Turning Tables!

I am really enjoying my weekly assignments and exploring different resources and references in quest for my own leadership style. Last week I blogged about blogs and this week I’m tasked with blogging about my fellow classmates and their reflections.  Whilst the processes of reading everyone’s posts I realized that some of the same names keep popping up to the top of my list. Their witty voices and use of visuals in presenting their personal goals are somewhat aligned with mine, they inspire me to be more like them.

OMG!?!?!?!! Did I just identify some of the like minded community members within the larger “classroom community”??????

I’d say so!  Needless to say, inspiration is all around us if we just pay attention.

The past two weeks of class we focused our learning around the book Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. The book breaks down tools and methods needed to deploy ideas into action through organization and execution, harnessing the force of community around us and capability to lead. The two of many classmates who in my mind did an impeccable job reflecting on all of the above mentioned aspects of the two week lessons are Whitley Mike and Tim Coffin.

While reading Whitley’s last blog post, I felt like I was reading about parts of my own life  but through someone else’s eyes.  In her post Whitley describes feeling pressure and stress of chaotic life of an introvert and finding ways to step back, evaluate and break down life into manageable chunks.  I find it inspiring to see a leader in making who is open and shows her vulnerabilities and showcase her organizational skills to overcome obstacles and win. If you further explore Whitley’s blog you will also see that her use of visual cues is very dominant. She has a talent to capture her ideas in a snap shot. And for someone like myself, an extrovert who lives a very chaotic and stressful life I find Whitley’s visuals to be very calming, relate-able and easy to follow.

The second classmate I’d like to reference this week is Tim Coffin. In one of his older blog posts Tim said that in order to start his personal journey and become a creative leader he must have a starting point and benchmarks against which to access his progress. This seems so simple but yet so powerful. Tim’s posts are always very organized and mirror uniform like structure he is probably used to for most of his professional life as an officer.  I find it very inspiring. To create and to lead one has to be able to organize, signal a starting and an ending point while monitoring progress in between.  Lastly, just like Whitley and myself, Tim doesn’t shy away from taking his audience on his journey. He selflessly shares his struggles with feelings of content as well as his tactics in changing not just his professional environment but himself as a thought  leader.

In conclusion I want to applaud both Whitley and Tim on their honesty, open mindedness and courage in showing what it takes to take charge and change for better. Their leadership potential is unfolding right in front of our eyes.