Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Rate your employer

Last night we covered chapters 6-11. Let me start off by saying I've now read 3 1/2 textbooks cover to cover. Pretty impressive for someone who generally despises reading if it doesn't involve sports. Or dogs. Anyhow.

We had to do some exercises on rating our employer. Since I am rather new at my current job, I try to rate them and my previous. It's interesting to see what I think are the differences between the two.

We also covered what it means to be a good leader and the different styles of leadership. Using some more exercises, I fall into a more people-oriented than task-oriented leader. Hopefully, my direct reports will feel the same way about me.

Chapters 12-17 for next week.

Till then!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Week #2

Hello all,

I know, you're impressed that I'm posting only one day after class, what can I say?

We had 2 people in class last night that weren't there in week 1. So we began class by reviewing last week for those two.

We then covered Chapters 2-5, discussing different leadership qualities, styles, and situations. I find we're getting a bit more in depth with discussions as we move along in the program. Andy always does a good job of keeping the mood light though, which I appreciate.

We have some more papers for this class and also a group power point on a leader of our choice covering the qualities of said leader, characteristics of the followers, and an overview of the situation. There is 5 people in my group, and we're doing Martin Luther King, Jr. Should be fun.

I also talked to Andy last night about moving on for my bachelor's after LTC, and he really suggests Silver Lake in Mantiowoc. They run their classes pretty similar to Andy from what he tells me, so I'll have to start looking in to it.

Anywho, hope this finds you all well.

Jon

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Back to work!

Well, I'm still not totally back in the swing of things as evidenced by the fact it's taken me a week to post about our first class back.

The two weeks off went by way too fast.

Anyway, my new class is Leadership Developement. Andy is once again teaching this class. Last week, we went over the class, what we'll cover, and what to expect. Chapters 1-5 were assigned for tonight, and I finished them this morning.

We also got our grades from the previous course. Out of 1,000 points, I got 977. For those of you who lack in the math arena, thats 97.7%. That's right, an A. Hopefully more of those to come in semester #2.

On a side note, my family has started a biggest loser competition which I entered. I figure I could stand to lose 30-40 pounds which would put me in the 16% range for total percentage lost.

Since my brothers tip the scales just south of 3 bills, I'll need some help to win this thing. But seriously, good luck to all of you who entered, and let's get healthy!

Till next time.

Jon