COURSEWORK REFLECTION #4 - LEADERSHIP

CHALLENGE THE PROCESS, ENABLE OTHERS TO ACT, IMPLICIT BIAS

Due Monday, March 13, 2017 at 10 am

Name

Kaylon Joseph

Q1 We have talked about the need for leaders to be psychologically hardy. How
psychologically hardy do you feel you are currently? Give one story or example that
demonstrates how you faced a challenge that developed your psychological hardiness?
I feel like over the course of this class it has shaped my psychological hardiness a lot.
I feel pretty confident in the state that I am in, although there is and will always be
room for improvement. A story that demonstrates how I faced a challenge that
developed my psychological hardiness happened this past weekend. I work for a small
airline company called Air Georgian as a shuttle van driver. I escort pilots and flight
attendants from the airline headquarters to Pearson Airport. This past Saturday I was
faced with a lot of pressure. My dispatcher was telling me to pick people up from all
over the place. I had to do all this and still manage to get everyone where they
needed to be in time. My task was to pick up a pilot from Pearson and drive him back
to the headquarters. After doing so, I had to pick up two different pilots who were at
two different hotels. I quickly get to the first hotel, and do so early in order to buy me
time. However, the pilot took 10 minutes to come down and it really tested my
patience. But thankfully, I was able to maintain my temper. Right before I was going
to the other hotel, I got another phone call from someone needing a ride from
Pearson. It was not that bad because he was on the way to the next hotel. So I
quickly grabbed him and the other pilot at the hotel, and finally took them where they
needed to go in time! It was quite that challenge, but I remained under control and
committed to the task.
Q2 We have learned that part of being an effective leader is encouraging (enabling)
others to be their best. Describe a time when you helped someone else develop
his/her confidence? How does the practice of enabling others to act relate to your
mentorship experience?
A time where I helped someone develop their confidence was when I was at spoken
word night at Ryerson University. I was there to visit because my friend Renee is a
part of the poetry club there. I knew she did poetry so I came expecting her to
perform. But upon arriving I asked her if she was going to perform a piece and she
said no because she was not confident enough. Me and my other friend just
continuously encouraged her to perfrom because we knew she is very capable. We
even went to her fellow club members asking them to convince her to perform.
Eventually, she agreed! When she went up, she did two poems! I was very proud of
her. That being said, the practice of enabling others to act relates to my mentorship
experience because as a mentor it is part of job to enable my mentee to do the tasks
she need help in. I know in particular to my mentee, that would be encouraging her to
speak up in class and ask help from her TA in order to do well in subjects she
struggles with like linguistics.
Q3 When discussing the practice of challenge the process, we talked about things
that hold us back from searching for opportunities, seizing initiative, and looking
outward. What holds you back more than anything else? How could you help yourself
move past that barrier?
In regards to challenge the process, what holds me back more than anything else is
comfort and fear. I think what would help in order move past these two barriers is to
understand mistakes are ok. It sounds clich, but it is very true. I am often set on
doing things the way I normally do and reluctant to approach matters in different
ways. But I will never know if the different ways are better unless I experiment with
them. And I will never experiment until I realize that throughout those experiments,
mistakes will be made, and that is ok.
Q4 in the last class, we considered briefly the matter of implicit bias (also called:
passive or unconscious bias). Aside from the questionnaire we did in class, I asked
you to take a couple of additional self-assessments through Harvards Project
Implicit website. What were the results of these self-assessments? Did you gain
insights into any blindspots you may have with respect to others? Identify a time
when you think you were disadvantaged because of someone elses unconscious bias.
The results for my self-assessments were pretty interesting. It came out with data
that reflected things like my preference for old people over young and black people
over white. This reflected blindspots I may have with respect to certain individuals
such as young and white. A time when I think I was disadvantaged because of
someone elses unconscious bias was when I was at a camp. At the camp we have a
skit night where we gather into groups and make a skit based on the theme given to
us. This camp it was tv shows. People did not know that this is what I really enjoy
doing. I can act pretty well and even write a script (in this case a silly one) pretty
quickly! So when it came time for the captains to choose, they skipped over me until
the I was one of the last people to choose. I think part of this was due to the fact that
they may have judged me based on my performance during the time of sports we
had. I am not that great in that area, but when it comes to the arts, I excel. My skit
group was Modern Family and we did really well!