Yes or No?

I believe leadership comes from “YES.” I believe this because saying yes encourages others. Sometimes it is not easy to say yes to others. However, when leaders say yes to their followers, it includes them in the decision making process. Telling someone yes gives them power. They can use this power to change the world in a positive way or throw the opportunity away. By saying yes, we can only hope they take that yes and run with it to create positive change. Saying no doesn’t inspire others. No crushes dreams and aspirations. No shuts people down instead of encouraging them. Yes is motivating and inspiration. We have all been excited to do something or say an idea and got shot down with a no. It hurts and is very discouraging. Being told yes after expressing an idea is such a great feeling. You feel like you have achieve something.

Spark Leadership Series

The Spark Leadership Series is a program at the Leadership institute at CMU. It is a program designed to help students develop their leadership. It is a four week program and each week you dive deeper into what leadership involves and why it is important to be positive, accepting leaders. I think it is so great that this program is offered to anyone on campus. I have gone to many different leadership programs but I am very fortunate. Not everyone gets to experience something like this. With Spark being open and free for everyone it gives everyone the chance to gain leadership skills. One of the greatest things I gained from Spark was connections throughout campus. I often interact with people in leader and the people I have in my classes. This program gave me the oppurtunity to interact and learn from people I would’ve have gotten to otherwise.

“How Great Leaders Inspire Action”

We have all heard something similar to leaders inspiring action. However, I had never heard a speech quite like this. The Ted Talk we watched was not like anything I had really heard before. The speaker, Simon Sinek, talked about how great leaders inspire people by channeling why they do something. We have a part of the brain that controls why we do what we do. He explained that if leaders can channel that then they can persuade you to do certain things. One of the examples he used was Apple. They are highly well known and extremely successful. They are successful because they channel the “why?” in people. Mot companies can channel what we do and how we do it but not many take the time to know why people do certain things. Heck, some of them don’t even know why they do certain things. Apple is great because they can do both of these. That is why they sell more than just computers. Other companies are just as well equipped to make the products, so why aren’t they as successful? Because they don’t channel the “why?” in us. When channeling the why a leader is directly channeling the decision making part of the brain. If they inspire us, they can convince us. Personally I really enjoyed this Ted Talk. I thought Sinek had some really great points. Some of which I am fairly unfamiliar with. I think as great leaders some of us “speak” to the “why?” without evening realizing. This is what makes me inspiring.