Posts made in January, 2024

I like this activity because it focuses uniquely on qualities of a leader, as opposed to qualities of a good person, or a reflection of my personal values.  While I appreciate this is a group activity, it is also a perfect opportunity to contribute something other than required work to my blog. I’m not afraid of being wrong or having a bad take on something, and I expect this list will likely change by the end of the course.  I also think only the top 7 really matter, and the other traits are mostly in support of them.

Characteristics of an admired leader:

#1 is forward looking.  A leader needs a vision for the future.  No vision, no mission.

#2 is inspiring.  If you can’t inspire a team to pull in the same direction, or follow you, then you’re not a leader.

#3 is determined.  Generally, if you’re seeking a change, you will face some degree of resistance.  The bigger the mission, the greater the resistance will be.  It takes a great deal of determination to overcome the various forces resisting you and a willingness to battle time and time again.

#4 is competent.  I debated putting this lower on the list, but for me it belongs in the top 5.  People generally won’t follow a leader who fails them, and yet that doesn’t explain how we still have war criminals being paraded as heroes.  

#5 is ambitious.  Every hero’s journey begins with a desire to change something.  To be the face of that change is both courageous and ambitious.

#6 is intelligent.  There are lots of different ways to be intelligent.  There’s knowing and recalling information, problem solving, understanding people, and motives, planning ahead… so many ways to demonstrate intelligence that I feel like this is a catch-all.

#7 is caring.  Even if the leader doesn’t care about people (shame on you) they need to care about outcomes.

#8 is courageous.  People will follow someone who is willing to walk through the fire; or lead them through the jungle / into the dark..  It takes a ton of courage to be that person to go first.  Consequently, a good leader has to be willing to go first.

#9 is imaginative.  The biggest attribute to being fair or open minded is that ability to extrapolate and pull on the threads to imagine the outcomes.  It’s also important for coming up with new solutions to problems, especially when the tried and true hasn’t worked.

#10 is dependable.  There’s comfort in knowing that someone is there for you, or what you’re going to get from.

#11 is self-controlled.  I feel that this should be replaced with the word “poised” making mature redundant in the process.

#12 is broad minded.  Significantly more important to be broad minded than fair minded as a leader.  They need to be receptive to the multitude of elements at play at any given time, but only so that they can then decide what is best for the overall mission.

#13 is honest.  A leader doesn’t have to disclose all the reasons why they made the choices they did so long as their followers continue to believe in the mission. 

#14 is co-operative.  The squeaky wheel gets the crease, and if you’re taking on an “us vs the world” mentality then it might not serve to be co-operative with your adversaries.  

#15 is fair minded.  Everyone appreciates fairness, but we can’t all agree on the terms of what that looks like; for 30 million people, nevermind 8 billion people.. and it’s naive to think we can. 

 #16 is straight forward.  A good leader doesn’t have to shoot from the hip, but they do need to be clear in their communication.

#17 is mature, because I see immature kids acting as leaders in their peer groups.  

#18 is loyal.  This is tough because I personally value it a lot higher but loyalty is not a hallmark for a good leader.  Professional sports organizations overturn players (employees) and management every season, or contract cycle, and occasionally someone is replaced midseason.  There’s also the possibility of staying loyal to a poisonous entity that crumbles an organization from within.  This isn’t only people, but brand allegiance, suppliers or software too. 

#19 is independent, because they can surround themselves with supportive people.  I also tie this to influence.  Just because a person is a corporate shill doesn’t necessarily affect their ability to lead.

#20 is supportive, because a leader doesn’t need to exude that quality, they can outsource it.

When this course started, I had no idea what Instructional Design (ID) was.  I had never heard of ADDIE and wouldn’t have been able to name even one part of the design thinking process.  

What I learned during this course is that ID is all about making effective learning experiences.  I further realized that I already do this as a teacher and an athletics coach, I just didn’t know it.  This course has exposed me to many tips, tricks and approaches to be better at those jobs, and I will highlight my favorites throughout; but given that I perform ID in many different environments, I’ve further been able to identify some of the principles that transcend them all and I’ve borrowed from ADDIE to rewrite what that acronym means for me.

A – Know your audience and meet them at their level.  All the theoretical models contain some form of final evaluation, but they don’t all start with an analysis of the problem.  Empathetically understanding the current state of the audience helps to identify the hurdles to overcome through learning objectives en route to the desired outcome.

DD- Don’t Default to Digital, use tech as a tool rather than a guiding principle.  Often, there are endless ways to get from point A to point B.  While tech has provided countless solutions, sometimes it’s not always required to get the job done.  Include the use of live demonstrations, role playing, and simulations.  When appropriate, facilitate group discussions, or allow opportunities for questions, clarifications, and deeper understanding.  Perhaps even gamify some lessons by keeping scores and acknowledging winners.  Get their feedback to find out what made them successful.

I – Keep it iterative, because people, audiences and/or needs change over time and are not a static entity. It’s a shame when instructors are teaching the exact same unit, in the exact same way, for decades on end without questioning if there’s a better way to do it.

E – Engagement.   Engagement is key to any successful learning experience, but it’s not the only condition required for learning. Gagne’s 9 Events (1965) are the most prolific at addressing the mental state, and identifies all the processes required for knowledge transfer and retention.  Even when the problem is content, if there’s a reason why students aren’t “getting it” the solution can likely be found within one of these events.  

When it comes to digital presentations, Mayer’s Principles for Multimedia (2001) are invaluable for creating media.  These 12 principles emerge from Cognitive Load theory (1988)  to emphasize the importance of coherence, signaling, and redundancy to optimize learning.  My personal favorites are the segmenting principle, which fueled my curiosity to dive deeper into microlearning, and the personalization principle because I tend to dislike things that are overly formal. 

Finally, the pecha kucha deliverable helped me realize that consistency with fonts, graphics, and imaging within a presentation are important to me.  That can extend to themes, colors and all design choices too; but it also helped me realize that it’s silly to put arbitrary restrictions on design.  At the end of the day, in the ID context, the learning objective should rule, and every choice made should be in service to optimizing it.

References:

Gagné, R. M. (1965). The conditions of learning (1st ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139164603

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4