Marc’s MSLD Reflection Blog

A few years ago the company that I work for selected a new chief pilot.  The man that was chosen for the position had been with the company for a few years and had spent the last couple years in the training department as an instructor and check airman.  His reputation of being a no-nonsense, straight talker quickly spread. Within a couple months of his appointment to the position he sent an email to the entire pilot staff requesting that we accomplish a task by a certain date.  The email started with the words “This is the third time I have sent this out . . .” However, there was a problem with his message; it was not the third time he had sent the request to the pilots, it was the first. We searched through our email inboxes and deleted emails trying to find the initial and follow up emails in vain.  They were not there because they were never sent. Our new chief pilot was trying to gain influence and be persuasive through authority, fear, and intimidation.   Leadershi

McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009) stated that human communication can be broken down into four categories of expression: observations, thoughts, feelings, and needs.   Observations are reports about what our senses tell us without any explanation, inference, or conclusion.  They include things that we see, hear, read, or personally experience. Thoughts occur when our minds attempt to synthesize our observations and draw conclusions from what we have observed.  Value judgements, beliefs, opinions, and theories are examples of thoughts. Feelings are experiences of emotion.  They are not observations, value judgements, or opinions (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, 2009).   Needs are statements about what helps or pleases us.   When all four categories of expression are combined into single messages they are known as whole messages (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, 2009).  Whole messages are what we observe, think, feel, and need.  When one of those four types of expression is left out

A few years ago I heard a well liked and respected man named Randall tell a story that impacted me and some of the decisions that I have made in my life since then.  I have heard him recount the same story on a couple occasions, and each time I have come away with a renewed desire to follow his example. Randall and his family lived in Mississippi for a few years.  During their time there they became good friends with a woman that lived in their neighborhood.  Randall’s wife Jane grew especially close to her and they frequently helped each other out by watching each other’s children when the need arose.  However, after a period of time it seemed like the neighbor suddenly withdrew from the relationship; she appeared to avoid Randall and Jane and would no longer approach them when she needed help with her children.  Randall and Jane tried to recall what they might have done to offend the neighbor, but they could not remember anything that might have caused tension in the relations

During the first week of this course I was asked to develop my own definition of leadership.  After reviewing numerous definitions that others had previously proposed I suggested that leadership is: a) a process, b) performed by an individual or a group of individuals, c) influence on as few as one individual or a group of individuals, d) teaching and training to improve the ability and efficiency of the followers, e) motivation, f) continual improvement, and h) aimed at achieving a common goal.  By combining all of these component I defined leadership as: a process in which an individual or group influences others, and teaches, trains, develops, and motivates them, so they can continually improve how they expertly and efficiently achieve a common goal (Clifford, 2018, p. 8). As I review the definition of leadership that I provided several weeks ago I now feel that I may have attempted to take too broad of a perspective and encompass too many aspects of what leadership can poten