SL1 Aren Jorgensen

• *Intro: Skip to the last page of the intro.  There are three questions.  The author suggests that if your answer is no to the questions, continuing is a waste of time.  If your answer is yes to each, please also explain WHY you are willing to go through this pain, because it will be painful if you want to truly be a better leader.

Simply put it is more painful and infinity more frustrating to be a bad leader.  The first reason being a bad leader stinks is cause as a peer leader you have very little power so no one listens unless they want to.  Two some will give you one chance to successfully lead and motivate and if you fail they will be donkeys to you for the rest of your life, and these people will probably join in two years.  Finally trying constantly push and pull people is no fun, the author says its hard but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  As put in scrum change or die.

• Chapter 2: In what places in your life have you earned authority?  How did you get it?

I have earned authority in my scout troop.  I gained this authority by being kind, respectful, and never pulling seniority.  In our troop we vote in a head leader (SPL) every 6 months.  I got the position because the ten younger scouts saw me as a person who wouldn't abuse power and was a decent leader.

Chapter 1: Hunter says that leadership is a skill, not something many are born with.  Do you actually believe this?  Have you always believed this?  What evidence have you seen in your life to back up your response.

I believe leadership is definitely a skill.  I don't remember what I thought several years ago or if I even had an opinion, but I do remember scouts is when I realized it was a skill.  Over just six months I've seen people's leadership skills infinitely expanded and improved just by doing what seems right and getting some constructive feed back.  Anyone who says leadership isn't a skill should just try for a few weeks and they will soon think differently.

• Chapter 1: The word "influence" comes up dozens of times in the first chapter.  Why does Hunter keep talking about it?

If you don't have influence you need to have followers who believe in a cause or use power, and power will soon scare away the best followers.  Then your left with the stubborn ones and can't get influence because you lost your one chance.

• Chapter 3: Hunter says that serving others is a choice.  Share a time where you made the choice to serve yourself as a leader and a time where you chose to serve others in your leadership role.  How did each work out?  How did each feel?

A time when I served my self was when I let a person slip away from a job and did nothing about it because I had just spend a ridiculous amount of time pressuring them to do it.  I avoided conflict and made it harder in the long run because I had to stand in front of them baby sitting to make sure they didn't leave.  A time I served was when I made the stubborn ones do thinks no matter how much they resisted I was more stubborn unfortunately they never stopped trying to avoid work.  Neither produced and visible results and both made me feel frustrated and bad.

In summary:  I learned the difference between power and authority.  I already knew how to get influence from people and that it was better to lead with it.  The main thing I still don't know is how to convince people who only follow you if you let them slack off.

Jacob SL1

• Chapter 1: Explain the differences between leaders and managers.  Would product owners and scrum masters be leaders, managers, both, or neither?

A leader is someone who can influence followers to work fully towards a mutual goal or gain while a manager is someone who is tasked with making things happen on time in a certain way.  A manager doesn't always have authority but they are given power over the people they are managing so they can get a task done.  Scrum masters and product owners would have to be both manager and leader since although a leader can get people to follow them, they need at least some managerial skills to handle things like deadlines and problem causers.

• Chapter 1: Hunter says that leadership is a skill, not something many are born with.  Do you actually believe this?  Have you always believed this?  What evidence have you seen in your life to back up your response?

I am sure that leadership is a skill that can be learned and I have always been pretty sure of it.  There is probably a set of genes which, if someone grows up in the right environment, will allow people to be great leaders, but Leadership definitely isn't just genetic as evidenced by the thousands of inheritors who squandered their parents authority, power, or money.  I've also seen people become better leaders simply through practice in groups at school.

• Chapter 1: The word "influence" comes up dozens of times in the first chapter.  Why does Hunter keep talking about it?

Hunter keeps talking about influence because it is central to being a leader.  People in charge can have different kinds of influence over others; there's the "I'll get fired if I do this wrong" influence, the "that guy helped me out last week so i'd love to reciprocate" influence, and many others.  The kind of influence you have with your workforce shows what kind of a leader you are.

• Chapter 2: In what places in your life have you earned authority?  How did you get it?

I have earned a not so small amount of authority in school based concepts.  This is especially true for math since I have consistently done well in the subject and helped other people to do the same.  I also have a significant amount of authority with my brother since I have on more than one occasion covered for or helped him in situations which he didn't necessarily know how to deal with.

• Chapter 2: What is a legitimate use of power by the leaders of a FRC team?  How often should this be used?

Using power to make others accomplish a task is actually somewhat difficult on FRC teams since there is little to threaten a dissenter with.  Obviously somebody could be kicked off of the team or removed from a project, but since the entire FRC experience is on a voluntary basis and we really need the people we have, both of those are unlikely.  Thus, we should only use power sparingly.  If someone is preventing a deadline from being reached or causing arguments, power could be used, but just as equally someone could simply tell them what is going on and try to work it out.

• Summary

In these chapters I learned a little bit about the difference between managers and leaders, the difference between power and authority, and how your influence with your employees depicts your leadership or management style.

Braxton SL1

Intro: Skip to the last page of the intro.  There are three questions.  The author suggests that if your answer is no to the questions, continuing is a waste of time.  If your answer is yes to each, please also explain WHY you are willing to go through this pain, because it will be painful if you want to truly be a better leader.

My answer to each is yes, and I am willing to go through this as it will not only improve my experience and abilities in robotics, but it will also improve my skills for the future, and having the skills of servant leadership as this book discusses can be very valuable in the future.

Chapter 1: Explain the differences between leaders and managers.  Would product owners and scrum masters be leaders, managers, both, or neither?

The difference between leaders and managers is that when you lead, you inspire and influence people to work together, while when you manage, you're running day-to-day tasks in a company, team, division, etc. Our scrum masters and products owners would be both, managing the tasks of operating and constructing the robot, creating the backlog list, running meetings and planning poker, etc., as well as inspiring, motivating, cajoling, and influencing team members to actually work and make a difference on the team.

Chapter 1: The word "influence" comes up dozens of times in the first chapter.  Why does Hunter keep talking about it?

Hunter keeps talking about influence as  he says that leadership is a personal business, and that a leader is a large part on the lives of those he's leading, the cause of personal development, dinner conversations, likes and dislikes, and more. Therefore, the leader influences those he/she leads, and this emphasis is to drive home this point throughout the chapter.


Chapter 2: What is a legitimate use of power by the leaders of a FRC team?  How often should this be used?

On an FRC team, legitimate use of power is usually just applying pressure on team members laying about and not doing their job in a pinch, however that doesn't really work in the long term. In most situations where power could be applied, it is simply preferable to try to influence lazy workers to do better; late projects (but not too late) are better done by a team, not a hero; and rival designs are better tested than shouted down. Power is good for last-minute situations or as a short term solution, while authority can be permanent and long-lasting if applied correctly, and by the right person. Due to its short term nature, power should be used sparingly and for emergencies, not every day.

Chapter 3: Hunter lists a number of history's greatest servant leaders: Jesus, Ghandi, MLK, and many more.  Name one person who has earned authority over you because of their service in your life.  Give a few concrete examples of what they do that earns them authority over you.

Instead of listing one person, I'll name two: my grandparents. Since we've lived in the same town since 2007, they've helped a lot with raising my brother and I, they've chauffeured us round when we need  ride, they've provided food, a place to stay, advice, and more. 

Summary:

In this first part of the book, I learned bout the basic principles of servant leadership. I learned about the difference between power and authority, the difference between leading and managing, and the importance of influence in leadership.