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Leadership

Page history last edited by Andy Pethan 12 years, 11 months ago

I am driven by the need to improve how people learn and develop their passions and abilities.  As a problem solver, designer, programmer, entrepreneur, and teacher, I have a wide toolset that I can leverage to take on this grand challenge.  There are also countless others who share many aspects of my vision: a world where all people share a deep satisfaction with life as they work hard to pursue their passions and maximize their own potential for the benefit of all.  I want to be an effective leader so that I can identify opportunities that are not being addressed and lead teams to fulfill this vision throughout my life.

 

Leadership Purpose

The purpose of my leadership is to make positive, meaningful change in the world.  My passion is focused on the development of youth.  This begins with the formation of attitudes that effect how students perceive their world, engage with their peers, and decide to learn new things.  Next, it involves a set of behaviors and practices that promote physical and mental health, positive social engagement, and productive learning.  Finally, it includes the development of specific skills for society and the work place including effective listening, scientific reasoning, critical reading, clear writing and oral communication, and number sense.  As an aspiring teacher, I see many gaps in the current K-12 public education system that will require many leaders to change in the years to come.  In order to see these needs addressed, I want to be one of those leaders and I want to be as effective as possible.

 

Principles, Values, and Ethical Boundaries

In order to be an effective leader throughout my life, I need to consistently live by a core set of principles, values, and ethical boundaries.  Often, these self-imposed regulations and expectations will conflict with short-term goals and become frustrating, but I believe that the long-term consequences of not living by such a standard will prevent me from making meaningful change in the world.  As a Catholic man, I also believe that the results of my actions may be judged by the world, but my thoughts and behaviors are the true metric of my life.

 

My ethical boundaries provide a baseline of things I must never do under any circumstances.  Given the incredible power of the human mind to rationalize most behaviors under pressure, I created an inflexible list of actions I may not take:

  • I will not secretively favor a peer for benefit, promotion, or other personal reasons.
  • I will not accept bribe or accept additional payment for services off the record.
  • I will not sabotage a co-worker or competitor for personal gain.
  • I will not lie about qualifications to be promoted or hired.
  • I will not obey a superior’s wish to secretly hide information about a health or safety hazard.
  • I will not sign off on my own expenses privately for reimbursement.
  • I will not sexually harass a co-worker in any way.

 

My principles and values give me a vision to aim for as I learn and develop as a leader.  Of course, this list will always be incomplete, but it represents a meaningful subset of the qualities I hope to effectively balance when leading others:

  • Caring love: I will deeply listen to the concerns of others and take appropriate action.
  • Integrity: I will not distort or hide the truth in my interactions.
  • Respect: I will make the individuals near me comfortable sharing opinions and trusting that I will treat them justly.
  • Learning: I will make time to learn the skills I need but don’t possess.
  • Inclusiveness: I will keep track of individuals and actively work to bring back anyone who disconnects from the group.
  • Joy: I will facilitate others finding meaning in work and facilitate fun when times are stressful.
  • Humility: I will refrain from thinking I’m the smartest, most creative, or hardest working person.
  • Change: When things don’t make sense, I will detach and repair the idea or completely restart.
  • Patience: I will wait for long-term results and not depend on short-term outcomes.
  • Urgency: I will immediately begin work on important problems, short and long-term.
  • Hard work: I will put in the time and effort required to do good work when I commit to something.
  • Creativity: I will step back, observe basic ideas, be willing to be crazy, and go for the big goal.
  • Influence: I will debate, discuss, and persuade, but I will avoid using power as a means of control.

 

Opportunities for Improvement and Steps Forward

As a graduating Olin student, I had many opportunities to lead a variety of project teams and student organizations.  As a result, I also discovered my shortcomings as a leader.  These weaknesses serve as a starting point for future development in my leadership.

 

One of my strongest assets and greatest weaknesses is my confidence.  The only pathway to change is taking action, something I am always ready to do, confident that I will figure out the details as I go along.  However, sometimes making effective and lasting change comes from a deep understanding of the problem and experience in the domain.  I want to be active about making change, someone who takes immediate action but never assumes that they know all of the answers.  I want to always be learning more about the problem and upfront about my limited understanding.  I want to be open to immediate change in current behaviors but patient for long-term results.  Before taking on a new project, I need to go through the idea with my trusted peers and mentors to make sure I am ready to engage with a given challenge and have a plan forward that openly exposes my limitations.

 

Confidence and impatience have also contributed to my limited domain expertise in the fields I engage in.  In the past, I felt ready to start a point-of-sale solutions business knowing nothing about the industry or its software.  I felt ready to start an educational software company knowing little about schools and not knowing how to program.  Both of these ventures, and a handful more, either failed or survived with significant headaches to the customer due to my desire to take action before learning what I’m doing.  Moving forward, I want to patiently learn how schools work, how the best teachers teach, and the variety of ways that students learn and develop.  I also want to have enough domain expertise to serve as a coach to others who desire the same outcomes but lack experience.  Only with some amount of patience and domain expertise will I ever be able to lead change in schools.  I need to spend a few years teaching in high-feedback environments before I even consider a role in school leadership.  I will also need to invest significant time learning more about the most effective approaches to school operation and work in this role before opening a new school if I choose to do so.

 

I like to lead from the bottom-up.  I rarely seek official leadership roles on teams or in organizations, yet I manage to lead by influence to get things done that I care about most.  However, this means that I have the freedom to stop leading when it becomes convenient to do so.  As a leader in an official role, you are “always on” and don’t have the option to stop leading when you’re too busy or disinterested.  I want to be a consistent leader, not burning myself out or only pushing through short sprints, so that if I find myself in a position of power I can serve effectively in the role.  I need to constantly ask others for honest feedback on my leadership and seek out relationships with peers and mentors that can guide me to improve in official roles.

 

I lead others with the same passion that drives my own actions.  This is often positive, as it allows me to engage others with a motivating vision and work alongside them toward the goal.  However, it can also be highly limiting when I have too narrow of a vision to connect with others, demand too much creative control over an idea, or become blinded to problems as a result of such deep dedication to an idea.  I want to always lead with enthusiasm, but I want others to join me where their own passions overlap mine, allowing all of us to work towards a shared vision.  I need to always be open to and asking for critical feedback from people deeply involved and uninvolved people that I trust to make sure I can accurately assess my understanding of a situation that I am highly passionate about.

 

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