Servant leadership

So I missed a blog a few weeks ago about Servant Leadership. The speaker emphasized the importance of doing things not for yourself serving others to be a good servant leader. Leadership shouldn't just be about making yourself look good or acquiring more skills and experience to put on a resume, but actually learning to love those you are leading.

I have a scriptural application that's kind of different for this. It made me think of in Matthew 6:16-18 when Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the Mount and says not to be like the hypocritices who "disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast... they have their reward." He said that we should fast secretly to our Father in Heaven. I thought this was like servant leadership because if we just do things to appear as a great leader or for our own benefit, we may as well not be doing them. But if we actually serve those around us and do them because we love them, than we can make a big difference in other peoples' lives, and that's really what matters.

Thanks for everything this semester, Tommy. The class was wonderful and I really did learn a lot about becoming a better leader and person. You were a fantastic TA :)

Last week!

Elise May was our speaker last week and a couple of her more simple points really stood out to me. The first thing she did was have us introduce ourselves and talk to the people around us, which at first I thought was a little cliche because we had been in the same class the whole semester, but then I realized I really didn't know most of the people the class. Though I've been trying since coming to college to be outgoing and talk to those I don't know, It hit me that I need to work harder to remember people's names and get to know those around me even if they're acquaintances.

The next thing Elise May did was have us write the different things we learned about leadership on the board. It kind of overwhelmed me to see how many aspects of being a good leader and person we should work on. It's relatively easy to take a week at a time and learn about and implement an aspect of leadership, but then when the next week comes, it's hard to keep building upon those skills instead of just moving on. I guess I'm just saying that you can work on leadership skills your whole life and never be the perfect leader, and there's always something you can improve. But that's good, because we become better people and better leaders.

Something fun

For my something fun this week I went to a songwriting showcase on Wednesday. I was in a songwriting class last semester and got in the showcase and it was so fun to perform and hear everybody else's amazing talent. I wanted to see the talent this semester and the different ways people create songs and perform so I decided to go. It was amazing! My favorite performer was this girl with the most unique voice I've heard, and it was honestly the best performance I've heard at BYU. The song was absolutely fantastic and well written as well. There were many amazing performers and songs, and I was amazed with the creativity of some of the lyrics and melodies. It just re-inspired me to step up my own music, and I was so glad I went.

This week we talked about leadership in the home, and I really enjoyed learning about this topic. I believe the blog post was on a tradition that our family has that we can learn from and use in our own families, and an example of shared leadership in our homes.

My favorite tradition that my family did is quite an odd one. We would always go out to this restaurant called Ross Park Drive In and get taco spaghetti and tater tots. After that, we would take whatever leftovers and little treats we had in our car and go feed the squirrels in the cemetery. From the time I was little and the squirrels would surround me so that my parents would have to come chase them off, through my teenage years, we would always make time to go feed the squirrels. I would like to have unique traditions like this in my own family.

My dad is a really good example of using shared leadership in my house. He is always fair and tries to look at my mom's point of view. He also tries to work things out reasonably with my mom and the family when one of us is unhappy. He is a good example of conflict resolution as well, which goes hand in hand with shared leadership. I hope to be able to use his example with my own spouse.

Ethical dilemmas...

One of the biggest ethical dilemmas in my life deals with something I love most: music. I guess I'm not what you would call a casual listener. I like to dig deep into the barrage of artists and explore different types of music. When I find something I like, it becomes the soundtrack to my life for a time. I use other artists' music to get new ideas and inspiration for my own music, which expands my thinking and creativity.

This is why it is such a huge temptation for me to download music illegally. I could have every unique artists' music at my fingertips, at no cost to me. This was my view in high school, and I downloaded music as I pleased. It's just taking money from the big corporations, right? It's free advertising for the bands who's music gets downloaded and they can make money from concerts. Well, maybe, but I believe at some point it's got to hurt the artists. Because I want to be an artist myself, I can't consider it ethical to steal money from artists now and expect to sell records myself later. So though it is a huge temptation for me, I try to steer clear of downloading music.

Random

Alright since this is a free topic blog I'm just going to write about what I'm learning in my book.

I'm reading How to Win Friends and Influence people. It's so interesting to me how many things you can learn about how to better your interactions with people. I thought it was basically common sense in learning how to deal with others, but there's so much to learn. The book has talked about learning not to criticize others, because it won't ever make the situation better. I've also learned that when you are in a leadership position and you want people to do things, you should help them want to do it. This means putting it into terms that relate to the person and making it important to them. I've learned a lot of techniques for bettering my relationships with others that will be helpful throughout my life.

teamwork

In applying the principle of stand close together and lift where you stand, I really looked to my roommates. It has been a new set of challenges and blessings this year living in such close quarters with people. We entered as strangers and ended up with tight knit friendships. We have our struggles, though, and this principle seems to really describe the successful way to deal with challenges and help each other. When one roommate has troubles, it's easy for us all to lend support and a listening ear and lift from where we stand. It's when we all are struggling at the same time that we really learn and grow. In these times which have only happened recently, we are continuing to learn that we really need to stand close together. If some of us are pulling a huge weight load and nobody notices, it can make things very difficult for the individuals. Butif we all lift an equal amount, we can lift and take care of each other and become a more Zion-like group.