Core Values and Leadership

Learning to Lead by Experience Two years ago, I lost the most important person in my life. My heart ached. Before I lost my mom, I thought I was in the most secure point of my life -- but I was not. Throughout the process of grieving, I found out who I truly was. I was someone who took advantage of situations and people, someone who was careless with money by spending it recklessly to make himself feel better and ignore problems.

I was someone who never learned from my mistakes and kept hurting others because of these decisions. All I knew was that all of these thing that I was doing were wrong but I did them anyways, because it was the only way I knew to solve my problems. I had to take a long look in the mirror knowing what kind of horrible person I was. The toughest change in my life was to face up to my problems.

This life changing event made me more aware of what kind of leader I am today and really helped me define my core values as a leader. Demonstrating flexibility in leadership, to me involves changing my behavior in appropriate ways as the situation changes. A true leader will allow himself to make mistakes, to learn from those mistake by becoming a reflective practitioner in all aspects of life, and to better understand problems instead of ignoring them.

As a leader, I am able to identify situations, feelings and motives, and able to recognize concerns of people and relate to them as you see them through their eyes. Life Circumstances- resources that have impacted my leadership. Beside the struggles I have had late in my life, I was blessed to have many friends to help me get through. Growing up listening to Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, helped me develop creative ways of looking at how to do things differently.

Eddie definitely guided me through my life with his songs about how to live and love others (how can i get empathy in here?). "The love received, is the love that is saved." I had divorced parents and this really helped me through my hardships of my family splitting. Michael Jordan was another person who impacted my life due to his mantra of: "I cannot accept failure, everyone fails at something.

But - I cannot accept not trying." I was not a great athlete nor did I excell in sports but I work my tail off in everything I do. As a teacher now, I hear myself preaching a similar quote to my students - "I would rather you try and fail than not try at all." This way of thinking sounds pretty rigid to me, but I feel that it is okay to fail as long as you tried.

I feel that being flexible with yourself in times of failure allows for the greatest growth[VERY ASTUTE OBSERVATION]. "If you do not change directions, you may end up where you are heading." This quote from Lao Tzu really made me reflect on my life. I believe that things happen for a reason, even if one did not plan on it. During my third year of teaching I started running, a lot. So much so that it consumed me and started to divide me from my family.

My spirit was empty and this humanistic approach to life made me believe in something again. I was more aware and reflective in my ways of living life. As I mature as a leader, will my leadership style change? (Here I want to use the book resources to help bring my points together.) ABSOLUTELY! Experiences in life have made me a better person, good or bad. Last year was probably my most difficult year to date. My school was the largest middle school in the state of Idaho (1600 + students).

During the year the staff was anticipating the new school being built. I was looking for a change. I thought to myself, "I am eight years into my career; I need to move to another school." So I applied at Victory middle school expecting to get the job. I was teacher of the year in 2014. Presenting nationally and locally at Physical Education conferences[THIS IS A FRAGMENT. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?]. Department chair and faculty council member. [THIS IS A FRAGMENT.

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?] I thought I was hot! Well, I did not get the job. It was a slap in the face and very discouraging. I did not stop, however. I applied at other schools in The West ADA school district, Boise School district, and even other jobs outside of education. I felt like nobody wanted me. But allowing my mindset to change my views on the situation allowed me to collect my thoughts and understand who I am.

"True self-confidence is "the courage to be open - to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source." [IF YOU'RE TRYING TO CITE THIS USING APA THE CITATION IS (Dweck, 2008, p.___) YOU NEED THE PAGE NUMBER]Dweck, C. S. (2008) Mindset The New Psychology of Success. New York, NY: The Random House Publishing Group I have talked myself into a negative mindset -I felt really low and depressed for most of my summer. TONS of soul searching went on.

I couldn't run due to emotional [DON'T YOU MEAN physical injuries?]injuries in my lower back. Funny how the body reacts to emotional pain in your life. I couldn't commit to myself or my family. So through this phase I told myself to take some time off from running, coaching and other school duties. I wanted to focus on myself and my family. Now I am a better dad by being present with my kids and going on dates at night with my wife.

I want to get a masters in leadership because I want to be a better leader. Is my leadership style effective and what research supports this? I would pull references from books: 1. Northhouse, Theory & Practice. (3) styles of leadership and examples. 2. Dwek, Mind Set: The new psychology of success. I would talk about the process of my leadership. 3. The Arbinger Institute, Leadership and the self deception. Talk about being in the box and.