The Value of Values

According to the book Exploring Leadership, values are the guide to your actions and vary greatly from person to person. It is very important to have a good understanding of your values so that when you are faced with tough decisions you can rationally determine the answer that is most true to YOU.

A leader needs to know their values because keeping consistency when in charge is key.  Followers want to be able to know that their leader is going to stick to a plan and not waiver every time a little opposition is created. The only way positive change is going to occur is if everyone is working toward the same goal under the leader's direction. If the leader is changing viewpoints constantly then it makes it difficult for the team to accomplish anything.

My values come a lot from the way I was raised and my relationship is God. Some of these values are self worth, humbleness, integrity, determination, and following God's plan for me. If I am presented with a task I make sure that my actions do not compromise my values. Relinquishing my values causes me to lose direction, lower my confidence, and eventually fail the mission.

Last night while watching TV I saw a great example of differing values during a challenge. If you have ever seen the show Naked and Afraid you know that they sends a man and a woman into an abandoned area for 21 days. Last night the man Jeff, and the women Eva, had completely different values on their relationship with nature. Eva felt that all creatures/humans are equal and people should be thankful for the gifts mother nature provided them. Jeff on the other hand was of the Mormon faith and believed that God gave them the Earth to use entirely for human needs. Their values played key roles in how they survived the Madagascar desert.

 When a giant black widow spider nest was found near their camp site, Eva did not want to kill them. She said it is not worth the bad karma to kill the spider eggs since they had not done anything to them. This could have cost the pair their lives if they hundreds of eggs hatched during the night. Jeff also made a sacrifice during the adventure for his values. At night the desert got down to freezing temperatures, but he would not huddle up with Eva to stay warm. This was because he believed that as a married man you should not touch another women like this. Because of Jeff's value in purity he made the life threatening decision to keep his distance. In the end, both Eva and Jeff were proud of their decisions. They both thought the other one was crazy though for putting them at such risk for their personal beliefs.

There is no one right way to lead because all styles have differing pros and cons. The only stipulation is those leadership values need to be acknowledged and upheld for followers to trust your lead. 

Introduction Assignment

The reason I registered in this class was because in my opinion natural skills and resume facts about yourself can only get you so far. To achieve true success you have to be able to convince people you can handle what they are asking you to do and that you can do it better than anyone else. This class will help me with this because leadership is all about getting people to follow you and trust your actions. What I want to get out of this is class is to be able to come off to people as open minded, yet intelligent. I want people to be open to what I have to say, because I gave them the same respect.

                 I do not believe a leader has to be loud. I believe a leader just needs to captivate the attention of the audience. A leader can do this in a couple different ways. One way that I think is very productive is to come down to the level of the audience. No matter what kind of experience a leader has, they are not going to be respected unless they reciprocate that respect to the mentees. This means that a leader should never ask someone else to do a task they would not do themselves. A leader needs to work twice as hard as everyone else. They need to put half their effort into the job everyone else is accomplishing and they need to use the other half of their effort into making the decisions. A leader needs to do the work themselves because they need to know the problems and strengths of the mission. A man/women will only lead to the best of their ability if they fully understand the task and the people.

                The biggest part of a leader to me is trust. The people have to know that their leader is looking out for them. If the people can do this then they will follow the leader's command. Without this trust the leader will not be able to accomplish anything. The leader also needs to trust the people though. Whoever is in charge needs to know that when they delegate a task it is going to get done. This leader-people trust is built over time and confidence. I believe most people are skeptical to trust at first, which means they need to see their leader in action before they know he or she can be followed. Also it depends greatly on how the leader carries them self.  Anyone who is shaky in their voice or walks hunched over appears to not believe in themselves. If I can't even believe in myself, then it is not fair to ask a group of people to follow my command. When you are a leader, you are constantly watched under a microscope. This form of trust is hard to build up and easy to lose.