Week 3: Blog Prompt 1 – Pick one of the Leadership lessons
from "Five Leadership Lessons…" that you value and discuss it.
“Five Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk” is an essay written
by Alex Knapp. In it, he discusses lessons
we can learn from James T. Kirk, the main character from the TV show Star Trek. He contends that Kirk’s successful missions
were not by accidents. According to
Knapp, “His style of command demonstrates a keen understanding of leadership
and how to maintain a team that succeeds time and time again, regardless of the
dangers faced” (28).
In lue of my score for Developing Interdependence on the
Self-Assessment test (http://livinglovingteachingwriting.blogspot.com/2018/01/thats-not-right-score.html)
from Week 1, I thought I’d pick this one...
Be Part of
the Away Team
“Risk is our business. That’s what
this starship is all about. That’s why we’re aboard her.”
Knapp discusses James T. Kirk’s willingness to put himself in harms
way and join the away team missions. He writes,
“With his boots on the ground, he was always able to make quick assessments of
the situation, leading to superior results, at least, superior for everyone
with a name and not wearing a red shirt” (30).
This proves that Kirk was a hands-on leader. He was able to lead his team by doing, and
not just by talking. As a leader, often
we feel that we do not have to have our boots on the ground, causing us to forget
what it was like when we were in our team’s shoes. This can cause a leader to lose perspective. Losing perspective can facility a lack of
empathy for your team. And, you do not
get to know your team members.
One thing I try to do is get to know the names of my
students. It is not always easy,
depending on the class size, but I think that is what makes me a caring
professor, I want to know my team. I enjoy
being with my students, talking to them, and hearing their thoughts and
ideas. I think my students trust me more
because I have been through what they are going through, and I still remember
what it is like to be a college student.
In the classroom, I am Kirk. I am
the leader.
When it comes to being a teacher, I like being with my students, but
I just have to learn to be a part of the away team in life. My scariness with being part of the away team
in life is that on Star Trek, almost
always, one of the away team members, (the extra for that episode) ended up dying. In real life, I feel like I am the extra, and
I will be the one who dies in whatever episode I am in at that time. I know that it is fear that causes me to feel
this way, but I do not want to be in the extra in life. I do not want to be that random person who no
one knows their name or where they came from.
They just showed up, and then died.
Developing Interdependence will help me overcome this weird fear,
but I must work at it. I must remember,
that in real life… I have to be a part of the away team, even if I am not the
leader of the team, and there is a chance I will be the Away Team Member that Dies.
---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Works Cited
Knapp, Alex. "Five
Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk." Read, Write, Reason, Edited
by Dorothy U. Selyler, McGraw-Hill Education, 2015. 28-32. e-file.
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