Does it really matter if a leader is ethical?

It matters if a leader is ethical. Ethical leaders are made my ethical people. Ethical people have morals that determine right from wrong and know what is appropriate and inappropriate. They are able to make wise decisions that will benefit the good of common people. There are also unethical leaders that do not know right from wrong, leading to bad morals. Two examples come to mind when I think of unethical leaders. Tiger Woods's scandal shows how unethical he is as a person. He knew it was wrong to cheat on his wife, but to cheat 11 times was overboard and uncalled for. No one should ever cheat on anyone because the consequences are not exciting. It shows how immature they are and what bad values and morals they have if they think it's okay to do that to someone. Another example is former president Nixon. Throughout the Watergate scandal, America could not trust their president because he was in the middle of the scandal. He put himself upon all of the consequences he faced. As president, he should have had high ethics and morals because America put their trust in him when he was elected. As a result, we learned that Nixon was cruel and he was not trustworthy of the position. Although there are examples of unethical leaders, I believe that President Obama is an ethical leader. He has only been in office for a little over a year, Obama knows what his morals are and he is not pressuring others to follow his beliefs. He has good morals that help him make tough decisions that presidents face. Being ethical is an important characteristic to have as a leader because ,we the people, put our complete trust in you. Having good morals and ethics can lead to a successful leader.

Leadership: How To Become Extraordinary Individuals

Leadership. I don't believe there is one set definition for leadership. There is no right way to lead, so why should there be one definition everyone should accept. I believe that everyone has the potential to be a leader. Leaders are not born. They inherit qualities based on their past experiences in life, like it says in Chapter 1. I believe that we all have the potential to do good in life, but we choose whether to do so or not.
After reading chapter 1, I think the basis to good leadership is maintaining and forming relationships between the group members. The group needs to understand how people work together and use each others strengths and weaknesses to achieve the goal. Every group needs either an individual or members that they can go to for advice and a safety net. I believe that these indivuduals others go to are not afraid to speak for what they believe in. They strongly believe in what they believe in and there is no way of changing that. I think everyone can look up to those leaders in our lives. Although many people think of leaders as bringing drastic change to the world through good works, we often don't realize that there are leaders everywhere in our lives. For example, teachers are leaders. They use leadership to help communicate with us, students, to help get a good education that will allow us to have a great future in the world. Without their leadership, we would not be where we are today. It is important to study leadership because we can all learn a life lesson by taking part in changing something in our lives for the common good of other people. Even if we learned something small, we will never forget our experiences by working together. I think that everyone can benefit from leadership because I think it allows us to see who we really are and how people react to certain situations. We can tell if people over react or if they remain calm in times of struggle. Leadership is important for everyone. I one day hope to become a leader in my community, whether i make a small impact or a big one. I hope that others can benefit from my work and that I will inspire others to carry out the work in the future.

Initiative #2--THE INVISIBLE MAZE

During this activity, I felt really good and I had a good time. I think I was more of a participant because I volunteered myself to go and try the maze one of the first few times. Once we had the maze figured out, it was easier to get across with the help of our classmates the 2nd time we did this. Without talking the 1st time, it was harder to succeed in solving the maze, but that's what leadership and teamwork takes. Not everything will go as you expected, therefore you need to adjust to your surroundings and find a new way to get the task done. It was easier to be an aide during this activity because it was easier to get the class across when you could tell them where to step. Without talking, we had to point instead, but we still succeeded. The first time we did this maze, I relied on my group more to get me across because although I had memorized all the steps, when I got on the tarp I only remembered half of them. When people aren't on the same level as you, you would help them out in whatever way possible to help them succeed. This activity is like everyday life because daily, we are faced with obstacles in life. If one way of succeeding doesn't work, we don't give up. We always try to find another way to solve the obstacle, using determination and patience. I think it is easier to solve a problem from the outside looking in because you can use other people's opinions to help come up with a new way of succeeding. Without talking, it was difficult to get our class across the maze, but we found a way to complete the activity because we all used teamwork to help find a way to get people to know where to go by not talking. With talking, it was easier to communicate with our classmates, but I felt like more people in the class were unfocused, while the other half were trying to help those who wanted to participate. Overall, the activity was fun, and we could really see who was willing to step up and help others and see who didn't show their leadership.

Spectator and/or Active Participant

During class, I tend to be a spectator because I'm very shy and I don't participate in class discussions much. Unless it is a topic I really enjoy such as sports, music, or books, I tend not to keep quiet and keep things to myself. I could've let my guard down and just expressed what I was feeling about the topic we were discussing. I tend to talk more when they are topics I find enjoyable. One example of myself being a spectator is during class seminars in English. I answer the questions that we're supposed to answer, but I don't get too in depth with answering them. I need to work on more self-confidence to help my shyness to allow myself to be more of an active participant.

One of the places I think of myself as an active participant is gym of chorale. In gym, you have to be physically active in order to get a good grade in the class. This semester, I am taking dance and defense, and luckily a lot of my friends are in that class. I think with my friends being there I am able to be more outgoing because I am more comfortable with who I am with my friends around. In chorale, like gym, I have to participate in order to get a good grade. I enjoy sports and singing, so I find myself able to express myself and my talents more when I am in a comfortable environment.

Day 1--Opening Thoughts

1. 3 people I would consider to be effective leaders in society today are my youth group leader, President Obama, and the celebrities that organized and participated in the Hope for Haiti telethon. My youth group Alison influences other teens and myself by volunteering our time to help others that can benefit from our help with using my religion. She makes the projects fun, but they also get the message across by helping others. It can even be something we consider small, but in reality it could improve someone's life. My youth group went to Kansas City in November 2009 for NCYC (National Catholic Youth Convention). The amount of planning and organization that went into the convention was incredible. I consider them effective leaders because they tried to make us teens have an incredible experiment while we were there and encourage us to help others when we returned home.

Another effective leader for me is President Obama. Despite the economic downfall in the previous months and everything that has happened in the last year since he took office, Obama has done a good job of keeping the nation at peace. The event on Christmas Day caused some curiosity from people because it brought up the security of air travel again. Also with the pass of the health care bill, we can all benefit from this achievement that will help with the creation of new medical technology as well as improvements in the overall health of others with new practices and methods of medicine. Obama will hopefully continue the positive changes in the US.

The celebrities that participated in the Hope For Haiti Telethon are my last choice for effective leaders today. Overall, the telethon raised $51 million dollars for Haitian relief. After the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti, people all over the world are donating money for supplies and necessities needed in Haiti. In that case, I guess we can all be potential leaders. Even though it may not seem like much donating $5 for the cause, the $5 can supply food and water to those in Haiti. The amount of time planning and organizing the telethon is incredible. With over 10 performances and 50 celebrities answering the phones while people called in to donate. The telethon was organized in a little over a week, and it was spectacular to watch. Although the devastation in Haiti is horrific, we all joined together to help others.

2. Some of the qualities I think these leaders possess are determination and confidence. I have some sense of determination, depending on the situations, along with confidence. I think a leader needs both of these qualities in order to succeed because you need a reason to why you are being a leader and you need determination and confidence in yourself and others to achieve success in the goals you are trying to reach. Without confidence and determination, you will only settle for the minimum and not even think of all the other possibilities that can occur with the 2 qualities.

3. My definition of leadership is the ability to guide or lead others in order to achieve goals.

4. I am taking this class because I am shy, but I have a good amount of determination and a want to help others by using the skills that I learn in Leadership Seminar to apply them to my life outside of school and in the future. I think I can make a difference by loosing my shyness and using my determination to help those that can benefit from my help.

5. In the initiative today, I thought I contributed, but not as much as I could. From where I was in the knot, I was in a separate knot with 2 other people so it wasn't too hard to figure out, but there was another chain that was linked inside us. Every move the other chain made was frustrating because it seemed like there was no way for them to leave our circle.
I learned from this experience that things not always happen as quickly as you imagined and that in order to have success you need patience. I have patience, but the human knot was different for me because we were done so much earlier than everyone else so we had to wait for everyone else to finish. Also, I couldn't see because of the tall people in our class that were in my way, so I felt like I couldn't help with the knot that was struggling in the middle of the circle. I will work on these in the future by speaking up more and not holding back if it will help others.
I learned as a group that our class overall has good communication in trying to solve tough situations, but I feel some other people gave up because they had little patience. I think we all perceived that the human knot would be a lot easier, but with the bandanas it was different and it seemed to cause more issues to overcome to succeed.