This post is going to be a text to self and the article I’m using is “Core Values List with 500 Examples” by Threads Culture. I’m going to give 5 core values I have as a leader that I use in my daily life which is trustworthy, understanding, selfless, responsibility and independence. Let’s start with being trustworthy, I’ve always prided myself on making sure people can trust me whether that’s with my basketball team and coaches trusting that I do the right thing and bring effort everyday, my family, friendships or relationships. As a leader, I feel that being understanding is huge because being able to understand why someone is feeling a a certain way and being able to change based on the situation can help build the relationships you have with people that are most important to you and being a leader. Being selfless as a leader can be a gift and a curse, I always used to put everyone and their feelings before mine to a fault, but it’s a gift when you learn when to be selfless and when to be selfish. Responsibility has been a part of my life since I was young, I’m the oldest of 6 and I always have different responsibilities and making sure I’m being that example for them. I have a responsibility to my team to bring effort day in and day out and being able to lead by example and taking responsibility for actions in friendships and relationships. I’m an independent woman, but I’ve had to learn how to let people help me when I need it most. These 5 core values are why I’m the leader I am today.

In this post I will be doing a text to world, and the article is called “Ex-Uber engineer accuses tech company of gaslighting female employees, defending workplace harassment” by Nicole Hensley. It’s about how HR and management were getting emails from multiple women on how this male manager was showing inappropriate behavior and interactions with his employees that are female and the company was gaslighting these women and saying that they’re the problem or they should just drop it. As Susan Fowler said on the company, “Some of the women even had stories about reporting the exact same manager I had reported, and had reported inappropriate interactions with him long before I had even joined the company,” Fowler wrote. “It became obvious that both HR and management had been lying about this being “his first offense”, and it certainly wasn’t his last.” This reminds of how there were women in the sports broadcasting/ journalism field and how they were treated off camera. In a male dominated field such as sports broadcasting/ journalism, a lot of these women were just seen as Barbies on set and not for who they are and what they do. They have gotten sexualized or even sexually harassed and a lot of them thought it. was normal because it’ll be their way of reaching their goals. So in comparing both of these situations are very similar to each other and even other situations dealing with women in a male dominated field and how these companies ignore it.

In this post I’ll be using the article, “Playing favorites? Hospital boards, donors get COVID shots” by  Russ Bynum, Michelle R. Smith and Rachel La Corte. This will be a text to world. In this article, it talks about how when Covid-19 broke out, that hospital board members, donors and trustees had early access to the vaccines. In summary of what the article talks about, “It’s a reminder that if you’re rich, well-connected and know how to work the system, you can get access that others can’t,” Caplan said. “Here it is, right in our face, when it comes to vaccinations.” I would like to relate to how rich people or anyone connected to bigger people gets advantages that others can’t get in another real world situation. For example, what happened during the past couple of months of how Trump was going to do tax cuts for the rich and how it may affect those that aren’t as rich and it’ll on be beneficial for the rich. Trump’s tax cuts only will be in affect for billionaires and yes there’s not a lot of them, but the principle behind it is that it’s not helping the American people or those that need that the most. In comparison to article, those that are rich and that are connected to someone of higher power gets these advantages that most can’t and can affect the livelihood of others because they aren’t billionaires. So, it’s pretty normal for people to that are rich or that have connections to have better advantages than those that need it most.

I’m doing a connection to self by using the article “Leaders Who Inspire, Listen”. I made this type of connection with basketball, but I’m going to turn it around to my family. Being the oldest of 6, it comes with a lot of responsibilities and especially headaches. In the article it talks about the 8 things that make you an authentic leader which is honoring people, provide meaning, listens, open/ transparency, build trust, vulnerable, acknowledges others and provides a stake. Being the leader/ older sibling and being in a sports family everyone has their own gifts when it comes to sports or even love playing video games. Being able to truly listen to them when they are going through something, or they ask me questions of things they are curious about and understand them. Being open in showing them that doing the right thing is hard, but it’s worth it and understanding that being a leader in your own right is hard. Me and my siblings as all other siblings have gone through hard times in their relationship when things went wrong, but being able to take accountability and responsibility can help build that trust. Wanting to confide in my sister since she is close in age with me has helped build our relationship. Being able to acknowledge when my siblings do something well or does the right thing when no one is looking helps them understand that what they are doing is right and that I’m happy for them.

I’m doing a connection to self and I’m using the article “Strong Ethics Provide Guidance”. While reading this small reading about how effective leadership can help others seek guidance from you because of the same values or principles you may share. This reminds me of two different situations and one of them is how I’m a leader for the women’s basketball team, and being a leader can be hard. The characteristics I have of being a leader is putting the team goals before my individual goals, effort and energy when I play, making the right decisions on and off the court, being able to sacrifice for my team when they need me to and being able to help my teammates when they need me or when they need advice. Not to toot my own horn, but I feel that this helps my team understand that they can rely on me and that I’ll give them honest advice and guidance especially to the freshman. Another situation is how my mom is an ethical leader in my eyes because she raised me into the woman I am today. She raised me on these same values and principles to become a leader myself. So, for me and maybe for a lot of people and their parents, it’s easier to go to those that are close to you. She enforces her values and principles in her life daily like at her job, in our family, etc. and it made me look at her as an effective leader.

In the article, Ethical Decision Making by Individuals In Organizations, talks mainly about how to introduce concepts not present in prior models and to offer a model that supplements, but does not replace, other models. I want to talk about the 3 definitions that were the main part of this article that pertains to real life situation which is moral issues means a moral issue is present where a person’s actions, when freely performed, may harm or benefit others. A moral agent is a person who makes a moral decision, even though he or she may not recognize that moral issues are at stake. We all know what ethical and unethical decisions mean. I want to mainly talk about how moral issues can be translated not only in business but in the world. For instance the election and Donald Trump becoming president and certain things on his agenda can hurt certain groups of people such as women and children and minorities, but certain things on his agenda can benefit others such as rich people with the tax cuts. Also, with having a lot of republicans in the senate and congress and by pushing his agenda, a lot of people can be harmed or benefitted by their decision on certain topics and it can affect our country.

In the Decision Making article, they talk about different decision making tactics that you can sure in your company, but these decision making tactics can help in real life situations. Making rational decisions whether that means in business and in life, for example, for me being able to make a decision on going to a college for basketball. College is supposed to be the best 4 years of your life and making that decision is a big part of your life, but it’s hard. The first step of that is that I know I want to go to college for basketball, but the next step is to the see what’s the important factors that I want in the school that I want to go to. Which is to go to a winning program, having a great relationship with coaches and team, family atmosphere and where I could get my degree. I ended up choosing Mississippi State University and based off of the factors that are important to me, I left to come to NC State and it’s been the most amazing 4 years here. So even if you make a decision there are always better options that benefit you.

I read “The Role of Values in Leadership: How Leaders’ Values Shape Value Creation” by Scott Lichtenstein. One. of the quotes on I thought was interesting was in the very beginning of the article which it says, “If the “my way or the highway” school of leadership has been working for thousands of years, why is the subject of leadership under such scrutiny? If we know the tried and tested “my way or the highway” approach to leadership works, why are there approximately 3,000 books a year written on the topic? One major reason is due to changing employees’ values, and in the aggregate, societal values.” Which I agree that everyone’s values have changed from generation to generation. Not to reveal my coaches age, but he uses the my way or the highway method which for some of the team it’s hard for them to adjust to that because their values are different than his. That our opinions should be heard on certain things or being able to sit out when you’re hurt. My coach doesn’t really believe in injuries or that you should play through it which relates to the phrase that “if you ain’t bleeding or have a broken bone, then you’re ok. Which in this generation, we take care of ourselves more and have more of a voice than other generations when it comes to our values and beliefs in leadership.

While reading, “It’s How Leaders Behave that Matters, Not Where They’re From” by Barry Z. Posner, I thought it was interesting on the different takes on how leaders that have different cultural backgrounds behave. In the text it says, “In highly feminine cultures, where people strive to cooperate, maintain relationships, and express more compassion leaders might be expected to behave different than their counterparts in highly masculine cultures.” For example, in the sports broadcasting world, it’s dominated by men and not a lot of women were in this field for plenty of reasons, but comparing the famous male broadcasters like Stephen A. Smith and one of the most famous female sports broadcasters Andraya Carter, they both do things differently when it comes to their job and being a leader in their field. Stephen A. Smith is a more aggressive broadcaster that yells to get his points across and thinks he’s right all the time, which not all male broadcaster are like this. Andraya Carter uses more of her knowledge on the game and not her opinions and is more direct and not yelling to get a point across and not saying some women don’t do the opposite, these are just examples of what this text means

I’m using the article, “40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman’s model of small group development” by Denise A. Bonebright. The different stages that Tuckman’s models uses are Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning. Forming is when the team comes together and gets to know each other and sets rules and has an understanding the team’s goals. Storming is when there might be some conflict with the team. Norming is when the team ends up resolving the conflict and the teams starts to work more effectively and role become clearer and focus on team goals. Performing stage is when the team is highly effective when it comes to teamwork and they are bale to make good decisions and solve problems. Lastly, adjourning is when the team reminiscences on the achievements and experiences they’ve had after they completed their goals. Which I feel like this only doesn’t happen in just jobs, but it happens in life. Families go through this, for example a couple going through their first couple of months of marriage and then having a baby. They try to discuss on what their roles are in their marriage, household, and even the baby. Then when it’s resolved and figure out their roles, everything works so smoothly and they can reflect on their experiences with each other and their new baby. Even a new head coach of basketball team going through different changes in their program, players might not know their roles on the team which can cause problems, but eventually figuring that out can end up helping the team get to their goals. All of these scenarios can be related to Tuckman’s model and can be used in daily life.