Final Posting

Today was the last day of class. We had a little ice cream social, were we all gathered together and talked and ate ice cream. Then Mr. Feinberg "dude" went into lecture. Going over everything in which we have learned this year. Honestly I didn't know all the things we learned this year but when he put it into perspective I believe that I have taken more from this class than I have ever taken from any other class. The class is teaching you about the fundamentals of leadership. His teaching is about the exact opposite of most teachers on campus. He doesn't preach the you read 22 chapters and I will give you a test over it. Instead he goes with the actual teaching method which is a lot harder to do. He imbedded so many useful things into my head on leading. It was by far the most enjoyable class I have ever been in while I have been at Purdue University.

The thing that caught me most about this class is that he put us into groups, even though this class had over 300 students in it he ahd us all get into groups and had group leaders. This was a very brilliant idea by Mr. Feinberg "dude" because he had us learn by example. He gave us various tasks in which to do. And, in so we all learned what it takes to be a good leader and unfortunately some people had to learn from a bad leader. But, all this helped us in the long run and will have a longer effect on us unlike a traditional boring class study. The way he taught us, when he started as a bad leader then converting into a good leader was a fabulous teaching strategy on his behalf. This class taught me a lot about leadership and we all owe Mr. Feinberg a lot for all the information he gave us on the issue.

Leadership Learned during Easter weekend

So, it is Easter weekend. A time in which people are getting together with family and going to church and just realizing how lucky we are to have life. But, interestingly enough I did something that I learned in CSR 309 during this weekend. The last lecture we had was on that of Time Management and how you have to manage your time extremely wisely. And, I knew it was important but, never really thought about it until this past weekend. First off, my family and my girlfriends families were coming down to Purdue to go to church and celebrate the Easter Holiday with us. So, we first thought ahead and know how people are often late to things so we thought ahead and told them to get to the church for 1030 even though we fully knew that church was going to start at 11. Also, we thought ahead and made reservations at Spahgeddi's itallian restaurant the day before. So, we made sure we had an agenda on what to do. Then we planned on playing cornhole after before the families would leave to go home.

The lecture on Time management taught me a lot of things. But, mainly to make sure that I am ready for anything. You have to plan ahead just to make sure everyone is on board with you. Leadership is not a simple task in which you just do and that is it. It is an idea in which you have to plan ahead. Just like the church thing, if they showed up to church late do you think that the church would delay the mass for them? The answer is no because if they delayed it for them then they would have to delay it for everyone. Time management could be the most wisely learned thing yet because you can't lead others if you don't know how to lead yourself.

Wilderness and Leadership

Today's class we did one thing and that was the wilderness experiment. Many people including myself did not expect to take much from this activity because it seemed to be a little bit plain and boring. But, to my suprise I believe I actually learned alot of helpful tools in which helps me in the leadership role. We had to list in order of the most important things needed for survival in case of being stranded in the middle of the dessert cause of a plain crash. First, we had to do it by ourselves. Then we did it as a group. After we did it as a group I believe that is when I found the true point of the exercie. Leadership is about using your resources to its fullest. So, finding that one person who knows more about survival is a vital part of the exercise. If you find that person and listen than your team will be more succesful. That is the key to leadership. Utilize everyone that is on your team because you will not always know everything or even know who knows the most. It is up to the leader to seek out that one person in order to be successful on the job.

3/30/09

Today's class was a class in which we learned an important lesson that taught me a lot of different things. The key to this whole presentation was all under the main topic of listening. Yes, listening. This is not an easy thing to do because as Richard Feinberg talks about how we have twice as many ears as of mouths. There is a reason for this because no matter what happens if you do not listen you do not get things done.

During class today we did a couple of different activities in which we learned about communication and listening at the same time. First, he had a girl come in front of class and then go into a room in which he provided her with a microphone and a sheet in which she had to explain what the picture was. But, she could not communicate with anyone. And, she went through the thing and then came out and only 11 people had the perfect shape. Then he had a guy do the same thing except the other people could ask questions, and almost everyone got it right. This is one way communication and two way communication. Two way communication may get a better result but it is harder to do and is more time consuming and unfortunately now and days in the United States we try to take the easy road and that would be one way communication in which things will get done quickly but unfortunately the outcome will not be as good.

Class 3/23/09

Today was a lesson in its own. I believe that leadership is becoming more prevalent everyday in class. The teacher is starting to acknowledge the students for who they are and not that they are just people in a classroom to do work. This actually is starting to feel really good, just like he said. This is amazing, the transition that is happening, the class is starting to run a lot more smoothly especially because now we have a President and our leaders are starting to understand what to do. And, I have to say that our leader is doing a great job not only in leading us but also as helping us achieve what we want. During class Mr. Feinberg made an announcement about the GM1 papers in which people did and he stated that Tricia's group had the best paper by far out of any of the other groups. This was the best thing I have ever heard in this class. Mr. Feinberg the expert in sales is giving a compliment like that to our group. I just had a sense of pride and well being to be in that group. It also shows a sign of leadership in which you reward or recognize your followers for good work. This definitley works because I walked with my back straight up when he said that.

Spring Break

Spring break has come and passed us really quick. But, did anything happen during Spring Break which made you think of what leadership is? Well, in my case there was a great example of leadership. For my Spring Break I took a study abroad program with Purdue University. We all took a trip to Portugal out in Europe. This was a mind boggling experience. I got to experience a lot of different cultures. If you did not know there are 100's of different cultures within Lisbon Portugal where we spent some time at because it is a big city that is right by Africa and Portugal has all of Europe traveling to it to. By me understanding what leadership is helped me understand and react to all of the different cultures. I mean this by just how you lead a group of people is different in different places, and this was definitely true in this case. Also, I had to take leadership in many different spots. One of main times that I had to take lead was when a couple of us went to a restaurant in which they did not speak any english and their menu was not in english. This was a difficult situation. But, instead of just standing up and leaving I practiced a little bit of my portugese with them and we got the order in. This taught me that anything is possible to solve you just have to have the right dedication for the job and then everything else will come easily.

March 11, 2009

Is forgetting an USB cable a way to lead? No, but even though Mr. Feinberg didn't mean to teach us a lesson it actually did teach me something about leadership. When you show up to somewhere in which you are planned to meet people it seems as unprofessional and unorganized. Then class started. Today is about time management. This topic applies greatly to me for many reason's. Currently I take 22 credit hours and I have a job. I just don't know what to do with my time and how to plan for my day. We learned many things from Stephen Covey. I is a great author who has many good points to teach you about time management. The main thing is to put your big things first then the small things because if you put the big things first then everything else will fall in place. Then we got to the funny part of the lecture when Mr. Feinberg talked about the time sheets in which we filled out. There were definately some funny ones. But, is this a lesson? I asked myself this very question. Saying if people don't have to take recognition do they put forth their best effort? Obviously from this project people just tried to be funny instead of taking it seriously. Overall this was a good lecture funny and educational.