Leadership Course Introductions (complete by April 18)

4/6/2014

Welcome to The Future Leaders Institute blog for the Special Projects course led by Dr Crystallee Crain. This term you will be exposed to training, group processes and activities that will develop your leadership and ability to solve problems in your community. Follow the guidelines below and ask any questions that you feel are relevant when getting to know yourself and others as a leaders.

What qualities do future leaders need to meet the challenges of the 21st century?

In this article the author highlights key areas below as core concepts of leadership for the future.

• systems thinking to identify paradigms driving change,
• mediation skills to facilitate knowledge sharing, ensure stakeholders' ownership and foster innovation
• vision rooted in community service and ethical behavior,
• decisiveness in ever changing environments with blurred boundaries.

Comment and share your opinion on one of these aspects. Provide a critical analysis on the ways you see this displayed in current day public (nonprofit, government) and private (corporate/small business) leadership. In what ways are these concepts lived up to in our current circumstances? In what ways could we grow and develop new solutions to today's most pressing problems. How do you hope to change the way leadership is practiced? This post is a way for you to introduce yourself through the values that you share and ideas you have to offer to the group. Minimum 75 words.

Posting Requirements.

Use your first name and first letter of your last name. (Crystallee C.)
Refrain from using profanity or other language that may be offensive or hurtful

Post on time by midnight on the due date
Respond to another students post (for extra credit)

5 Comments

Chelsey B

4/18/2014 03:40:43 pm

In order to address the challenges of the 21st century, future leaders need to have their vision rooted in community service and ethical behavior. The challenges communities are facing today require much more than just donating money and expecting someone else to solve the problem. In order to make a difference we need to work together as a community and take these challenges head on. I believe that the saying “the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts,” is the essence of the strength of a community working together. Participating in community service cultivates a greater cohesion amongst its members, therefore strengthening the ability to problem solve.

Conducting business with ethical behavior is essential for a successful future for our society. Having ethical behavior involves honesty and fairness, respecting the dignity, diversity and rights of others. A lot of the challenges that we face in this century are due to the lack of ethical behavior of past leaders. In order to reverse the deeds that have been done, we need ethical individuals to take over leadership again. A leader that is honest, fair and respectful inspires others to do the same fostering change and social movements.

You can see this vision displayed in both the public and private sector. Conducting business this way is actually growing and becoming increasingly trendier. With the current hardships that society is facing, people are now favoring organizations that are morally and ethically responsible. A great example of this is the Fair Trade Certification of products sold in the U.S. A product that is Fair Trade Certified guarantees, “that the farmers and workers producing the Fair Trade Certified good are paid fair prices and wages, work in safe conditions, protect the environment and receive community development.” I personally only buy fair trade coffee. Yes, I realize my simple act of buying only Fair Trade coffee isn’t creating a huge difference in the world, but just that act is making me more aware and conscious of other actions and habits in my life. It plants that little seed of wanting to make a difference just by making better choices. I’m sure that it does the same for others as well.

Society needs to change in a way that will encourage that little seed to grow and first that starts with the change in leadership. We need leaders that motivate communities to seek truth, justice and fairness. We need leaders that will inspire others to turn their visions into reality through innovation. We need leaders that take a holistic approach to analyzing challenges and implementing solutions. We need leaders that have compassion for other and are willing to do the right thing, even if it is an unpopular choice. I hope to change the way leadership is practiced by simply adhering to these ideals in my own personal, professional and academic life.

Tiffany L.

4/19/2014 02:32:12 pm

Current leaders and future leaders of the 21st century need to have a vision rooted in community service and ethical behavior. I believe in intersectionality and solidarity. Each individual can identify themselves in many ways, and the commonalities that people share will create unity that can propel a movement forward. In addition to the unification among members of a group, allies are necessary in accomplishing a goal. With a clear purpose in mind, a group can work together to serve the community.

We must consider the impacts--environmental and economic--that we have on society. People must act responsibly to ensure a sustainable future for all. A leader must lead by example; if leaders do not conduct their businesses or organizations with ethical behavior, then the rest of the business/organization will follow. The workplace environment would lack fairness and honesty.

Today, there are non-profit organizations that strive to help the public. For example, the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Northern California provides pro-bono legal counsel in San Jose. However, money (profit) is a powerful motivator in our world, and people will resort to unethical behavior to attain wealth. How else can we explain the unequal wealth distribution that continues to grow in America? Or the trend toward part-time employment that leaves many citizens without benefits? This is why we need leaders who have a vision rooted in community service and ethical behavior.

Certainly, there is power in numbers, in voices. We need leaders that pull people out of that apathetic rut. We need leaders who can apply critical thinking skills to solve a problem. We need leaders who have team building skills. Spreading the message, telling people’s stories, can inspire others to make a change. Awareness of a problem is the beginning to a solution.

Margaux C.

4/19/2014 02:46:04 pm

During the 21st century, our society faces problems from the past that still separate us from each other and grants certain individuals to have more than other people.

A future leader must know how to communicate with people in a way that everybody is heard. Recently, people organized to change the three strikes law so that the people who are put in jail for not-so-serious crimes can be set free. In our government, the voice of people in jail cannot be heard. In this case, however, someone outside of jail shared an imprisoned mans story to the public and eventually changed the law! The guy in jail had to slap some sense in one of his jail mates that there was hope for them.

A future leader also needs to have accountability. A woman by the name of G started working at a new office. She demonstrates accountability by making sure that the workers do their job properly. She confirms that they record the treatment plans properly which is necessary in a dental office. G has also implemented a new way of running the business: by following health rules and regulations.

For starters, we can educate ourselves and other people about the ongoing problems. Show people that choosing not to participate in the political process affects everybody's life.

If you're a leader, you need to be fair and equal. You need to hear all sides of an issue, event, etc. You can't let power corrupt you. Don't let it blind you from bringing equality and peace in the world.

Marlene Ornelas

4/20/2014 12:23:51 pm

What qualities do future leaders need to meet the challenges of the 21st century?
I think that the future leaders of the 21st century are not selfish because future leaders look to benefit others rather than themselves. The future leaders satisfice their needs by helping others and make others look powerful instead of powerless. However, the future leaders sometimes have to challenge the authorities to provide to Americans peace and freedom. Another good characteristic of the future leaders is that they serve to the people around them instead of lead as put themselves in someone’s else shoes to help to solve problems that we as Americans face every day. Future leaders of the 21st century always face challenges such race, class, and gender because our American society not always see with good eyes the people that are different form them. However not matters the quantity of obstacles that future leaders find on their way; they are always ready to fight injustice.

Ryan S

4/22/2014 01:52:48 pm

The millennial activist and its predecessor face an entirely familiar, yet vastly different set of challenges. The 'change the world' mentality seems somewhat overwhelming in 2014 probably because the dynamics of the world community are much expanded from the time of revolutionaries like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Moreover, this expanded awareness has resulted in a disparity between the issues at hand and our personal ability to make a substantial contribution. Corpwatch published an article, “Cambodian Villagers Land Bulldozed for UDG Casino Complex,” explaining the “concession [of a] 45,000-hectacre plot” (corpwatch.org) by the Cambodian government to a Chinese development firm with the justification that a new casino would attract foreign tourism and investment. Furthermore, “some 1,100 families have been evicted from their lands, [under] fake promises from the authority and [the company] [that] took over their land without fair compensation” (corpwatch.org). This situation seems increasingly common as industrialization finds its way into the last strongholds of pre-modern— at least by the American standard—society. If this is what the modern activist has to look forward to, then it is easy to see how a person could be deterred simply by the scale, let alone variety, of issues.
The question is then: how can I, as a middle-class American, possibly do anything to save a Cambodian village? Well, as much as an aspiring future leader would like nothing more than to swoop in and make some harrowing speech that saves this village and changes the company's developmental objectives, it is much more likely that he or she will have to settle for more indirect means. Corporations have become increasingly bold in their steam rolling efforts, which can be attributed to the rather lax stance of government resistance. The the power of the individual has been much diluted as big business (i.e. money) takes center stage as the guiding force of American affairs. In spite of this, if a future leader maintains s decisiveness in ever changing environments, then saving a Cambodian village seems like a much more realistic possibility.
Likewise, people seem to have this idea that if they can’t fix the entire problem, then their efforts are unwarranted. To be decisive though, means to stand resolute in your efforts, beliefs and abilities, to show unwavering courage in the face of monumentalism. A person who is decisive does not remedy a situation with the fallacy of donation or sporadic volunteer work, but instead, organizes their efforts into accessible solutions; they activate others as a means to subdue and disperse these issues. A future leader is not the proverbial “lone wolf,” nor is he or she the simple impassioned revolutionary. Instead he or she is a foundation for change upon which the disheartened can find guidance.