themselves. Good listeners are able to realize that they are not the most important people and that they don't have to continuously talk about themselves or brag about what they have done better. They are genuine, and they can easily relate to others on a personal level. On the other hand, a bad listener is sometimes loud and obnoxious, and doesn't take the time to even hear others opinions. They are thinking about what they are going to say next instead of actually listening to what the other person has to say. This makes it difficult for them to understand the real point that the other person is trying to get across. It just causes lots of problems...

The kinds of concrete things that I can do today to become a better listener includes simple actions like making eye contact and smiling at a person when they are talking. I need to focus on the words that they are trying to say, and not think about the things that are going on in my life that may be distracting me. I need to listen deeper than what they are actually saying, and hear the message behind what they are telling me. These things will make me a much better listener.

New Blog!

This is blog was created because I am in a leadership class at Palisade High School. This class teaches us how to be leaders through sports and gives us special insight as to how to go about it the right way. We are creating blogs to further our communication skills, because communication is a HUGE part of being a successful leader. We are also doing this to organize our thoughts and give us something concrete to look at when we are no longer in the class. We can reflect back on these blogs and remember what it was that we were thinking when we were taught these new concepts. I am so excited to be in this class and I think it is a real honor to be in it. I have already learned so much about how important leadership is and how a true leader needs to behave and what they need to understand in order to lead the team to success.