I wasn’t too sure what to think going into this class. My thoughts at first were, “it’s just another class on leadership”. I was determined to embrace the materials and learn from whatever was offered.
Throughout the course we studied “who we are”. I took the Myers Briggs which taught me that my personality has changed since the last time I took it (4 years ago). I am an ESTJ which more less means I am an organized, realistic, results focused, extroverted person. That also tells me that I should try to be alittle less processed and try to mix things up abit and maybe having some fun that involves laughing outloud.
I handed out several surveys for a 360 review to my friends, family, and co-workers. There I found out that my character is my strongest value and that I have strong personal values and again my systematic approach was brought out. I wasn’t surprised to see that my interpersonal skills were low. By nature I am introverted to the max, but I am now extroverted. That means I continually default to a more withdrawn personality. That possibly is why I enjoy my past-time of the outdoors so much. It allows me to be withdrawn, one of my favorite things. It was good to read comments on my review such as “Matt is organized and seems upto date on new ideas within this business” and “Matt is very intelligent and has a strong desire to learn and he is the type of person that if you know him you will like him”. I am honored, I really am.
Emotional Intelligence was discussed quite a lot throughout class. My ability to recognize empathy in addition to empathy accuracy was a strong point for me. My weakness is the ability to balance my positive and negative feelings. That’s difficult to even write, who would want to admit that? It’s true. I want to believe that it’s possibly because of my natural introverted self fighting to be comfortable in situations I would rather not be in. Regardless, I need to relax and enjoy life.
The Kolb Learning Inventory was extra interesting. I never really processed the thoughts about “how I learn”. It turns out that I am pretty well rounded in this area. I learn the best from visual, hands-on, or thinking. The improvements I could make here would be doing more action with little thought prior to acting. That will be tough knowing who I am. I am too systematic and logical of a person to just up and do something, besides shoot off my opinion once in awhile.
One of the most interesting items I really learned about from this class came from the Learning Review Questionnaire. This questionnaire dug deep into my family, my roots, my beliefs, my education, and work experience. It really was an over-view of me. It really dug out some “wow” moments for me.
At the end of class today we all had to present a project about who we are, what makes us who we are, where we are going, and how are we going to get there. The Professor gave us some tag board, scissors, glue, and a bunch of magazines. We had to find images and words to do this.
My presentation: Flowed from the upper left and went to the right, down, then back to the left. Like a sideways “U”.
At the beginning of my life I have God. I explained the peaceful picture and the strong foundation and belief that I was raised with.
I then have a red barn and John Deere words. I was raised in the country on a farm.
I have a picture of a boy that is walking and leaving foot prints, represented me and my walk of life.
How I met my Special Someone is Kari. I explained how important this person is to me and how I need to rely on her for the remainder of my journey. I talked about our kids and the focus of her career.
I have the words, Let the adventure begin and The Best Trips Start Here. These are meant for Kari and I, and for our kids.
I cut out a Great Eating picture, something Kari and I enjoy to do together and alone.
The picture of the dead tree in the field is representing my Mom. We would take family picnics, her favorite thing to do on my property near a big old tree like this. When my Mom passed away it was the same year our big picnic tree died too. This is another turn in the road for myself.
I have Pat-a-cake, A Troop of Monkeys, and Capture the Right Choice for your Child which all are about my children. These represent the childish and fun ways of children and also about making the right choice for them as they grow.
Friends and Family Fun, things I appreciate and couldn’t be without.
I have a picture of a man canoeing, Whitetail IQ, and I Support Our Hunting Heritage. Spending years in the woods and being a former Hunting Guide along with hunting being a strong passion for me, these also helped form my life. I also use hunting as a stress reliever, a time to think.
The house in the pines represents my home and land. We have a home in the country and a lot of pines, something that came to mind when I saw the picture.
How to Grow Big Trees, this represents my career and my life. What I mean by this is the stacking up my knowledge, life experiences, and beliefs that I do believe I can reach whether it’s in my career or personal life.
The next words are who I am by professional title and what I plan to use to succeed into further development. Engineering, that is who I am.
The Company of Stars, Respected, Dependable, We’ve Got The Right People, Worth, Help, and Quality. These are all traits that I would wish to imply in my life.
The picture…I began to consider the difference between method and motivation,….that I must not confuse them. This also hit home to me personally because I feel motivation is my weak point. It’s not like I don’t get things done, it’s just that I know I can do so much more.
The words Money, Going Beyond IQ, Good Made Possible, Expert and Competitively, Look that’s Good as Gold, Outlaw Stress, Discoveries are all the future. That is what waits for me.
My career path will likely be in manufacturing; therefore I have the picture of the robot. I will likely build upon my understanding of business, manufacturing with a specialty of doing things better whether it’s how I do it or if its mechanical automation.
And Finally the picture of the man and woman looking at the mountains is my goal. That represents Kari and I, looking at the peaceful picture and the mountains we have climbed together.
The word Thanks is a special thanks to my friends and family because I couldn’t do any of this without your support.
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Following the class I asked myself “who am I as a Leader?”… I am not sure that I can answer that, but I do know that when I walked out of my last session of my Leadership class I was singing this song under my breath. “Just as I am, without one plea, but that why blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh357.sht
I know that I have the Perfect Leader who will lead me each step I take. Maybe it’s not the typical response a Professor would expect to see from his class; but I do know he asked for a photo of my presentation for an example and he suggested that I take my core values and lead both professionally and personally. I was given the words to open my heart to a new level; What a great reminder that no matter how many goals I set, or how many goals I reach, only One thing really matters. Just One thing, Jesus is our example of Leadership. God is Great!
