Time to be Humble

In lab on Wednesday we learned about famous leaders in history and the qualities that make them good.  While we have discussed good leadership qualities before that class, one quality seemed to hit home with me as we were talking.  One difference between successful leaders that have good intentions and other leaders is humility.  Most leaders that people happily follow are humble and intend to help with the betterment of others rather than just themselves.  I realized that sometimes I try to accomplish things just to maybe get something cool to put on my resume or even just to make others think I'm cool.  However, especially with my role as choir director, I need to try especially hard to be humble.  I am a pretty talented musician and can tend to be critical of others when it comes to music.  I need to realize that the ward choir is mostly about creating music to invite the spirit, not necessarily to have good quality of music.  If I can humble myself and realize that the choir is about the spirit rather than about me I think my experience as ward choir director will be much more enjoyable.

Legos and Lord of the Rings

On my first day of this new leadership class, we got the opportunity to play with legos and watch clips from some incredible movies (Lord of the Rings, Independence Day, A Bug's Life, etc.).  I knew immediately this was the class for me.  More importantly though we learned some qualities that leaders possess and what defines a leader.
From this lecture, it really hit home with me how creating a vision and a plan is something I am going to need to focus on as the choir director.  I need to have a end result in my mind and be able to portray it to the members of the choir.  Whether it just be a simple song or an entire music program, I'm not sure yet, but I know that having a clear, concise vision will help me develop my leadership skills and ultimately make me successful.

Leadership Role

The role that I have chosen to be my foundation for leadership learning this semester is my position as ward choir director.  I think that this role will definitely help me develop my leadership abilities because there is a lot of room for improvement to be done.  Last semester, all I did in that role was show up and lead whoever came to choir.  This semester, I think I can do a lot more planning, and advertising, in order to get a more established, better sounding choir.  Also, by doing this, it will improve my skills as a leader and help me understand my leadership style.