Blog Response #9
Leadership in Communities
I am still having a hard time reading Sampsons book and making sense all of his big words and heavy wording, but as I reviewed chapter 14, I found it very interesting to think about leadership in communities and it can positively or negatively effect how a communitie operates and works. I had never given much thoguht to this topic before other then to observe, on occasion in places where I have been, that there were some people who were placed in leadership positions, that inadvertantly let there egos get in the way of how they functioned in these leadership positions. I have personally know some people, who where in leadership positions, that basically let the fact that they had power go to their heads. They would act like they thought they were god almighty and that his/her word was final. Period. End of discussion and screw everyone else. I have seen situations where because of these types of attitudes from leaders, more problems were raised, a lot of animosity developed and people started retaliating, etc. People, who were supposed to be leaders, who act like this just irritate the heck out of me and at times I have wished that I could just reach out and smack them a good one and knock some sense into them. Fortunitly for them, I am not that type of person so they were lucky.
In my opinnion, communities who have leaders who are kind and loving, as well as talented and skilled, who actually show that they truely love and care about those who live in their community are the most solid and stable of communities. These communities mostly have very low crime rate because the majority of people are happy, friendly, actually feel accepted and cared for by their leaders. They are happy because they know they can voice their opinnions about difference issues or situations in their community and that their words will be heard, welcomed, and accepted with open minds with the assurance that theywon't fall on deaf ears. They are happy because they know they are not being judged, looked down upon, or neglected by their leaders and those who are supposed to be there for them. The best community leaders are those who go out of their way to not think of themselves, but to think of others first.
Research update:
I am working on my project. Until just recently, I wasn't very clear on what this presentation was so hadn't really done any research to speak of up to this point. Having been sick over the past few weeks, I have not been able to put forth much effort in the way of research up to this point. Now that I clear understanding of what this presentation is and I am also feeling so much better now, I am getting caught on assignments for my other classes and will start going full force into my research for my presentation.
I agree there are some leaders in communities, politics, etc, that are arrogant and narcissistic. On the other hand, I am a firm believer that most leaders are good leaders with good intentions, it is often the followers that cause the problems. Being a good leader requires a lot of strong abilities, skills, compassion, and more, but not every leader possesses all these skills from day one. But for some reason, our public expects leaders to be perfect and has little ability to forgive. I do not condone poor leadership, but I hope we support our leaders by forgiving their weaknesses, but more importantly by exemplifying their strengths. Maybe someday our society will stop shifting the blame of their own failures on their leaders and start being accountable for themselves and leading their own families.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that leadership is a life long job. Once a leader, one has a responsibility to the people he or she serves. I also feel that this places a duty on the citizen to respond by serving others. If leaders and citizens alike would only ask what they can do to contribute to a more wholesome community, I believe that many of the difficulties we face would be eradicated!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to study what makes a truly effective leader and what places them apart from the rest. While it's true that there may be many of these "community elites" who are in leadership power and allow it to feed their ego, there are also many leaders who use the position to uplift, edify, and instruct others. It would be interesting to see how the community ties that are bound through leadership are affected depending on how that community views their leader(s).
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