Posts

A633.7.3.RB_GarciaCaleb

Leader Follower Relationship In this blog the exercise at the beginning of Obelensky's Chapter 10 is evaluated from the perspective of my role within the Schaeffler organization in terms of leadership and followership. Over the past six weeks I believe I have been more prepared to identify and confront adaptive leadership challenges within Schaeffler. Additionally, the leadership structure plus the constituency of my department has been undergoing change, to which I have been able to respond differently than I usually would. In the past change and complexity typically saw me very stressed, perhaps missing deadlines, and not very productive. This is also in part due to not feeling supported and simultaneously trying to take on all responsibilities on my own because I didn't trust others to pay mind to quality. The emphasizing in recent weeks of 'letting go' and trusting your team is a major positive improvement for me and has yielded more success in my job. This assessme...

A633.4.4.RB_GarciaCaleb

  Should the "Boss" Always Know the Answers? In this blog I will recount a situation where I was in a leadership position and felt confronted with a seemingly impossible decision to make, a good example of an instance when I truly did not know the correct answer or course of action. During my undergraduate college experience I became heavily invested in a startup church plant called H2O Akron, which we registered as an official student organization on campus. The initial team that planted H2O Akron was a group of seven recent graduate students from other network H2O campuses who committed to spending 1-2 years of full-time service helping to establish the church for students at The University of Akron. I was one of the very first 9 students to join the organization my sophomore year, and totally threw myself into it, quickly taking on responsibilities in areas of musical worship, international student outreach, and mentorship of younger student members. In total, I was truste...

A633.1.2.RB_GarciaCaleb

  Leadership Gap It would appear that leadership is a concept which is defined differently depending on the time period and context within a given environment. I have personally observed this over the course of my life, as I recall playing "follow the leader" game as a child. In this context, the "leader" referred to the child in the front of the line, whom everyone else was meant to imitate. At a later age, I came to define the term "leader" as a person who sets a good example to others, sometimes an overachiever, and sometimes a good friend or teammate. As an adult, I still remember my old definition of "leader", but have disconnected its former meaning and replaced it to mean a person with authority to influence change, many times holding a formal title granting him such power.  The various understandings I have held over time of leadership are all paradoxically correct in my perspective, but comparatively off-base from the standpoint of older...