Clint Gault's Reflections

 What? What makes an environment that is fair and just to all people? Self-identification and developing an idea of yourself and your culture makes you have a better understanding of others' cultures which can create an atmosphere of dignity and respect for others that are dissimilar to you. This creates not only self-respect for our own identity and culture but should create dignity, respect, and an understanding of others and their cultures. When you have created a balance of self-respect and respect for others, that is maintained through humility (Hannum, 2010). No culture is perfect and no culture is worthless so it is important to practice cultural humility and respect. So What? Dignity is the ability to experience a sense of one's self-worth while also being principled about respecting the equal worth of other lives. Whereas with self, respect without respecting others becomes arrogance, and respect for others without self-respect can become humiliation (Hannum, 2010). Re...

What?      How did the COVID pandemic affect our ability to manage and lead our teams through times of crisis? Well, a group of doctors and researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland detailed their experience and findings on how the pandemic challenged their overall status quo. Pandemics challenge how operations are normally carried out which includes communication, and quality of work, and can impose additional stress on their environment. When pandemics or times of crisis happen, leadership needs to be able to reflect on previous mistakes in these scenarios so they can improve leadership practices and operations So What?      Pandemics challenge how operations are normally carried out which includes communication, and quality of work, and can impose additional stress on their environment. Pandemics also present a unique opportunity for leadership as they can help them analyze how effective and ready their teams are for challenges that they may...

 What?      Should we look through other people's perspectives to better understand their conflict and solve issues that relate to our own? Chapter three of Manifesto for a moral revolution  by Jacqueline Novogratz describes gathering information through moral imagination can help foster more effective solutions to problems ourselves and others face by looking through others' perspectives. Moral imagination tackles the issue of how we view other people's problems as if they were our own and to begin to discern how to tackle those problems while using that information to figure out the solution (Novogratz, 2020). So What?     Moral imagination is the basis of an ethical framework for a world that recognizes our common humanity and insists on the opportunity, choice, and dignity of all of us (Novogratz, 2020). Moral imagination allows for us to envision a wide range of ideas and scenarios that are able to tackle a certain ethical dilemma we may face...

 What?     What values are synonymous with being a leader? Is it important to search for those values that make yourself a successful leader and be able to extract to most potential from your team or is it essential to be authentic in how you use those values to make your team successful? Chapter Eleven of  Leading Organizations  by Kelly Hannum describes the importance of leadership values while also being authentic in how we engage with others. Authentic leaders can be defined as those who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, and someone who is of high moral character (Avolio, Luthans, & Walumbwa, 2004). So What?      Our values are how we perceive the world and shape how we take action against conflicts, but more often than not we are unaware of the values we hold until they are challenged or in conflict with them (Hannum, 2010). Authentic leadership has many positives as it means leaders are mission drive rather than being l...