The idea of networking is very interesting to me. I think mostly because it isn't something I do on a regular bases or ever really thought about before. Most of the other concepts we've learned in the class I've had some experience with or at least though about, but with this one I haven't. Except that when I think about it more I start to realize that networking is something you do naturally. You're networking every time you meet a new person. That really the best way to be a good networker is probably to just be a friendly person and then people will want to help you and want to talk to you.
The more I think about it the more I realize how much networking I actually do. One main example I can think of is that my grandparents are State Farm agents and through them I've been able to meet a few amazing people. Because I was able to meet these people when my school had an auction I was able to call Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple and Amanda Brown, author of Legally Blonde and get signed copies of their books. These connections are important because it helps you get opportunities you couldn't get by yourself.
I think I haven't been as good at networking since getting to college as I was in high school and maybe that's why at first I didn't really think that I networked. I feel like networking in college is harder because in high school who I relied on to help me network were by parents and my church. Here though everyone at church are also college students and you don't have easy access to your parents connections. I realize that if I want to network here I have to start getting involved in the things like BYUSA and start talking to teachers and making connections with them. Because honestly, a lot of the connections I make here are gonna end up being the ones I use throughout my life.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Public Speaking
If there was anything that I dislike more than I dislike conflict it would be public speaking. Whether it's a talk, a prayer or a presentation for class I get an overwhelming amount of anxiety over public speaking. Some people are naturals at it. They get up there and are super personable and it's like they were born to public speak. Not me. I'm like a robot when I get up there. And not even a good robot. I'm a broken, out-of-date robot that stutters when speaking and says uhm a lot. Although I try to avoid public speaking as much as possible there are always gonna be teachers or employeer who want you to give an oral presentation. This is why I have to work really hard at public speaking.
During the class lecture the thing I took away most was that you have to start with a creative introduction. I know that I personally always start with the "Hello, my name is Madison Fosse and today I'm going to talk about...". I think that if you can come up with a creative introduction it will set the tone for the rest of your presentation and give you more confidence. Also, it makes people interested in what you're about to talk about. Another point I think is really important is having stories in your presentation because they show that you put time into your presentation and have personal interest in the topic.
The part of public speaking I think I need to work the most on is flow. I tend to talk really fast as is and when I get up in front of an audience I talk at a super speed. Because of this I think my brain doesn't always go as fast as my mouth is and I end up loosing my train of thought a lot. This leads to an extreme amount of uhms in my presentation to try to figure out what I was about to say. What I have to work on is slowing down when I talk. Because even though I practice the speech, once I start talking really fast I can't remember what I was going to say. In all, I just need to work on public speaking in general, but I know that if I practice I could get good at it.
During the class lecture the thing I took away most was that you have to start with a creative introduction. I know that I personally always start with the "Hello, my name is Madison Fosse and today I'm going to talk about...". I think that if you can come up with a creative introduction it will set the tone for the rest of your presentation and give you more confidence. Also, it makes people interested in what you're about to talk about. Another point I think is really important is having stories in your presentation because they show that you put time into your presentation and have personal interest in the topic.
The part of public speaking I think I need to work the most on is flow. I tend to talk really fast as is and when I get up in front of an audience I talk at a super speed. Because of this I think my brain doesn't always go as fast as my mouth is and I end up loosing my train of thought a lot. This leads to an extreme amount of uhms in my presentation to try to figure out what I was about to say. What I have to work on is slowing down when I talk. Because even though I practice the speech, once I start talking really fast I can't remember what I was going to say. In all, I just need to work on public speaking in general, but I know that if I practice I could get good at it.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Ethical Leadership
This week we have been learning about ethical leadership. This is one of those concepts that I never would have thought of if I hadn't taken this class, but now that it has been brought to my attention I realize that it is a big deal. I think, at least leadership wise, the main thing that makes a person ethical is their motivation. A great, ethical leader's motivation will be to help people and the WANT to do the right thing. A leader can still do the right thing but can do it for the wrong reason. If your motivation is to always do the right thing, though, you consequently will also be trying to do the most ethical thing.
I think that it is really difficult to define what exactly is and isn't ethical. For every person the definition of ethical changes and it also changes depending on the situation. In many cases you only have a split second to make a decision and you don't have the chance to even figure out what decision is more ethical. For an individual what makes them ethical is a little different that what it is for a leader. Although motivation is important, for the individual it is their personal values and if they follow them that make them ethical. It is these values too that in those split second decisions will help you to make ethical decisions, especially if you know before hand what your values are. So, I now want to present what I guess you would call my personal ethical code based on my values.
1. I value family above everything else. So, I will make decision that will bring me closer to my family. Also, I will strive to always put my family first.
2. I also think that trust is important. I can not expect others to trust me if I do not act trustworthy. I will choose now to not break promises and not break people's trust. I will always be honest so that people learn they can trust me.
3. My third value is happiness. This means to me and to others. When making a decision I will try to make the one that makes the most people happy. I will also always remember do unto others as you would have done unto you, and remember that other's happiness is just as important as my own.
4. I will never make a decision that compromises my spirituality. This one has no if ands or buts. It is absolute, because spirituality is eternal and not worth compromising it for any earthly decision.
5. It is important to have stability in ones life, especially once you have a family. I will make decisions that let me lead a stable life and I will make decisions so that they will not compromise anyone else's stability. If faced with a decision that could potentially ruin someone else's stability, I will try to find another option.
6. Humanity is something I have always been big on. We have to remember that every single person around us is also a human and deserves to be treated as so. I think that this in general means that I will not make any decisions to purposefully harm someone.
7. Endurance is also important. You have to make decisions that will help you to endure to the end. So, I will always strive to endure and to help others endure.
8. Finally, I value respect. I don't think that you can get anywhere in life if you do not respect others and gain the respect of other. Respect is what allows us to act humanely towards each other and find a common ground. I will always respect others in my decision making and respect others decisions.
I think that it is really difficult to define what exactly is and isn't ethical. For every person the definition of ethical changes and it also changes depending on the situation. In many cases you only have a split second to make a decision and you don't have the chance to even figure out what decision is more ethical. For an individual what makes them ethical is a little different that what it is for a leader. Although motivation is important, for the individual it is their personal values and if they follow them that make them ethical. It is these values too that in those split second decisions will help you to make ethical decisions, especially if you know before hand what your values are. So, I now want to present what I guess you would call my personal ethical code based on my values.
1. I value family above everything else. So, I will make decision that will bring me closer to my family. Also, I will strive to always put my family first.
2. I also think that trust is important. I can not expect others to trust me if I do not act trustworthy. I will choose now to not break promises and not break people's trust. I will always be honest so that people learn they can trust me.
3. My third value is happiness. This means to me and to others. When making a decision I will try to make the one that makes the most people happy. I will also always remember do unto others as you would have done unto you, and remember that other's happiness is just as important as my own.
4. I will never make a decision that compromises my spirituality. This one has no if ands or buts. It is absolute, because spirituality is eternal and not worth compromising it for any earthly decision.
5. It is important to have stability in ones life, especially once you have a family. I will make decisions that let me lead a stable life and I will make decisions so that they will not compromise anyone else's stability. If faced with a decision that could potentially ruin someone else's stability, I will try to find another option.
6. Humanity is something I have always been big on. We have to remember that every single person around us is also a human and deserves to be treated as so. I think that this in general means that I will not make any decisions to purposefully harm someone.
7. Endurance is also important. You have to make decisions that will help you to endure to the end. So, I will always strive to endure and to help others endure.
8. Finally, I value respect. I don't think that you can get anywhere in life if you do not respect others and gain the respect of other. Respect is what allows us to act humanely towards each other and find a common ground. I will always respect others in my decision making and respect others decisions.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Motivating Others
Motivating others is an interesting topic, because you don't realize how hard it is to motivate others until you start thinking about it. It's one of those things that comes naturally to some people and for the others you have to work really hard at it. I'm one of the people that it does not come naturally to.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Decision Making
Ok I'm really bad at decision making. I'm very indecisive and if I can I will leave the decision up to other people. I guess the biggest reason, that I'm bad at decision making is the fear of consequences. At least that's what stuck out to me the most, because I over analysis every consequence that could come out of a decision. The problem is if I can find even one bad consequence that could come out of it I don't want to make the decision. So, I guess the next thing that stood out to me was what Tamara said about leaders being risk takers. Because if you're a risk taker than you have to overcome the fact that there might be some bad consequences. So, my new goal is to be a risk taker and not focus on bad consequences.
The other thing I probably need to work on is limited time. As I've probably talked about before, I have a tendency to procrastinate a lot. And after the lecture I started to realize how much procrastination effects my decision making. When you don't leave yourself enough time, you severely decrease your ability to make decisions and it in general makes your life harder. So, now my second goal is to procrastinate less so that I can have more time to make decisions.
The other thing I probably need to work on is limited time. As I've probably talked about before, I have a tendency to procrastinate a lot. And after the lecture I started to realize how much procrastination effects my decision making. When you don't leave yourself enough time, you severely decrease your ability to make decisions and it in general makes your life harder. So, now my second goal is to procrastinate less so that I can have more time to make decisions.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
One Fish, Two Fish, Green Fish, Blue Fish
So this week we learned about balance and time management. I feel like every time we have a new lesson afterwards I'm like "Oh, I'm really bad at that". And that's basically true for this one too. I'm not very good at time management. I procrastinate a lot and don't always spend my time in the wisest ways. I like to be social and will usually put off doing homework to hang out with my friends. Also, this will lead to sacrificing sleep to do homework. In the end it's a bad cycle where I should have just done my homework first.
Now, in our labs on Monday we talked about how sometimes when you get a lot of information you have to just try and take a fish, or one particularly important bit of information, away from it. I want to talk about the fish that I caught this week. The first one is to spend more time in Quadrant II. We learned about how there are four different quadrants: Important and Urgent, Important and Not urgent, Not important and Urgent, and Not important and Not Urgent. Quadrant II is Important and Not Urgent and it is a very good quadrant to spend you're time. Things in this quadrant usually have to do with keeping you're life balanced, like reading your scriptures or sleeping. They may not always seem like they need to be done right away but they still need to be done. I know that I have a hard time staying in this quadrant because I never feel like I have enough time to do the smaller important things. Also, in this quadrant are assignments that have a deadline that is far away. My problem is that I will usually leave these assignments alone until they have moved into the Important and Urgent quadrant. I feel like my Important and Urgent quadrant is always very full, but I can change that by spending more time in quadrant II. So, my new goal is to spend most of my time in quadrant two and hopefully it will make my life more balanced. I got an app on my computer that is like a calendar that will help me see when everything is due and hopefully help me plan ahead for when I should do things.
Now, in our labs on Monday we talked about how sometimes when you get a lot of information you have to just try and take a fish, or one particularly important bit of information, away from it. I want to talk about the fish that I caught this week. The first one is to spend more time in Quadrant II. We learned about how there are four different quadrants: Important and Urgent, Important and Not urgent, Not important and Urgent, and Not important and Not Urgent. Quadrant II is Important and Not Urgent and it is a very good quadrant to spend you're time. Things in this quadrant usually have to do with keeping you're life balanced, like reading your scriptures or sleeping. They may not always seem like they need to be done right away but they still need to be done. I know that I have a hard time staying in this quadrant because I never feel like I have enough time to do the smaller important things. Also, in this quadrant are assignments that have a deadline that is far away. My problem is that I will usually leave these assignments alone until they have moved into the Important and Urgent quadrant. I feel like my Important and Urgent quadrant is always very full, but I can change that by spending more time in quadrant II. So, my new goal is to spend most of my time in quadrant two and hopefully it will make my life more balanced. I got an app on my computer that is like a calendar that will help me see when everything is due and hopefully help me plan ahead for when I should do things.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
What's Gonna Work? Teamwork!
I know this is super silly, but since I am the oldest and have younger sibling, kid shows are always playing at my house and I know the theme songs for must of them. Now, when I think of teamwork the first thing that comes into my head is the Wonder Pets theme song. The lyrics I think of are What's gonna work? Teamwork! What's gonna work? Teamwork! We're not to big and we're not to tough, but when we work together we got the right stuff! I know these lyrics may seem very silly, but to me they accurately represent what teamwork is. I know that I am never the biggest or the toughest, but luckily that isn't what teamwork is about. Teamwork is about working together, just like the wonderpets said.
Teamwork has actually been something that I've always though I was good at. I'm good at trying to make everyone feel like equals, which in a group I think you need to be. I am also usually more than willing to pick up the slack if someone is struggling or isn't putting in enough effort. I like teamwork because I feel, if done right, it will build people in a group and can form great relationships.
When it comes to dysfunctions of a team, I think my main one is fear of conflict. As I've said before I hate conflict and will basically try to avoid it at all costs. In a group setting I can be very compliant because I don't want to even accidentally start a conflict with someone. However, this definitely makes it so my ideas don't often get heard because I either don't say them or don't stick up for them. I know this is something I need to work on, so that I can strengthen the groups I'm in.
Finally, I think that were my group in this class falls is Forming. I think that we are all in the initial stage where we're not really sure where we stand with each other and still haven't gotten to know each other that well. Everyone in the group is still very polite to each other. I don't think that it is bad that we are still in this stage, since we haven't actually worked together that much yet. Plus, I think that after we get to know each other we will definitely move to the other stages. Right now we are still getting to know each other, but I think that we're all really good and teamwork and are going to make an awesome group!
Teamwork has actually been something that I've always though I was good at. I'm good at trying to make everyone feel like equals, which in a group I think you need to be. I am also usually more than willing to pick up the slack if someone is struggling or isn't putting in enough effort. I like teamwork because I feel, if done right, it will build people in a group and can form great relationships.
When it comes to dysfunctions of a team, I think my main one is fear of conflict. As I've said before I hate conflict and will basically try to avoid it at all costs. In a group setting I can be very compliant because I don't want to even accidentally start a conflict with someone. However, this definitely makes it so my ideas don't often get heard because I either don't say them or don't stick up for them. I know this is something I need to work on, so that I can strengthen the groups I'm in.
Finally, I think that were my group in this class falls is Forming. I think that we are all in the initial stage where we're not really sure where we stand with each other and still haven't gotten to know each other that well. Everyone in the group is still very polite to each other. I don't think that it is bad that we are still in this stage, since we haven't actually worked together that much yet. Plus, I think that after we get to know each other we will definitely move to the other stages. Right now we are still getting to know each other, but I think that we're all really good and teamwork and are going to make an awesome group!
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