{"id":309,"date":"2017-12-11T11:29:27","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T19:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/?p=309"},"modified":"2017-12-11T11:29:27","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T19:29:27","slug":"unit-10-activity-1-course-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/2017\/12\/11\/unit-10-activity-1-course-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 10 Activity 1: Course Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leadership Foundations 500 is the first course I took for my MAEL program. I found it a very good introduction to the concept of servant leadership. Northouse’s\u00a0Leadership: Theory and Practice<\/em> was a very good resource as it described many of the leadership styles in detail and gave useful examples and connections to practice application.<\/p>\n

In chapter one, Northouse (2016) describes the differences and similarities between leadership and management (p. 13). As a task-oriented individual, my leadership style is oftentimes very task focused and I measure success by the productivity and efficiency of the team. However, Northouse (2016) makes clear distinctions between leadership and management by pointing out that leadership focuses on establishing direction, aligning people, and motivating and inspiring the team while management focuses on planning and budgeting, organizing and staffing, and controlling and problem solving (p. 14). Knowing this, I now am consciously aware that while I have been a good manager in many projects, I have failed to be an effective leader. Moving forward, I need to focus more on inspiring and aligning team members by establishing a clear direction rather than with tasks and activities to be accomplished.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in My Leadership Story, I gave birth to my baby girl during the duration of this course on November 17th. It is a life-changing experience and I feel that overnight, I understood the importance of strong leadership. When I look at my baby daughter, I am overwhelmed with the desire to do everything possible to ensure I give and prepare her for the best life possible. I naturally and willingly sacrifice to be a good servant leader for her. Before having Macey, I thought servant leadership was a conscious effort to put others ahead of oneself and leading effectively came by following the rules and characteristics of servant leadership. However, after giving birth to Macey, I understand that true and pure servant leadership comes naturally and the characteristics naturally shine through in one’s actions. I now understand why only Christ can really be the perfect servant leader. Aside from being a parent (and even that has it’s limitations!), it is almost impossible to completely sacrifice oneself for others. However, I think even if I have a fraction of the servant leadership that Christ demonstrates, I could be a good servant leader in my work and to others in my life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One quote that resonated with me throughout the course was one that I came across while reading Watson’s\u00a0Light from Many Lamps<\/em>. The quote is “This, too, shall pass away” by Paul Hamilton Hayne (as cited in Watson, 1988, p. 74).\u00a0<\/strong>In my transitional time into motherhood, I am reminded that all things, good and bad, will pass. When I look at baby Macey, I am excited to see she is growing but I am sad to see that she is already slowly phasing out of her newborn stage of life. My friends who have children constantly remind me that the first month is the hardest and that eventually she will sleep through the night…this phase will pass. However, with this means that my little baby girl will grow and somehow, that makes me a bit sad as well. This quote reminds me that in all good and bad times, I need to treasure the moment and be present because nothing lasts forever.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Northouse, P. G. (2016).\u00a0Leadership: Theory and Practice<\/em>. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.<\/p>\n

Watson, L. E. (1988).\u00a0Light from Many Lamps.\u00a0<\/em>New York: Simon and Schuster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leadership Foundations 500 is the first course I took for my MAEL program. I found it a very good introduction to the concept of servant leadership. Northouse’s\u00a0Leadership: Theory and Practice was a very good resource as it described many of the leadership styles in detail and gave useful examples and connections to practice application. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-unit-10","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}