Summarization<\/p>\n
Task 1:\u00a0Think about what I have learned from this course and choose one related quote that is meaningful for me.<\/p>\n
I have benefited a lot from this course and am going to write down the top three answers.<\/p>\n
1. I have gained a whole deep framework of servant leadership including the definition, ten characteristics of a servant leader, the model of servant leadership, and servant leader behaviours from the textbook written by Northouse (2016). Also, I have genuinely understood how a servant leadership could be practically exerted in real problem-solving processes, such as making decisions, guiding the team, and improving organizational processes, and so on. We all know that “serving other people” lies at the heart of servant leadership, which would make the leadership style be considered as a weaker one or a less tough one. Although I honour the servant leadership very much, I was also confused about how to wield it to serve and help the team stand firmly in the organization without hurting other people’s feeling during the processes of negotiating and decision-making. Then I learned from Page and Wong (2000) that “Being just a service-oriented person does not qualify one as a servant leader…a servant leader is one who invests himself or herself in enabling others, in helping them be and do their best…what distinguishes servant-leaders from others is not the equality of the decisions they make, but how they exercise their responsibility and whom they consult in reaching these decisions” (p. 70-71). These words mean a lot to me, and I realize the servant leaders are adept at empowering other people and gathering collective perspectives to move and act effectively. Also, the goal and vision established by servant leaders are mostly long-term and for the mutual good of all the people.<\/p>\n
2. The interactional and interrelated relationship among transformational leadership, authentic leadership, principled leadership, ethical leadership, and servant leadership. Although the different types of leadership are illustrated in different chapters respectively, it turns out that a leader will never demonstrate or embody only one of them. For example, a servant leader no matter female or male, is also a leader with high ethical level, positive psychological capacities, and applies “values and virtues to policy development and decision-making” (Byler, 2017, para 2). There are many sentences I would like to quote here, and I will quote some of them which impress me the most: “Higher levels of moral reasoning make it possible for the authentic leader to make decisions that transcend individual differences and align individuals toward a common goal” (Northouse, 2016, p. 204); “the vision had to grow out of the needs of the entire organization and to be claimed by those within it”(p. 173); “They have a clear idea of who they are, where they are going, and what the tight thing is to do. When tested in difficult situations, authentic leaders do not compromise their values, but rather use those situations to strengthen their values” (p. 198-199).<\/p>\n
3. From the unit of learning Andragogy, I have gained a whole new perspective to consider the learning process I am engaged in right now. The journal articles I read in that unit make me rethink about the knowledge I have accepted through learning and the view I am using to examine the things I have learned. Unlike children and teenagers, the adult learners are prone to accept the knowledge corresponding to their intrinsic beliefs, and they are motived to learn for completely different reasons from the youths. Knowing these kinds of information can greatly help me reassess my ability of critical thinking and adjust the way of my professional work. The article: A Transformation Theory of Adult Learning written by Jack Mezirow (1993) has changed my view entirely, and I would like to quote some profound sentences:<\/p>\n
Learning may be understood as the process of construing and\u00a0appropriating a new or a revised interpretation of the meaning of one’s experience as a guide to action. No conscious experience is free from interpretation, indeed, to have an experience means that we have identified its content, we have construed its meaning. (p. 141).<\/p>\n
Task 2:\u00a0What are two course learnings\u00a0that have impacted my practice<\/em>?<\/p>\n I would like to present two kinds of impact to answer this question, one for my professional work, one for my life.<\/p>\n 1. My work is to train the stuff for the organization, to make sure the stuff acquire the needed skills and knowledge for the professional work. I used to find that some employees, especially the senior workers, were indifferent to learning and training. I liked to construe this phenomenon or attitude as them being ignorant. Anyway, it is my duty to deal with whatever happens during the teaching process, and I was overwhelmed when facing this setback. Fortunately, I got to know the knowledge of Andragogy in this course and realized the adult learners’ motivations were different from teenagers. They do not mechanically learn in the class like the children and teenagers do. More important, the motivation factors for adult learns “can also be a barrier” (Lieb & Goodlad, 2005, p. 3) because adults have to “balance many responsibilities against the demand of learning”(p. 3). For example, the motivations for adult learners are “a requirement for competence or licensing, an expected promotion, job enrichment, a need to maintain old skills or learn new ones, a need to adapt to job changes, or the need to learn in order to comply with company directives”(p. 3). If the adult learners were not motivated by any of those factors, they would have no interests to learn and take the classes. Lieb and Goodlad (2005) also mention that “the best way to motivate adult learns is simply to enhance their reasons for enrolling and decrease the barriers”(p. 3). Inspired by the points showed in this article, I designed a questionnaire for them to find out how can they be motivated to learn and what kind of skills they are interested in. After one month, the outcomes of the course are significantly remarkable, and the staff all come to me and tell me they like to have my classes. These positive results not only reinforce my faith in my professional work but also shape my ways of thinking and applying the methods in a critical and reasonable way.<\/p>\n 2. The book Light from Many Lamps\u00a0(Watson, 1951) has kept me company entirely through this course. I do not want to restate how profoundly this book has influenced me in my life. Instead, I would like to talk about how my family has been influenced by the stories included in this book as well.<\/p>\n One day in May, our family was driving the car to visit the mountains nearby our city. I was doing the reading of Light from Many Lamps (Watson, 1951) on the way. I just started to read the words louder in the car:<\/p>\n Let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers. The heroes of old. Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life’s arrears of pain, darkness and cold. For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, the black minute’s at end. And the elements’ rage, the fiend-voices that rave, shall dwindle, shall blend. Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, then a light, then thy breast. O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, and with God be the rest! (p. 59).<\/p>\n After several silent seconds, my four-year-old son suddenly asked:” Mummy, what’s next?” I said:” It’s over, my dear.” He then added:” Where is God?” I asked him:”Where do you think he will be?” He said:” He is in the mountain, and we are going to find him.” I smiled and asked:”Is it going to be hard to find him?” He answered:” God has light! Follow the light, we can find him.” I was shocked and surprised. I did not know how much he had understood the poem, but clearly, he had construed the words and meaning in his own way, and it was a marvellous way I had never thought about. After that, I always read the stories from Light from Many Lamps to him. Sometimes he listened very carefully, and sometimes he just lost his patience and went to play. This reminded me of the definition of leadership which is a reciprocal process of influence (Northouse, 2016). And is not the process of parenting another form of leadership? My construct of leadership has been expanded through the process of learning from the stories of Light from Many Lamps. And I am recommending this book to my husband and mother.<\/p>\n There are still so much I have learned from this course, such as the interview with my role model Olivia for the assignment Women in Leadership, and the reflections of other classmates. I will keep all those in mind and revisit the blogs written by us to refresh the knowledge regularly.<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Byler, K. (2017, July 30).\u00a0Why we need principled leadership? [web log comment]. Retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/highergroundcg.com\/need-principled-leadership\/<\/p>\n Lieb, S., & Goodlad, J. (2005). Principles of adult learning.\u00a0Retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/carrie-ekey.com\/handouts\/Rotterdam2012\/Eu_Coaches_Conf2_Rott_Day_1_A4.pdf<\/p>\n Mezirow, J. (1993). A transformation theory of adult learning. In Adult Education Research Annual Conference Proceedings,\u00a0<\/i>141-146.<\/p>\n Northouse, P. G. (2016).\u00a0Leadership: Theory and practice.<\/em>\u00a0Sage publications.<\/p>\n Page, D., & Wong, T. P. (2000). A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership. The human factor in shaping the course of history and development<\/i>, 69-110.<\/p>\n Watson, L. E. (1951).\u00a0Light from Many Lamps<\/em>.\u00a0 New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.<\/p>\n