Week 7 Journal:

Thursday October 7th, 2020

This class was one of my favorite classes. It’s interesting because at the beginning of class you asked if we enjoyed the class as much as you did, and I said that this class stuck out to me because of the interaction and the end of the class proved why this is my favorite class. I enjoy that this class is so engaging and interactive so I’m able to learn something and provide valuable lessons to my own life. In my other classes, it feels more like I’m just learning something for a quiz and taking down notes. It’s not providing anything else for me.

But, today in class we talked about showing leadership development effectively and what that means for advocating/speaking out for a group. We discussed Ned’s limitations to himself and how it holds you back as a leader. One of the big ideas that limit Ned is the way that he blames himself for his brother’s death. Although he does feel bad, and the same as I would you can’t blame yourself for his death. Saying things like “I should have done this or I wish I did this…” alienates yourself. I feel like sometimes I find myself saying these things when I make a mistake which can have a positive or negative effect on me. The positive is that it pushes me to work harder and achieve these different things, and the negative is that it pushes you deeper and deeper into your feelings. From previous lessons, we’ve talked about how you need to restrain your feelings to be a good leader which is what Ned was not capable of since he was so outspoken about what he wants. Another topic we talked about was Ned’s lack of patience. Being a leader’s patience is extremely important because when you’re hard past the extent you end up losing allies. From experience, I’ve definitely had people who have tried to lead me but were very impatient. That’s such a turn off because you don’t feel comfortable asking questions or for feedback. You push a lot of people away from wanting to join your group. We also talked about if we would like to have Ned as a mentor. Personally, it’s a half and half situation for me because I like people who tell me how it is straight. I’d like him as a mentor because he would tell me like it is. I would not like him as a mentor because I think he goes to an extreme extent which isn’t always good. I feel like a lot of people with mentors want to babied and Ned is most definitely not the type of person to do that as a mentor.

Then we split into breakout rooms and talked about our names and how we felt about them. It was actually really interesting to see what other people thought about their names. It was also interesting for me because I’ve never actually thought so deeply about my name. I’ve had the same name since I was born and it’s kind of hard to think about myself with a different name. I feel like all though I have a little bit of a basic name, my personality speaks for my leadership qualities. My mother actually told me that she chose the name Alexis because she’s always wanted a name with 6 letters and 3 syllables. She also wanted to have an A name because it’s an A name which means you would think of it first. It was interesting to see the different stories that everyone has with the way that their parents named them. When I have kids, I would love to be able to put the same amount of effort and storyline into creating my child’s name and not just think of the first name that pops in my head that I like.

At the end of class, we were able to listen to you play the guitar which was absolutely amazing. I never actually knew that you played guitar; I thought that you only rode bikes. I forgot the name of the song that you first played but my mom told me that it was one of my grandpa’s favorite songs.

Tuesday October 13th, 2020

Kallion Homework Chapter 7:

Does leadership come from loving three things: humanity, learning, and honor?

First Assignment: Write about the person who’s shown the most leadership in their life? How did they first start showing leadership?

• My grandfather has shown a lot of leadership qualities throughout his life. He grew up in Trinidad, Tobago, and later moved to Tribeca with my grandmother, my two uncles, and my mom. He became one of the top-performing professors at Fordham University. He was also a writer of about 5 or 6 books so he was always very school orientated. The school was very important to him which is why he was called Uncle School throughout my extended family. That’s why I’m always so dedicated to my studies and grades in school, especially college because I want to make him proud and also emulate the same leadership qualities that he showed in his life.
• My mom is also an amazing leader to me because living in a single-parent household she inspires me so much. She has always been extremely dedicated to her work and degrees. A few years ago she even went back to school and classes to get another degree. It’s inspiring to me to see how to put together she is or how she put it on to me with me and my brother.

Key Passages and Discussion:

Passage One: The problem that the Cyropaedia tackles: How to get others to follow you willingly

1. Political governments: democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, and tyranny
2. Between master and enslaved
3. Short lived government, asserting authority
4. Constitution: balance of all four
5. Humans have an easy time leading animals
6. Never revolt or conspire against
7. Humans are not naturally capable of ruling over other humans
8. Thunderstruck about achievements

Passage Two: Cyrus’ superlative traits of body and soul

1. His background to develop your own leadership
2. Lineage/background/genealogy
3. Who you are (physics)
4. Education- upbringing
5. Nature: sexual attractive ness (erotic desire: following him because he’s attractive)
6. Shape or form
7. Social, bond easily, sharing of resources
8. Devoted to learning
9. Ambitious: enjoyed being honor/recognition
10. In danger while in leadership roles: taking those risks: tricky balance
11. Reputational damage
12. Wealthy/ royalty (risk fortune)

Passage Three: Persian Education System: Practice and Emulation

1. Divisions of education
2. Involving virtues (practice/emulation)
3. To learn justice: ability to judge well (court system)
4. Failing to show gratitude: but not suing as an example in a relationship
5. Sense of duty
6. Shamelessness: gratitude (ingratitude)
7. Emotional restraint (stable minded enough)
8. Learning how to observe

Passage Four: Cyrus as the matchmaker between the Median nobles and his grandfather Astyages

1. Love of humanity/honor
2. Calculated help to bring him distinction
3. Showing up (charming) and becoming popular
4. Matchmaker in what father’s want vs access
5. Drive to be honored
6. Recognized for helping

Passage Five: Cyrus’ lack of phthonos

1. Doesn’t have a problem with losing (envy)
2. Rivalry does not equal leadership
3. Minimizing his embarrassment
4. Without having any jealousy
5. Airspace=our own sense of airspace
6. Physically and possession and identity
7. Violation of these airspaces
8. Humble or humiliation to preserve identity
9. Feeling threatened

Passage Six: A lesson from Cambyses on the “most admirable thing someone can do”

1. Self sufficiency/improvement for your own happiness
2. Human development
3. Providing/helping with development
4. Consistent with other leadership roles
5. Physical or character necessities provided
6. How do you define leadership prior to this course?

Passage Seven: On the best way to get people to follow you

1. How to get people to follow you?
2. Obedience; willing (enthusiastic following)
3. Knowing how things are going to go
4. Guides=will have a following willingly
5. Having experience (reading other people)
6. Cultivation

Tuesday October 13th, 2020

To start the class we did an interesting “activity”. I joined the class a little bit earlier than 3:10 and I saw that you had your camera on, I also turned mine on. Whenever we join the class and turn on our cameras, you usually greet us which is nice. So I usually like turning on my camera because you’re the only teacher that does that. When I turned on my camera, and you didn’t say anything for like 3 minutes, I decided to turn off my camera because I felt uncomfortable. We sat in silence for like 5 minutes and I honestly thought the class was in trouble. Someone finally spoke up and asked why we were not saying anything and you explained that you wanted us to show leadership skills by saying hello and greeting the class first. I feel like I am a good leader, but I turned off my camera because I felt uncomfortable that we were just staring at each other in silence. It was an interesting activity to show who would speak up first and ask what was going on.

Then we talked about key passages and discussed some of the themes that happened in the story. I enjoyed the lessons that were taught in this story because a lot of them I feel like I can apply to my own life and my leadership development. Chapter 3, section 17 was about being left behind by his mother. The theme that was talked about was, “if you can do something right/fitting is it okay to break the law?” I believe that violating the law doesn’t necessarily mean that you are doing the right thing and vice versa. You don’t always need to go against the law to prove that you’re right, and even if you have to do that, does whatever you’re doing even count as being right? All of these questions flowed through my mind while thinking about the answer to this question. Another theme that we talked about is personal motives and what the outcome may be. An example that was brought up in class was parents monitoring the agency of their children. Growing up, your parents have control of what you do and the decisions that you make. And this turns into a certain point where children need to make their own decisions. You’re giving your child autonomy. Having that power over someone decreases their potential for their self-determination.

Another theme that we talked about that was prevalent throughout the story was superlative traits. I recognized that this story had a similarity with the story we read last week. People choose their leaders based on looks, but that does not always mean that they are necessarily a good leader. In Passage Two, you talked about him being chosen as a leader just because he was attractive in a sexual way. Bruce was also chosen as a leader just because of his looks. It’s the same thing as not being able to “fake the funk”. You cannot fake being wise, just to become a leader. Your true colors will always show.

Something else that we talked about was the true definition of leadership that was discussed at the beginning of the course. In this story, he is focused on getting recognition from what Cyrus is doing as a leader. Just because he wanted recognition does not mean that he was not doing what he was doing for the good of everyone. He just wanted to be honored.

After our discussion, we broke into breakout rooms and talked about the three types of a prosthesis; The Guide, The Sea Captain, and The Physician. I was in a group with Jasmine and Mashayla. For someone to be a guide, we thought that they need to have a relationship with the person you’re guiding, be in a position of power, and know the way for yourself. If you do not know the way for yourself, there is no way that you’ll be able to show someone else the way. Having a relationship is also very important because you’ll be able to trust someone more. Some of the common leadership behaviors of a guide are recognizing and activating potential in others and having patience. Having patience and being willing to take out the time to help others show that you’re worthy enough of being a guide. I feel like it is possible to become a bad guide if you are not consistent. Changing your motivation will affect not only you but the people around you because energies flow. If one person for example has an attitude that will start to rub off on everyone.