Thursday, November 26, 2009

Ask and it shall be given.....

I've had a couple experiences in the last two weeks that I feel really good about....and both of them involve asking for help and doing a bit of advocating for myself. At age 57, isn't it about time I learned how to do that?

In my Research course, our assignment is to write a pilot study, talking about how we would design an actual project. Since this is really a new area for me, I was feeling pretty uncertain about how to begin. So.....I contacted my great friend Don, who has taught Research at GVSU and asked for a meeting. In about one hour with him, I felt like I had a much better sense of direction and ideas on how to start. I went home and began writing, and a few hours later, decided to email my draft doc to my professor at Stritch to see if she also could check it out. Again, I felt really lucky: Carroll called me right away from Milwaukee, gave me two quick ideas but said the rest of it looked really well done.

I think my nature has always been to do my best and try not to impose or bother other people for help, but this week I learned an important lesson about allowing myself to be a little vulnerable. Opening myself to receive the insights of other people, I now have more of a sense of certainty about my work, and I've been able to correct things as I go along instead of playing clean-up after work is completed. I'm thinking this attitude is definitely the one I'll need to cultivate as I go further in this graduate work, and I'm so glad I feel like there are people to help----ports of safety in the storm!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Doing What I Love.....

I have really enjoyed my Leadership course this semester.....The process has been so interesting! We began by reviewing lots of leaders throughout periods of history, looking at who they were, how they became leaders, what style of leadership they embodied, etc. After that, we did a study group project where our group constructed Facebook pages for courageous leaders throughout history. Dale did a wonderful job taking our ideas and formatting them---we were really happy with how it turned out. Our last assignment for the semester brings things to a really personal level: We have to develop a personal theory of leadership that's relevant to our own life, and then present it in one sentence. Our job in our final paper is then to de-construct the sentence, and talk about each phrase to give further information. So here's mine:

Leadership means making a difference by giving my best effort to empower and equip the next generation of school leaders.

I plan on talking about my work, my vision for leaders of courage and integrity, and how my Dad and others have influenced me in always wanting to give my best. I'm excited about it, and am realizing how my learning this semester has prepared me well to come to this point. How cool to be doing things I love!