A500.4.3.RB_Ballet Slippers or Adorable

I believe that not only are American’s known for wanting what they want instantly but what they want has to be something they chose for themselves. The idea that every American is given the ability to make their choices in their lives is a gift. Unfortunately not every person in the world has that ability and I think as American’s we take that for granted. Having the ability to choose what you want to do or how you want to do allows a person to have an impact on society. The impact on society may not always be positive but those that are negative provide areas in which growth can occur. We learn from our bad choices or mistakes and try to make better ones in the future; it’s a learning process.

In the TED video I couldn’t agree more with the three assumptions Sheena Lyengar suggests. Even though America is a capitalistic society I don’t feel like we need to be a greedy one; Burger King couldn’t have said it better with their “have it your way” slogan, as American's we want it our way.

I believe choices have implications on every aspect of a person’s life no matter their age, race, creed, religion or sexuality and I also think that all choices have implications in the workplace and or in areas of leadership.

Every morning we wake up and we are immediately faced with choices and those choices affect the series of events that are to follow. If a leader makes a good choice and does something positive that choice can start a ripple effect, as my mother always said, “One good deed leads to another.” Once you have made one good choice you are more likely to make another and those good choices can make a positive impact. The only way something happens is by a person making a choice.

Out of the three assumptions Sheena speaks about in the TED video the only one I would think would be the hardest in the eyes of leadership is never saying no to a choice. I think at times leaders are faced with hard choices or decisions to make. No matter what choice you make you will have to say no to one and yes to the other. At times like these a person is faced with understanding not only the choice they are making but also the consequences of that action. Consequences also play a substantial role in the decision making process. American’s are prone to do something without thinking about the consequences until it is too late, take for example the saying, “look before you jump.”

At the end of the TED video when Sheena spoke about the pink nail polish it dawned on me that people not only make choices but those choices can be made by what the person wants to see. Take for instance the example of the study Sheena administered, some women chose to see the two shades of pink as though they were the same and some chose to see them slightly differently which goes to show that choices can be seen one way in one person’s eyes and another in someone else’s. It goes to show that understanding things from all perspectives can lead to making better choices.

A500.3.4.RB_Explore the Hunt Library

The Hunt Library is a wonderful tool when conducting scholarly research. Unfortunately over the past 8 years when someone is told they need to complete a research project instead of driving down to a local library to begin their research, they instead run to the nearest computer and type in the word “Google.” In 2004, Merriam-Webster added the word Google to their dictionary and defined it as a verb meaning, “to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.” Reflecting back to when I first began writing papers and conducting research there was really no search engine to run to and the library (card catalogs) were what I used. Now as the times have changed I have become more conditioned to use search engines, as they are a fast way to gather information but I prefer to read only scholarly articles and avoid Wikipedia as much as possible due to the user-managed content and lack of authentication.

When you eliminate the internet’s plethora search engines and direct your attention to a search engine such as the Hunt Library you are able to search for more scholar based materials such as journal articles, publications, newspaper articles as well as reference materials. The information on sites such as the Hunt Library comes with unspoken guarantee that what you are reading is factual and knowledgeable.  

I have provided an imagine to better describe how different a search on the Hunt Library looks in comparison to same search on Google. The term that was searched was “concepts in leadership” and the results are almost as polar opposites as the sites themselves.

Image 1 – The Hunt Library

Image 2 – Google

When you use Google the first 2 links you are provided with are related to someone’s personal blog writings, then 2 somewhat scholarly written documents but they are in PDF format so locating the source is almost impossible and then of course you are welcomed with the definition of Leadership described on none other than the Wikipedia website. The opposition to that is to examine Google against The Hunt Library when searching the same topic. When using the Hunt Library you are immediately given 2 journal articles discussing Concepts in Leadership Effectiveness and Leadership Concepts and Leadership Concepts then you have a publication, newspaper article and reference book all discussing concepts of leadership. Now not all of the material is going to be strictly focused on leadership because when using keyword searches the search engine is providing you with other options but at the minimum, you are given scholarly documents to begin your research.

When you define your searches to include specific topics you are more likely to receive a narrower return of results on either engine but a depth of credible knowledge on the Hunt Library’s site as opposed to Google. Now I do not want downgrade Google as a tool because it has revolutionized the way we search the web as opposed to 15 years ago when the internet was strictly a dial-up provided with a limited knowledge base but a library will always provide a more credible and reliable source when needing to contact scholarly searches.

A500.2.3.RB_Tell Your Story

I believe that as human beings we set standards for ourselves that are not always something we can live up to and I am guilty for that. I like to think of myself as being well-rounded which allows me to have fun standards that I can set and accomplish for myself but also hard standards that make me work constantly on achieving them. I am not the type of person to start something and finish it without going back over it a hundred times, practically eliminating the ending.

Some of the standards I have set for myself include things such as being logical, reasonable and well organized. These standards I set for myself the moment I started college. Growing up I was not logical, reasonable or well-organized but quite the opposite. I think back to my teenage years and I question how my mother kept her cool and didn’t send me off to a boarding school outside of Switzerland. I know that when I graduated high school and started college that I was going to have to change things about myself. I was no longer able to be that free spirited artist who flew by the seat of her pants and waited till the absolute last minute to complete any task. I also knew that if I was going to be anything in my life that school was going to have to come first for once in and that everything else was to play second fiddle. My mother made it very clear that I had two options after high school, I was either going to live at home and go to college or move out and be on my own completely; living at home meant a roof over my head and food so I took option one and it was the best decision for me. School did not come easy to me and going to college full time meant I was going to be putting out a lot of effort in order to maintain good grades. I was told early on that if I didn’t get good grades that my parents were no longer going to pay for school and I would be forced to take student loans which scared me to pieces, maybe that was the turning point in my life. Being the child of a single parent the idea of independence was instilled in my early on so I had that on my side I just needed to learn to organize and prioritize my life.

Turning into a logical person was the first standard on my list. I needed to establish logical goals that I could achieve without killing myself in the process. I needed to evaluate all aspects of my life and figure out where school, work and my social life were going to fit. I logically analyzed everything and started to fit the pieces together. This was something very different than what I was used to. Coming from a person that just did things on a whim and didn’t necessarily think of the consequences was a far cry from being logical. College was the first logical choice I made and that was after I had to make that decision; from there on out I was going to need to think things through before jumping off the cliff. This part of my life (age 18-19) was the part I think that changed the game for me. I started to research not only what I wanted out of life but what I wanted as a person. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, where I wanted to go or what career path I was going to take but I knew I was going in the right direction.

 

Being reasonable is very difficult for me. I am very strong minded and willed and when I want something I normally just go for it. I needed to stop doing that and start being reasonable which also meant I needed to learn how to lean on people when I couldn’t complete a task or achieve a goal. I guess the old saying “it’s my way or the highway” was something I had to let go of and understand that the meaning of that phrase is very one sided and to be a reasonable adult I needed to allow myself to see the whole picture and accept things from both sides of the spectrum.

Putting the logical part of my life with the reasonable part of my life together I seemed to form this need to be well organized. Thinking back to my teenage years I had a room that looked like a bomb went off and I was lucky if I could find anything under the rubble. It all clicked when I started college in the sense that suddenly I was hyper organized. My room was spotless and had to be in order for me to focus, my binders were neat and I knew when things were due and I started keeping a schedule. I never realized I could have gone from being so unorganized to needing to be overly organized which has now also turned into my downfall (perfectionist side). I am not upset that I am so organized now and love that people turn to me and rely on me because I do have things so well put together but I wish I hadn’t taken it to the extreme.

I would have to say that I am always a work in progress and will be forever changing. If the events in my life had not taken place I don’t think I would be where I am today. Many forks in the road got me to be so logical, reasonable and well organized; those forks also got me into higher education and the love of teaching and helping people. If you had asked me in high school would I be in the education sector I would have told you no way, I would be a high power business woman. I think every event in someone’s life changes them whether they realize it then or 5 years from that moment. I still look back and can see moments where my life changed and I didn’t know it then and I wouldn’t change it now.

A500.1.6.RB_Intellectual Perseverance

Intellectual perseverance can be defined as the willingness and consciousness of the need to purse intellectual insight and truths despite obstacles. If you are to take apart the phrase and identify each word you would understand that the intellectual side is based off of information, knowledge and facts and perseverance is the action to achieve something despite difficulties, failure or opposition. When you create the phrase “intellectual perseverance,” not only can it be viewed and an action but also a noun in the since that it can manifest itself into something more real if you allow it.

I believe that without struggles or opposition (in whatever it is as that you are doing or pursuing) you cannot achieve the end results to their fullest magnitude. Intellectual perseverance will be important to me in my studies because it will play a pivotal role in forcing me as a student to question what I am learning. This skill will also continue to push me as a student, to know that there will be times where I struggle and I will not always understand the material the first time I read it but that if I continue to push through those harder times I will obtain a greater end result. My intellectual perseverance side can be thought of as a coach cheering me on, holding me back and allowing me to face hard times and conqueror even harder times. A prime example of intellectual perseverance in my life right now is the starting of my Master’s degree. I put off starting classes because I wanted a break between my Undergraduate degree and Master’s but now I cannot tell if that was a positive or negative decision to make. I find myself struggling to write as fluidly as I did towards the end of college but I know if I continue to show signs of perseverance I will be able to regain those skills.

Good leaders are not born; they are molded from years of schooling and sculpting by other good leaders. I feel that great leaders ask questions and push through obstacles to get answers and they do not allow anything to stand in their way.  A good leader is constantly in the pursuit of a goal which relates back to Intellectual perseverance; the need to continue to push past the problems to obtain the ultimate goal. A prime example of a good leader who experienced intellectual perseverance would be King George VI. Although it has been publicized, it was not always known of the King’s speech impediment. He had to work incredibly hard to be able to overcome a personal (as well as professional) obstacle in order to achieve his goals. Many great leaders have oppositions in their quests to become a leader and I feel as though those oppositions make them more well-rounded and real in the eyes of those who look to them for leadership.

Whether you are student, working professional or a public figure, intellectual perseverance affects all people. Everyday people are working towards a goal and many of those goals require the use of intellectual perseverance. A person may not even realize they are using that tool but with the desire to understand and obtain more knowledge and the use of consistent perseverance, anyone is able to achieve their goal.