Michael Cummings's leadership identity and core values

¶ … Michael Cummings

ED-CIF 567

The object of this paper is to discover who I am as a leader and to understand my core values. While writing this paper, I did a lot of soul searching based on my life experiences. These experiences have led me to this point in my life and have helped me discover my core values to enable me to become the leader I am trying to be. These core values define me as a leader who is a flexible decision-maker, a reflective practitioner, and an empathetic respondent to others.

Two years ago, I lost the most important person in my life and discovered who I truly am as a person.[YOU SHOULD BRIEFLY, IN A SENTENCE OR TWO, EXPLAIN WHAT THAT SITUATION WAS] During this life-altering experience, I found that I was someone who was stern in my ways -- things had to be either my way or the highway. I was a person who did not learn from my mistakes. I discovered that I was a person who did not understand other people\'s feelings. This life-changing event made me aware of what what kind of person I am today and really helped defined my core values as a leader. Demonstrating flexibility in life additionally helped me change my behavior in appropriate ways for evolving situations. A true leader will allow himself to make mistakes and, because of this, I am able to learn from my mistakes by becoming a reflective practitioner. As a leader, I am able to identify situations, feelings of others and motives so that I am empathetic in recognizing their concerns and relate to them as they would through their own eyes. All these life circumstances have shaped me as a leader today.

With all the struggles I have had in my life [THE THOUGHTFUL READER WILL WONDER WHAT THESE STRUGGLES ARE AND WHY THEY ARE NOT MENTIONED], I was able to turn to numerous outlets that helped me through them. Growing up listening to Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, helped increase my creativity and allowed me to look at how to do things differently. Eddie definitely guided me through my life with his songs about how to live and love others. \"The love received, is the love that is saved.\" This quotation helps me understand empathy in life.

Michael Jordan was another person who impacted my life due to his quote of \"I cannot accept failure, everyone fails at something. But - I cannot accept not trying.\" I was not a great athlete nor did I excel in sports but I work my butt off [LIKE I SAID LAST TIME, I WOULD LEAVE BUTTS OUT OF THE ESSAY AND CHANGE IT TO \'TAIL\' BUT IT\'S YOUR CALL] in everything I do. As a teacher now, I hear myself preaching to my student a similar quote \"I would rather you try and fail than not try as all.\" This way of thinking sounds pretty rigid to me but I feel that it is acceptable to fail as long as you tried. I feel that being flexible with yourself in times of failure allows for the greatest growth.

As I mature as a leader, will my leadership style change?

(Here I want to use the readings to help bring my points together.)

Experiences in life have made me a better person [YOU SHOULDN\'T SAY GOOD OR BAD HERE BECAUSE YOU\'RE SAYING IT MADE YOU BETTER, WHICH IS GOOD]. Last year was another trial in my life. My school was the largest middle school in the state of Idaho (with over 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 to Victory Middle School expecting to get the job. I was teacher of the year in 2014 and made presentations at national and local Physical Education conferences. I was a department chairman and faculty council member. I thought I was top dog!

Well, I didn\'t get the job. It was a slap in the face and very discouraging, but I didn\'t stop there. I considered the fact that \"True self-confidence is \"the courage to be open - to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source\" (Dweck, 2008, p.___). 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 facing my hardships allowed my mindset to change my views on the situation, enabling me to collect my thoughts and understand who I am. According to Bennis (2003) \"Sometimes we simply don\'t like who we are or what we\'re doing, and so we seek change (p.___) [YOU MUST PUT THE PAGE NUMBER HERE].

I had talked myself into a negative mindset -- I felt really low and depressed for most of my summer. TONS of soul searching went on. I could not run due to emotional injuries in my lower back[THIS PHRASE IS CONTRADICTORY. EMOTIONAL INJURIES IN YOUR BACK CONTRADICTS FEELINGS WITH PHYSICAL SENSATION. I\'VE CHANGED THIS BEFORE, YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER DOING SO NOW BY OMITTING THE WORD EMOTIONAL]. It is amazing how the body reacts to emotional pain in your life. I couldn\'t commitment to myself or my family. So through this phase I told myself to take some time off from running, coaching and school duties. I wanted to focus on myself and my family. I wanted to hone in on being a better dad by being present with my kids, and spending nights on dates with my wife. I wanted to get a masters in leadership because to become 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.