Charisma

Up to this point in my life, I have held a few leadership positions, most of them selected by either my peers or authority figures. I believe to get to that point of being given responsibility one has to display certain qualities and that would enable his/ her peers or high-ups to want to give that reward to them. That is why I believe that the Charismatic Leadership Theory has best described me up to this point because I think to be elected to student government in high school for example I had to write a speech and convince my peers that I would be the best man for the job. man times, in high school it's not based off what you can do, but how you present yourself and what you say you can do. Not that I am trying to state that I gave false promises, but it helps to have people skills and a certain aura I believe to put confidence in your peers as yourself. Charisma is a wonderful thing to have because it will light an audience up when say the rally theme or football game didn't go in the way they had hoped it would.
My greatest leadership challenge in high school was leading a three-night, four-day Kairos retreat with another student. We were in charge of the whole retreat, and in this position even had some authority over the teachers that attended (a great but weird experience). To get the students to listen to what I had to say was more than just giving directions, I needed to convince them that they wanted to do what I was saying no matter how hungry or tired they were. This means I had to tell jokes and call on friends and make the next project seem so appetizing they couldn't possibly go back to their cabin. I really enjoyed being a leader at the retreat, it was a special experience that I won't ever forget, but having been in this class for only two weeks I see that there may have been ways to make my position even more effective.
Now, having said that I believe charisma has most described my leadership form in the past, I would like to modify my leadership skills to be more like The Leadership Challenge. As a slight refresher, the Leadership Challenge has five parts: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.
I think that because this form is so through on how to both perform as a leader through Model the Way, and also be charismatic and Enable Others to Act at the same time that it is a great model for leading others. As a leader I would like to be able to have people share my enthusiasm for the project/cause but I know that that can be hard to control. This leadership model I believe would be more effective and hands-on because of how it challenges one to interact with the a team or members of a movement more than charisma, which one can think of as just a big man spiting words behind a podium.


And for Part Two!

 

This is one of my favorite photos and a highly controversial one at that. It is a Chinese man making a non-agressive protest against the Chinese government in Tiananmen Square. The man was later removed by government offcials but his actions and this photo inspired the world. A tribute to that would be that it is mostly censored in China were communism still plays a large role and the government doesn't want it's citizens to see it.



Instead of a photo that is a symbol of the Social Change Model, I think this one represents the Social Change Model in action. The man is becoming a figure-head for the rebellion against the Chinese government in a non-violent way that expresses his individual values. This is how the Social Change Mode should be implemented, in such a way that we change the wrongs through rights and do not stoop to violence.