Cohesiveness

After reading the excerpt The Nature of Group Cohesion, I came across numerous examples of being cohesive within a group. Cohesion was defined as “strong sense of belonging to an integrated community-are actively involved in their groups are more enthusiastic about their groups, and even suffer from fewer social and interpersonal problems.”  This quote retains to me because I believe and work along with this quote because I believe in order to have success within a group differences within one another has to be set aside in order to accomplish a goal that was settled for the individuals. For example in the passage the hockey team was once against each other because they all remember each other from when they competed against each other in high school. But due to their differences they put their dissimilarities aside in order to win games that were held upon them.  I have been in this predicament before with a group of individuals I played with on my softball team. We all had known each other from playing against one another in recreation softball in our communities and we held hate and competition within each other because we always wanted to beat them. But when we got older and went to the same high school and played softball together, we had to sit our differences aside because being divided within one another would only let our team fall and not win any games we played in. “Forces that keep a group intact by pushing members and countering forces that push them apart.” This quote correlates with me because within the team we set aside issues that we knew would be pushing us apart. As years went by we grew close with each other and started calling each other a family because held similarities and passions with each other because we worked together to accomplish our objectives and did it with positive attitude and unity. Another example of cohesion I settled with was having a roommate. “They would even sacrifice their individual desires for the good of the group.” Having a roommate to me made me be cohesive because my roommate and I shared a little room together that we would take up our personal space, but in order to have a good year in college and with each other we had to come together and make sacrifices and be unified as one.  My roommate and I shared many differences with each other because we were totally opposite, but she and I decided to make arrangements of who took a shower at a certain time to make sure we did not have any differences that would lead to us not enjoying our freshman year in college. “The ease with which cohesiveness can be described has been accompanied by an astonishing difficulty in defining it in an agreed on-matter.” Reviewing this quote acknowledged to me that difficulties should be worked out to have ease.

Leadership

As I read over the excerpt, I highly agree that in order to be a leader there has to be a vision require. I agree with the statement, “The vision operates within both the wants and needs of participants in the leadership relationship while also expanding their zone of tolerance for change”. I agree that this is true because no person alive can establish anything without viewing how they want to for take that dream. There is persistence and drive from supporting participants who want to see that vision come true. For example my softball coach had a vision of winning number one in the championship for our division team. He had assistant coaches who supported his every need and want to make sure his team was well prepared for the upcoming team we were going to play against. Also the assistant coaches and parents accepted and tolerated his request in having more practices during the week to fulfill his vision. Even though it was rough getting the teammates to come to every practice, he still went out on the field working with the little group of people who showed up. Just as the text explained, “Leadership is neither a clean nor constantly satisfying activity for an individual”. That is true because every practice was not satisfying to him because he did not have his whole team on the field participating in working to get better as a team. But he never let his vision go. He was still motivated to walk on that field everyday whether or not he had a full squad or not.  “Importance of vision: provides the leader with an additional moral justification for changing an organization and its members” and that was exactly what my coach had. I like visions because it gives the leader and his or her organization something to lean on for motivation and inspiration. When times get challenging I remind myself of the reason why I am fulfilling this duty. “It is the driving force of the vision of a desirable improved condition for members, the organization, and society that inspires the leader, the benefits of this desirable future plateau generates the duty to endure the trials associated with leadership”. I respect this quote because it reminded me of a time when I wanted to give helping 5^th grade students with their homework at a afterschool program. I continued to push myself because of the vision I had seeing the kids getting good grades on their tests and quizzes from the help and techniques I gave them. I could not let them down and quit helping them because I am one of the reasons for helping them do excellent in school and perhaps is the next scientist for a cure. By having my vision it brought me new friends because we all came together in doing the same thing for the children. “Creates a bond within the leaders and followers”. Having people by your side that is fulfilling the same vision as you creates a positive bond within one another and leads the organization down the right road into making that vision come true.

Leadership

After reading the excerpt “Toxic Leaders”, I am fully aware of what a toxic leader is. My first intentions of a toxic leader was someone who was and leader in general. But after reading the article I got an overall understanding and clear cut definition of a toxic leader. As described Lipman-Blumen a toxic leader is “a process in which leaders, by dint of their destructive behavior and/or dysfunctional personal characteristics inflict serious and enduring harm on their followers, their organizations, and nonfollowers, alike”. In others words a leader is someone who expresses negative behavior towards or around innocent observers or followers. I have been encountered around an individual who performed uncivilized behavior. When I was a sophomore running track, my team captain implemented toxic behavior around me and my fellow teammates. She had a bad problem with having toxic attitude almost daily that was unnecessary and negatively expressed towards the team and coach. Whenever a runner was losing in heat she would yell and cuss at the runner because she was disappointed that he/she was failing to lead the race. I felt her role was taken for granted because as a team leader she was not motivating and establishing positive attitude around her teammates. Her attitude rippled and affected other teammates because they soon picked her habit and began to demonstrate the same negative influence she was distributing. My track captain was a prime example of a toxic leader because her personality harmed and influenced the organization she was leading into destruction. I also recognized that she was a toxic leader because her personality failed to understand the nature of relevant problems and acted knowledgeably and effectively in situations requiring leadership. Also looking up to and admiring pop stars I noticed that they too can be toxic leaders. For example, many people around the world look up to pop star sensation Michael Jackson. Michael was a major influence to young and old people who, but he had many mistakes that he felt were amoral or not wrong. A primary example was when he hovered his youngest child, Blanket over a balcony to show off to his die-hard fans. Many people saw that this action was dangerous and wrong, while on the other hand Mike did not see anything wrong. I felt this was toxic because Jackson was not willing to claim that he was wrong in act of hanging his dangling baby over a balcony. This was an example of a toxic leader’s personal quality. Amorality is a leader makes it nigh impossible to discern right from wrong. Michael Jackson is an example of this because he did not see anything wrong about the danger that he had did towards his child, he thought he was right for showing the world and fans his dear hearted son. While the media and by standers all felt that he was highly wrong for conducting in such act. After reviewing this situation, I believe Michael Jackson is a toxic leader only because he find his actions and moods right when noticeably they are wrong.