Blog Post # 10

This class has taught me a lot about the things I can do not only for myself to become a better leader but for my chapter’s benefit as a whole. My experience with this class has helped shape my vision for where I want to take my chapter during my presidency. I think that by taking this class I clearly can see now what this fraternity thing is really about. Alpha Tau Omega is a chapter known for building leaders both inside and outside our classrooms and after taking this class I think I can really help the guys in my chapter all become better leaders.

My experience with this class has been nothing but good things; I honestly do not think I would have been elected as the next president if I did not take this class. I have learned many new techniques for next year to also help my executive board share a vision like my own. A few weeks ago we had to come up with personal vision statements in class on the spot with a little time to think about it. Each of us had our own unique way of looking at the things we want to do and I plan on making my executive board do the same thing during our retreat this summer. Additionally I plan on also having each of us write a letter to ourselves about what we plan on not only getting out of this position but have specific things we all individually promise to ourselves to make sure we complete. Without having taken this class I do not think I would be nearly as ready to take office as the president of a fraternity. Every president or candidate should be taking this class.

Blog Post #9

Personal passions are a good way to continue to motivate yourself to promote social change within your organization. By being passionate about something like service for example, when you talk to your chapter about getting more involved with service they are much more willing to actually do so because of how passionate you clearly are on the subject. By demonstrating your passion about something that resonates within your chapter. Not only  does this make you feel better because you are letting others know what you are passionate about, it makes your entire chapter look at what you are saying in a completely different light.

I have been challenged in a few ways as a leader thus far even without being officially out into the position as president. One of the most recent events that challenged me to stay committed to my individual values happened last night during our second round of elections. During elections I had to really stick my neck out for a couple of guys running for positions that I thought were the best fit for where I would like to see my fraternity go. Unfortunately these guys did not win the positions they were running for and other brothers beat them out. So this challenged me and has put me in an interesting position in the sense that I have to really sell the guys who won on my ideas and where I see this fraternity going during my presidency. I talked briefly with the two guys who got elected after chapter and filled them both in on where we need to be headed next year and following this conversation I think they will both do a fantastic job. I made me actually do something presidential and made me realize how ready I really am for this position.

Blog Post 8

Personal values of individual group members can always change the way the group may look. Take for example one of your chapter’s seniors has an opinion about how something should be changed and presents it to the chapter. So based on how the chapter respects the opinion of an older member such as this they would have a huge influence on the groups values.

Individuals can always contribute to the groups values as well. For example, if one of the chapters values is to be more involved around campus and Columbus as a whole then having someone who’s individual value is one that loves and really enjoys giving back to the community. This one person can take their individual value and contribute to the overall value by aiding in community service.

Though it would be easier to be congruent in everything we do I do not think it is possible to always be a person of congruence. I do not think you can fit into the mold of every idea people come up with. At some point you will have to break away and take your own individual stance on an issue. As presidents we do this on a somewhat regular basis, if it is something that is for the better of the chapter to disagree about then we have to take that stance. We are all leaders, leaders do not always have the full support of every decision they make but when people eventually turn around and realize it made us a better, strong chapter than it was a success.

Blog Post 7

The things people value in our lives determines how we may react to certain situations that we may come across. We come to value things in our lives when it we come across something that we truly value. By that I mean like how we value the people we are close to like your best friend for example. It is very important for me at least to make sure I always make time in my week to do something with my friends. It is easy to ensure to make time for the things we value as long as you make it a point to do them. We are all busy and as we get older we will continue to get busier, we not going to suddenly become worry free like Mr. Deeds.

I value friends, integrity and above all honesty. Each week I sit down on Monday in my first class, pull out my planner and write down everything I am planning on getting done that week and then I choose specific times and dates that I will complete them. I am a detail oriented person so for me to make sure I have time for everything I want to do I have to write down when I am going to do it. To reflect my values I make it a priority to be honest with people and with all my school work. I also make it a priority to do things with my close friends several times a week (would be harder if we did not live in the same house). You can ensure you spend time on the things you value by sitting down and asking yourself if you are spending time on things you want to spend time on.

Blog Post 6

“There is no limit to what can be achieved as long as you start with a solid foundation and an end goal.”

My personal vision statement has been dramatically altered as I have grown older and gained more life experience. I never had one until I came to college and it is something I use more as a motivator to keep myself achieving the best I can. It shows me where I want to go in life and keeps me doing my best to get there. My vision statement is simple, yet very effective for the kind of person I want to be.

I strongly believe every word of my statement. I have not yet hah the opportunity to serve as president in my chapter and this vision has helped me get myself ready to run for it and have a legitimate chance of actually becoming elected. This is why I am in this class, to help me prepare as much as I can for what lays ahead of me in my path and my statement convinced me to take this class to help me get there.

I think your personal vision statement is needed to be known by any leader who wants to be effective. If you think you can lead others, you should have something like this that internally leads you as a person to truly be a successful leader. Without this, how could you expect to lead anything if you can not even lead yourself to achieve a goal? Leadership is action, not position.

 

Blog Post 5

Visions, aims and values are things every major company has as part of their business model that they look to when things need to change or to check that their current direction follows in the paths of where they started from. In Greek life we use these in a very similar manner.

In my chapter we always look to these when we want to try something new or updating an outdated policy or committee. We use these to make sure that everything we do follows them not only to stay true to ourselves but to make sure we are not pulling away from the ideas that led to our re-chartering back in 2004. For example, last year we introduced a recruitment committee headed by 5 younger brothers who meet after ever recruitment event and have the power to hand out rolling bids rather than the old, much more time consuming way of meeting as a chapter and everyone voting on the new pledges. When this was presented many in the chapter grew concerned that this went against some of our founding ideas. After more discussion and review the committee was eventually approved and we have become a much better chapter for it.

When there are differences in our chapter with certain things they may want to change we always have to stay true to our values. When people get upset we pull up the mission statement and have everyone review it to see why something either can or cannot happen based upon that. Staying true to our values is how to keep alumni willing to support us with things like Casino Night and without remembering where we came from we can not move forward as a chapter.

Blog Post #4

Collaboration is the most important thing when it comes to being an effective leader. If you and all your colleagues are not on the same page about a certain idea or topic then it is much harder to actually achieve anything. If you do not collaborate then others who you may be trying to lead will do everything in their power to go against what you say or what idea you have if they do not agree with it. Individuals find it hard to collaborate because often times everyone thinks their answer or solution is the best possible one and are not willing to hear other ideas.

Part of what makes collaboration so difficult is this idea of compromise. In order for a leader to get anything done, people on both sides of the issue need to be willing to compromise a little for the greater good. Many find this hard to do. For a successful collaborative effort everyone needs to be willing to do this. Take this as an example; lets say you are the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company in Detroit and you want to make it company policy that all of your viechles must get 40 MPG or better. 11 of the 14 other board members agree with you but there are 3 who are completely against the idea due to the terrible gas mileage of popular cars like the Mustang and Escape. Due to the fact you can not force them to collaborate with you, everyone in the room has to make some compromises to make anything happen. Without all 14 votes you can not make something company policy, everyone must agree.

Diversity is very important when it comes to collaboration because it enables you to see many different view points on a given issue and should be a highly valued asset for any group or company. Competition is a huge motivator when it comes to collaboration. Take the CEO example I had earlier, if you said "Toyota is doing this now, we have to beat them." then the other board members would be more willing to come up with a collaborative effort in order to remain on top, everyone wants to be number one.

In my chapter our vision is something we always talk about when it comes to making any big decison. I think you can never move forward if you forget where you came from and what you stand for and I make it a big issue when we are trying to make drastic changes. In our chapter we always ask active memebers their opinions on a given issue so that we can get a gauge of how the chapter feels about something and can come up with minor changes that make the entire chapter happy.

Blog Post 3

Becoming a more effective citizen is something everyone should be trying to figure out how to do in their community or group. To me, I am becoming a better and more effective citizen because I am trying to pay more attention to what is going on around me. By that I mean I watch the daily news, read the paper and review the national news headlines. In my chapter I am not currently the President...hopefully soon! To become a better citizen within my chapter I have begun to attend all of the exec meetings held on Sundays before chapter so I can really get an understanding for not only what I am getting myself into but also what is really going on in my chapter.

When I was in High School there was so much of being a citizen that I had not thought of before. For example, I never thought of providing educational activited in schools or churches at no cost part of being a good citizen. I always thought it was more along the lines of participating in elections, watching the news to makw informed decisions and donating your time to organizations. As I have grown more mature these views have expanded into more areas of what the definition of a good citizen is.

Some members of my chapter lack in this area. There are some, who for whatever reason, just never come to chapter and then get mad when decisions they may not agree with are made. I have a simple answer for them; you should have come to chapter and then you would know what is going on. Another area is lack of attendance at events (both social and philanthropic). I would personally love to see these guys be at every event and be excited about all of them. For whatever reason this sometimes does not happen.

I think I can really help my chapter after reading this chapter about citizenship. It really opened my eyes to all kinds of new possibilities/avenues.

Blog Post Number 2 (Jan 29, 2013)

Last class we talked about the major things that we need to do ourselves to make change possible to happen in our own world. The quote I have chosen to focus on for this weeks blog is the one by President Barack Obama, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." Though I do not agree with his political views and did not vote for him to be re-elected this quote is really something for all of us to think about.

This quote makes me realize just how much influence a single person can have an a group as a whole. I believe that it only takes one person to make a change happen. That one person must keep with this change however and make others want to aid in the change. If you believe in something and are passionate about wanting to change something people generally will look into what it is you actually want to do and will be more willing to help you. Often times you have to be the one to put your neck on the line and speak up even if you think others will dismiss your claims, a good leader will do this when it is needed.

This mainly will involve second order change, specifically addressing a specific problem and creating motivation for the entire group. One example of this happened when I was pledging ATO fall of last year. Our pledge class president wanted to change the way our chapter room looked as an attempt to aid in recruitment for the following quarter. Though this is not a very large example it still can fall under a second order change. Here is what we did; our exec table was very old and falling apart. That was the problem, we addressed it by deciding to make a new table ourselves. When the day came to actually build it it took over 8 hours of hard work. The entire time he continued to motiviate us with encouragement and by the end we really felt like we had done something.

Anyone can make a change, no matter how small, change is change. Change is good.

Post Number 1 (Jan 22, 13)

College in itself has made me not only more aware of the things that are wrong with out world but have really made me want to do something to change things. Towards the end of my first quarter here at THE Ohio State University I started to become very aware of what I wanted to do while I was here to better the school and this city as a whole. This was actually one of the main reasons I wanted to go greek, I wanted to become part of an organization that actually took time out of our college schedules to actually do something to better our community.

My motivations for social change have always been there in their own way but I really did not notice them untill this time last year. ATO's signiture event is our Casino Night we hold in March every year and last year it really made me start to see the big picture of things. It made me realize that there is so much more for me to do than just be a college student and being so actively involved in this event where our goal for this year is to donate $40,000 makes me want to be a better leader.

I am the only one in this class that is not currently the president. My main motivation for social change (to leave the world in a better position than it was when I came) I think will help me dramatically when it comes time for me to actually fun for president and hopefully be able to use it if I am elected. I can remember being in High school and complaining about having to do the 100 hours of community service we had to do in order to graduate because I saw it as a chore. I never noticed what was wrong with the world I think mainly because I was not doing all those hours of community service by choice. They were a graduation requirement, not something I actively wanted to do.

The main difference between now and then I think is my maturity level more than anything else. I have noticed College really has changed me in the past 2 years and has made me really push myself to do things I would never have done before. It has made me want to be a leader and no longer just a follower doing the minimum to get by. Instead of asking how much longer I have to do service, I ask myself what more I can do to change things for others who dont have the ability/drive to do so.

I am big on quotes so I will leave this post with a quote to think about from former president of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson, "Every night when I turn out the lights I ask myself this question; Have I done everything in power to unite the world, have I tried to give peace to all, have I done enough?" -1965.