Just Add a Bit of Personality

I really enjoyed our last class with Dr. Janet Miller. Her enthusiasm for her work and personality studies made the class extremely interesting. I am someone who truly believes that in order to better understand others, we need to fully understand ourselves, and I felt that the entire class dealt with getting to know what you’re like so that you can lead others more effectively. I also found her practical examples such as job interviews, made the topic hit home because it has this real world application.

 It was not only a few hours later that I was sitting in Human Resources and Dr. Fred decided to talk about selection and how we can be effective interviewees and interviewers. He related our topics about to the type of leader we want to be because good interviewers are unbiased and objective, they listen effectively and actively question. Understanding personality types can also be useful as an interviewer as you can tell what their personalities are like from their experiences.   
   

Karen's Class!

I couldn’t help but think that our experiential learning of last class reminded me of a simpler time... well maybe not a simpler time but a time when Karen ran our show in Community Development. She really focused of different styles of leadership and even practiced many of those styles in her classroom. For some, this experience was less than fulfilling but for me, it proved that leaders in community development need to be diverse and creative.

I feel as though the communication exercise we did in class related to many of topics we covered with Karen. In community development, it is always the first task to try to get everyone on the same page, which was what the first round of the activity was. Second, we needed to expand our knowledge and make sure we understood the same aspects – just like community development leaders have to do. Third, we confirmed and tweaked our designs and ideas to try to make the identical structure. Leaders in community development tweak concepts by brainstorming or World Cafes but it all boils down to the same idea. Finally, we then compared the designs and despite the fact that they we not perfectly similar, both groups felt like they had accomplished something. Community development relies on finding something in common and even if that is the littlest piece of your design.

The communication exercise provided me with insight on the value of communication to any leader but especially to those working in community development.