Be a Great Leader

This week through the readings, and the Leadership Style Survey, I was able to reflect on my leadership qualities, and leadership style. I learned that my leadership style was in a transition phase. I learned that I am becoming more of a “free rein”’ leader. This means that those that work for me or with me, are not closely managed, or micromanaged. Instead they have the ability to work independently and perform without much supervision. This made sense to me because I have been more of a team player lately, and feel like I have been most successful this way. I am not currently employed, however, being a leader for group projects I can definitely see how this style plays into effect. It makes me wonder if I am dominant in this style because I have been working in more group projects than before.

I enjoyed rereading the “Leadership with a Small ‘L’” talk by President Kim B. Clark. I like that it mentioned that in order to successfully lead we must lead by example, lead with a vision, and lead with love. This went hand in hand with what the article “What Makes a Leader?” by Daniel Goleman stated. The article was about emotional intelligence, and how it was a key ingredient to being a great leader. Having emotional intelligence was defined by having self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. These are the types of qualities that we should try and possess in order to be successful leaders. These qualities will help us be great leaders not only in our careers, but also in our homes, and communities.

I know that I want to continue to improve my leadership style to be more like the Savior and lead with a little ‘L,’ through example, and with love.

$100 Challenge Progress: 

A lot has been happening lately that I fell behind on my planned dates to execute the garage sale. Due to my husband returning back home from his deployment this past week, I put off the garage sale. I originally didn’t know when he would return, so I had planned a bit differently at the start. I have separated all the items that will be used for the garage sale, and have marked prices on them. I have not made the signs yet, due to location and date change, but I have the material to make them. I chose to change the date to the garage sale for the weekend of Thanksgiving, since more people will be off for the holiday, and so will my husband (so he can help me with carrying boxes). I also changed the location from San Diego, CA, to Somerton, Arizona. One reason for this is that I contacted my HOA (Homeowner’s association) in regards to doing a garage sale, and found out that since it is a gated community garage sales are not randomly allowed. What I was told is that once a year the HOA designates a date for everyone in the community who desires to participate in a garage sale to participate, and they help with advertising. I had not lived in this house for the past 3-½ years, and had never thought of having a garage sale before, so I didn’t know this information. Glad I called! So with that said, the new location for the garage sale will be at my cousins house in Somerton, which is a small town, but popular with garage sales. My cousin had a garage sale three weeks ago, and apparently made $150 from sales. This gave me hope after feeling a bit discouraged with all these changes. Hope to report great news next time.