This past spring, I was given the privilege of being able to participate in the EDEA 360 Leadership class. I’ve learned so much about not only what it means to be a leader and the specific roles and characteristics which exist in the realm of leadership, but I’ve also learned a lot about who I am and what I need to work on as a person. I’ve been struggling lately with finding a balance between my personal life and my professional life at work, and its been critical for me to be able to revisit many of the conversations that we had in class and even my leadership book to be able to help sort out my current life.

One of the topics that I’ve been thinking about recently has been the exercise that analyzed my top strengths. I’ve been working with people who are much younger than me recently and its been nice to be able to challenge myself to grow as a person and target some of my weaknesses, as well as being able to employ some of my top strengths to help cater to their needs.

1.Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness

Recently, I’ve had to work with my residents on open-mindedness. In our community, we have people that come from different faiths, have different opinions on marriage and sexual orientation, and even about alcohol and sex. I’ve been working with them on developing groups and discussions to voice their concerns for one another and in their community. So far, the programs that I’ve been working to create haven’t been doing too well. Residents aren’t coming out to the programs and it’s making my job as an RA harder. At any rate, being able to share what it means to be open-minded with residents who haven’t been given as many chances to experience such a diverse culture as Hawaii offers has been really enjoyable and challenging.

2. Citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty

I’ve been working on this as well recently. I’ve been having a hard time performing as an RA and I can defiantly tell that it’s affected the perspective that my fellow RAs have of me. I know that I should do my best to help our team grow and develop, but I’ve been having a hard time keeping myself in line, so that’s probably not contributing to the growth and development of our team.

I never really thought much about some of my weaknesses before until after taking this class.

1. Zest, enthusiasm, and energy

I struggle with this. In meetings, during class, when I’m at home trying to read or study… I struggle with this for sure. Last semester, on my RA evaluation, this very thing came up. I was criticized for the attitude I had during RA meetings. I was somewhat surprised because I didn’t really think that I had an attitude problem. But, my evaluation was probably pretty spot on. I don’t like being in those meetings. I find them tedious and for the most part unnecessary. So, I would do my best to help speed them along or I would just not say anything at all. When we would have arguments about certain things, I would do my best to present an argument that would be challenging enough so we could just move on instead of further work on it. Usually, I got the last say not because I came up with something that was right or good, but because I’m good at public speaking and good at logic.

2. Industry, diligence, and perseverance

I think its pretty funny that “diligence” came up on this list. My friends gave me a nickname (the only one that I ever got) and its stuck for the past 2 years: Dilly. Its short for “dilly-dally”. I take a long time and I procrastinate. I am not good at industry nor would I say that I am someone who is diligent. This is really my lowest strength. I’ve struggled with this since I was in kindergarten and we started having homework. I really… really don’t like homework.

I enjoyed this class. It’s challenged me to think critically about who I am, what I want to do, and how I can best accomplish my goals. I’ve grown as a person and as a leader for the work I’ve done here and have enjoyed doing so. Thanks.

Ryan Kodani.

As a residential advisor, most of the work I do is targeted at building a healthy community. Sometimes, this community building work I do doesn’t really take hold. For example, lately we’ve been struggling to develop a quiet, compliant community of many sophomore residents. This is quite a task. When I’m asked by one of my supervisors to go address a room that is being “too loud”, I am being asked by the residents, “What is too loud?” This has never happened before in the last two years of being an RA. Answering what ought to be a simple question like this has become increasingly problematic over the past few months. Usually, on nights like this when the residents ask a question like this, most of the apartments in their building will be either as loud as they are being or louder… so when they further point this fact out to me, all I can say is, “Well, I’ll be speaking to them next.”

I guess this little anecdote speaks to one element of community that I’m only now learning about: the difference in a lead community versus a self-lead community. In the past few years, my role in my community has been clear to me. I was a leader in a community. This year, I’m not so sure what I am. In the past, residents would come to me when they had problems, they would seek me out to help them mediate arguments, I would genuinely help my community and I enjoyed doing so. This year, I’ve been mostly sitting ringside as a community grows before me. I’ve watched my residents get to know one another, I’ve watched as the residents in the separate buildings start hanging out with one another, and I’ve watched them lead one another. My role has become mostly unnecessary and certainly unwanted.

Because our residents have been developing their own community, they’ve also developed their own rules and standards. They don’t mind being loud, they don’t mind drinking alcohol in their rooms or even outside, and they don’t mind smoking in or around the buildings. So, when I have to do my job, I have to essentially break the community standards that they have set for themselves. I have to write them up and punish them for drinking and smoking and being too loud. They have to attend meetings to discuss their behavior and their trespasses and how it affects their community. But, secretly, I don’t think what they’re doing is so bad.

If I could have it my way, I would like my role to become more of an emergency and confidant role. I would like to be viewed as being a resource to them and not someone who has to punish them as individuals all the time for doing things that the rest of their community is doing around them. However, because I am a member in my community I should do what is basic and comes naturally to me. I’ll do what I can to help my community and help people grow individually as well. So, perhaps that’s what I, and any self-respecting community member should do, help where and when they can and work out the details as they come.

Ryan Kodani

Mindless-drones. Sheep. Worker-bees. There are many ways to describe a follower and, typically, the description comes with some sort of negative connotation, whether implied or built in.  In our culture, being a leader is associated with strength and power and a sense of achievement while being a follower is to be typical, ordinary, or even less than. However, followership is most certainly a role that is important, necessary, and ought to be appreciated. According to Robert E. Kelley, effective followers share qualities such being able to manage themselves well, a commitment to a purpose, principle, or person outside themselves, and are typically courageous, honest, credible.

Further, where leaders may envision themselves as a lone trekker hacking their way through a wild Amazon, followers envision themselves as “co- adventurers”, experiencing and growing alongside the leader. The role of the follower, viewed in this light, makes the role much more palatable than the typical, underappreciated follower.

Followership, while taking a great deal of skill and determination, also requires a certain degree of trust and faith; trust that their leader knows best and also faith that what the leader is doing is in their best interest. The struggle of the leader is to not just to give orders and to point in any given direction, but to have a keen interest in his followers and to determine what skills each person brings to the table and how best to use those skills. In other words, being able to tap into innate skills that the follower brings the table will further increase the follower’s interest and performance.

I’d like to think that in my own life, in positions that I’ve achieved which required me to be a leader, I had first paid my dues as a follower. I first needed to learn what I could do to help out the leader and then do my best to accomplish those shared goals. I never felt like I was being left out, I struggled to do my best to emulate my leader, and when there was a given hierarchy in the group I was in, I did my best to be a peer leader. I would like to think that everyone views followership in this way and can appreciate it as I think it deserves to be appreciated. However, perhaps this isn’t the case. Perhaps it doesn’t bring in as many accolades as being a leader does and perhaps it’s just not enjoyable to some. However, I think that it deserves to be. I’d like to see in the coming years, in the realm of leadership, a keener more targeted appreciation of followership emerge. In your own life, I would like to challenge you to be more self aware of followership and to attempt to make an art out of it when its your turn to play that role in a group. I know it’s not everyone’s place in the world to be a follower, but I do believe that everyone at some point does play that role. So, why not attempt to distinguish yourself as a follower and appreciate the role for how rewarding it can be?

Ryan Kodani

The VIA Strengths survey taught me a few things.  My top strength is Bravery and valor.  So that means I am a courageous person who does not shrink from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain. I speak up for what is right even if there is opposition. I act on my convictions.  I believe this is accurate as I feel many times people are thinking something but they don’t want to be the first one to say it.  Maybe it is an unpopular opinion, but going against the grain has never been seen as a downfall to me.  An example of this was when I was the one person not to tease and diss the handicapped kid in school. I was nice to him and even stood up for him in the face of childhood cruelty.

My second strength was Fairness, equity, and justice, treating all people fairly is one of my abiding principles. I do not let my personal feelings bias my decisions about other people. I give everyone a chance.  I always want everyone to contribute to a group and am curious to see how their brains work and possibly gain some insight into who they are as people.  When I was growing up I was always told life’s not fair.  And guess what, it’s not.  But fairness is something that is important to me on a daily basis.  An example of this in my life was when I was in charge of the business group project committee.  I made sure that everyone was doing an equivalent work load and not just dumping a ton of stuff on the nerdy guy. Another time was when a man dropped his wallet. I gave it back because I would want someone to do the same for me.  And they have, much to the compliment of humanity.

My third strength was Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who I am. I do not jump to conclusions, and I rely only on solid evidence to make my decisions. I am able to change my mind.  I like America for all the vast freedoms and cultivations of liberty that we enjoy.  Being open minded is something I have championed since youth.  It is the closed-minded and traditional arrogance that hinders growth and world development.  I took time out of my life to learn many philosophies and religions through my educational career.  This is helpful to plan one’s own outlook on life and perception of events.

My fourth strength was Appreciation of beauty and excellence
I notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.  I feel this is important because when you are so wrapped up in yur school, work, and organization, you lose a sense of self and priorities.  What’s really important when it boils down to it is family and friends, not essays or C+’s.  You wouldn’t die tomorrow wishing you had held one more fundraiser for new carpeting.

My last strength is Leadership. I excel at the tasks of leadership: encouraging a group to get things done and preserving harmony within the group by making everyone feel included. I do a good job organizing activities and seeing that they happen.  I feel this is a good strength to have because there are many followers and fewer leaders.  Leading is what I was taught to do from a young age and I am thankful for it.  An effective leader thinks for themselves and is not induced by the popular vote or gang mentality.  An example of when I was a good leader was when my school went camping as a kid.  We got lost in the woods and I led us back to safety.

Nicolai Chow

My top strength was citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty: I excel as a member of a group. I am a loyal and dedicated teammate who does my share, and work hard for the success of the group. I believe that many courses I have taken at Shidler College of Business helped me come up with this result. Most of my classes emphasized students to work in groups. My experience in working on group projects and presentations really helped me become a team player. Also, by joining Beta Beta Gamma Sorority and American Marketing Association helped me become not only a team player but to be a leader of the organization. I learned how to take responsibility by being in charge for certain activities. I will definitely mention this result when I am getting interviewed for my future career.

My second strength was capacity to love and be loved: I value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you. I think it was very good for this strength to follow the first one. By joining organizations, I made many close friends and sorority sisters where I don’t mind helping them using my time. I think this strength is one of the key to maintain a successful organization. If we care and love each other, the organization will stay strong and I hope that all of my organizations that I belong to will keep on expanding.

My third strength was fairness, equity, and justice: Treating all people fairly is one of my abiding principles. I do not let my personal feelings bias my decisions about other people. I give everyone a chance. I personally think that this is my virtue. I hope that everyone who takes this survey will have this strength as a one of their top ten. I am glad I moved to Hawaii from Japan. Many aspects of Hawaii treated me fairly and I want to pay it forward.

My forth strength was Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness: I am an honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living my life in a genuine and authentic way. I am down to earth and without pretense; I am a “real” person. I believe that by being honest, I will end at a place where I deserve to be. During Greek Week, for this semester, I really didn’t want to believe that some of other Greek organizations were cheating for certain activity. Because there are only few Greek organizations on this campus, I just want them to be honest at all times and will keep on expanding their organizations.

My fifth strength was industry, diligence, and perseverance: I work hared to finish what I start. No matter the project, I “get it out the door” in timely fashion. I do not get distracted when I work, and you take satisfaction in completing tasks. Whether I was working in a group project, or being in charge for car wash for my sorority, I completed them. When you are employed, this is what your boss wants to see, so I am glad that I was able to train myself. I am a Vice President of Programs for American Marketing Association next semester, so I am looking forward to train myself and be prepared to jump in a real world.

My last strength was bravery and valor: I am a courageous person who does not shrink from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain. I speak up for what is right even if there is opposition. I act on my convictions. I really need to work on this because it is very important! I know that because my first language is Japanese and have a different culture background, it is hard for me to be brave and speak out. I tend to ignore other’s unacceptable behavior and I do sometimes think that if I’m fine, it doesn’t matter how others behave. It is very disappointing. For example, I should have spoken out when I saw other organization cheat during the Greek Week instead of just watching.

I learned a lot about myself from this survey. My goal is while maintaining my top strengths, improve my strengths that ranked lower. If you are interested, you can access to this link. http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

You must create your account in order to take the survey. There is no charge.

It is worth it!

Ayako Ishiwari

I will be talking about my top five strengths; my number one strength is kindness and generosity, the second was spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith. My third strength is appreciation of beauty and excellence, forth strength is my capacity to love and be loved and lastly my fifth strength is gratitude. Three of my top strengths came from the category transcendence while the other two came from humanity and love.

My top strength is kindness and generosity. In detail the questionnaire stated that I am kind and generous to others, and I am never too busy to do a favor. It also says that I enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if you do not know them well. There are advantages and disadvantages to having kindness and generosity as my strength. The advantage is that the members of my organization see me as a mother. In a sense that they look up to me to be a role model and they know that I will take care of them. But the disadvantage is that sometime people or other leaders will see my kindness as weakness. So they will ask me to take care of things that they are suppose to do. For example, a leader may be responsible to write our guest list for an outreach but asks me to do it because he or she doesn’t have time. And they think I have the time, when I actually have a lot on my plate already. But then I just say yes because I really don’t like people being mad. It is my personal struggle with being a people pleaser.

Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith is my second strength.  I believe that all my other strengths rely on this strength, because it is with faith that I am how I live my life right now. With my faith, I know that I have a purpose in life. I’m not aware of my purpose right now but I trust in the Lord that he will lead me through my life in the right direction. As a leader, we sometimes need something higher to help us cope with the daily stresses in our everyday lives. And so with Christianity, God is my person to lean on if I have a problem be it in my group, or at home, or with school.

Appreciating the beauty and excellence in things is my third strength. I really believe that this is one of my strengths. Literally, every day I say that I am so lucky to being living in Hawaii. That is the nature sense, but it also comes out with people. I really don’t like to find the bad in people, I believe that the good can outweigh the bad.

The capacity to love and be loved is my forth strength. I value close relations with others. The people to whom I feel more close with are the same people who feel most close to me. I am a most of the time a happy go lucky kind of person. I am very loving and I like to give out my time and anything to show my love.

Gratitude is my last strength. I am appreciative to the good things that happen to me. My friends and family know that I am a grateful person because I always take the time to express my thanks. When a member does their job well, I always show my appreciation because it’s a great way to motivate them to keep up the good work.

My top five strengths are all very similar. They are all tied with my faith. Through faith and having your heart wholeheartedly to the Lord, kindness, love and appreciation will all come automatically.

Despite the fact that I can count how many birthdays I’ve celebrated just by counting my fingers and toes, it’s been scientifically proven that I am wise! I didn’t say it, but the University of Pennsylvania’s Values in Action Signature Strengths Survey said I am! According to the survey, my top 5 strengths are 1) Perspective or wisdom, 2) Creativity, ingenuity, and originality, 3) Kindness and generosity, 4) Leadership, and 5) Social intelligence. When I read this, I immediately scoffed at the results. Even my leadership instructor, the lovely Dr. Chris Kirk-Kuwaye said something like you need to be old to be wise! But after discussing it with her and some of the other students in my leadership class who had a similar result, we came to a conclusion. We may be practicing it without really knowing it; the survey explains that, “Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.” And then it all started making sense to me…all those times when my friends had come to me for advice, I gave it to them using my own life experiences as well as thinking of their best interest. And during my stint as a New Student Orientation Leader guiding and mentoring new UH Manoa students last summer is a prime example of me having perspective. I’m not too sure if it’s a quality that I’ve always had or a quality that I have acquired during my relatively short life. Perhaps it is because of my early start in leadership…ever since I could remember, I was always a part of something. In high school, I was a student body vice president, yearbook editor-in-chief, member of the Hawaii Speech League, and stage manager for the spring musical. Fast forward to a few years later, I’m currently programming associate of New Student Programs and director of human resources in the Business Executive Society of Tomorrow (BEST), my business club. After many years working during successful and not-so-successful terms, and in cohesive and not-so-cohesive groups, I see what works and what doesn’t work, which is what I guess gives me perspective. Did I also mention that modesty and humility was my last strength? 

After a semester of reflections, readings, blogs, and discussions about leadership, my hope and goal is to utilize my leadership skills in the things that I do. Although I know that sounds vague and cliché; which is why I chose my age as a topic of choice. I have approximately 2-3 more years in college, which allows me to utilize what I have learned this semester in Educational Administration (EDEA) 360 in my own organizations for another 2 years, as well as in my own personal life. I, personally, believe that you can solve all the world’s problems by understanding what each person’s true color is, which is why I would like to put it into practice in BEST. I certainly use it in the work place; whenever I have a conflict with a co-worker, I think to myself, “So and so is a green…he wants to think outside of the box and won’t finish it. So Grace, you better let him know that he needs to finish it!”

And finally, on the last day of EDEA 360, Dr. Chris had two guest speakers come in. Two very familiar faces that I’ve seen before on campus. Jaime Sohn, the outgoing Associated Students of the University of Hawaii president, and Travis Tokuyama, the outgoing KTUH general manager, talked about their development as a leader. Like Jaime’s position, being a programmer for the New Student Orientation Program is one with many responsibilities and expectations. Jaime’s outlook to criticism is quite similar to mine; he said that he tries to see where that person is coming from and doesn’t get too affected by it. I understand that I can’t satisfy everyone and just as long as I tried my best, that’s okay. However, there was something really profound about Travis’s development as a leader. He said that coming on board KTUH, he immediately knew what he needed to do. From the get-go, he had set goals, which is something a lot of leaders ironically forget to do! And by fulfilling those goals, he felt that he might have created a legacy. I mean, the word “legacy” is so philosophical; but after hearing about Travis’s inspiration for creating a legacy, I decided that I wanted to leave a legacy. It’s definitely not an overnight process; it’ll take months, maybe even years, and with more perspective and wisdom, perhaps one day, people will look back and say, “Wow, Grace really did make a difference.” And hopefully, that can inspire others to look up others and set goals. I realize that leadership isn’t about self-recognition, it’s about making a difference and for the betterment of others around you, as well as yourself.

And back to Mr. Pessimistic Shaw, while youth may be wasted on the young, the young eventually learn from their mistakes and utilize their youth in the best way possible.

I used to be a golfer, and a pretty damn good golfer at that.  During my senior year of high school, I got into a bad snowboarding accident which gave me a concussion and a torn ACL in my right knee.  Directly after high school, I attended Fresno City Junior College for three years.   My snowboarding accident caused me to sit out of competitive golf my freshman year at Fresno City College and go through twelve months of physical therapy.  During this time, I was working hard to get good grades, and working even harder to get my knee back so I could golf again.  My hard work paid off.  Once my knee was one hundred percent again, I was back and my golf game was better than ever, so were my grades.  During my first semester at FCC, I got straight A’s.  The following year, I made the Fresno City golf team and became their number one golfer, receiving all-conference honors.  After my first season of college golf, I received a scholarship from Hawaii Pacific University.  I was ecstatic about this opportunity and decided Hawaii was where I wanted to attend college.  I red-shirted my third year at Fresno City college in order to save one year of eligibility. 

During my third year at FCC, my life was going great.  I had a scholarship to play golf in Hawaii, and my grades were so good I even surprised myself!  With a golf scholarship in the bag, I felt like I no longer had to practice or study as hard.  As a result, I found myself with a lot of free time.  With all this free time, I decided to get a girlfriend.  But even worst, with all my free time I began visiting the local casinos.  I would play poker for hours upon end.  Sometimes I would leave after dinner, and not come back until the next morning.  I became addicted.  I began missing classes and my grades began to slip.  But at that time I didn’t care.  I was going to play golf for Hawaii Pacific University and that’s all that mattered to me.  I would go to these casinos and win hundreds of dollars in the matter of minutes.  It made studying for classes seem pointless.  You see, my problem with gambling were the swings.  Sometimes I’d win, and sometimes I’d lose.  I can honestly say I won more than I lost, but my problem was when I won, I would go out and spend it all.  I bought ridiculous things.  Six hundred dollars on a DVD player, a hotel room for the girl, everything had to be top of the line.  I spent all my winnings not thinking about my next losing sessions.  My money slowly dwindled away. 

Six months before my first day at Hawaii Pacific, I received an email saying that the coach of  the golf team had resigned, and that my scholarship was no longer valid because the new coach had a completely different list of recruits.  It was already too late to talk to any other schools, and I still wanted to come to Hawaii.  Tuition at Hawaii Pacific University was outrageous without a scholarship so I decided to come to UH Manoa and try to walk-on the golf team. 

Try-outs went great.  Out of the eight golfers that tried out, I beat every single one of them.  I had a talk with the coach and he said that he was deeply sorry but he wasn’t going to add anybody to his roster.  So without golf, and without money, I decided to get a job.  I got a job easily as a bus boy and soon got promoted to head bartender.  I was making money again, really fast.  But long nights pouring drinks left no time to study, and made it difficult to make it to the next day’s classes.  My grades suffered.  But none of this mattered to me. 

Three years went by of passing about fifty percent of my classes, when one of my best friends told me he was starting a new club on campus and wanted to know if I wanted to be a part of it.  The name of this new club was going to be the Entrepreneurs Club.  I was never the type of person that got involved in any sort of school activity or club, mostly because I was busy trying to make money or golfing.  But at this time in my life, it sounded exciting.  I felt like I wasn’t getting anything useful out of any of my classes, so maybe this club could teach me something new.  I entered the club as an Executive Board Member.  My title was The Director of Professional Development and after the first couple of meetings, I knew that this club was exactly what I needed. 

You always hear people talking about how they want to open their own business.  Everybody wants to be their own boss and not have to answer to anybody.  I was one of them.  The truth is, I didn’t know a damn thing about how to start a business, but this club was going to teach me.  As The Director of Professional Development, I was in charge of setting up guest speakers, professionals to give workshops, and pretty much anything else that could help our members become successful in the future.  While completing these tasks, I have had the opportunity to meet dozens of top professionals here in the local business community.  I have also learned not only how to start a business, but how to start a successful business. 

I will soon graduate and my time with The Entrepreneurs Club is over, but I can honestly say that looking back, joining The Entrepreneurs Club turned out to be the most beneficial thing in my seven years of college.  Through the club, I was able to actually start my own marketing business.  I am proud to say that I am the co-founder of GreenGlobile LLC. and its first project, Ono Deals.  Without joining The Entrepreneurs Club I know for a fact none of this would have ever happened.

I would now like to analyze the results of my VIA Signature Strengths test, and try to find out if it was my personal characteristics that subconsciously made the decisions in my life for me, or if it was my experiences in life that taught me and gave me these strengths and weaknesses.

Strength #3  Gratitude

You are aware of the good things that happened to you, and you never take things for granted.  Your friends and family members know that you are a grateful person because you always take the time to express your thanks.

I graduated high school in 2002, which makes me the oldest person in a lot of my classes.  Getting a four year degree has actually taken me seven years, and I would have given up a long time ago if it wasn’t for my mother who continues to support and encourage me to this very day.  You see, getting a college degree might be the standard for a lot of families in our country, and it is certainly the standard for my father’s side of the family.  But my mother never completed her four year degree, and none of my cousins on my mother’s side ever graduated from college either.  It was extremely important to my mother that I attend college and finish, because she regrets not finishing herself.  She has pushed me extremely hard throughout my long and difficult journey, almost to the point where I no longer wanted to hear it.  My mother says that she wishes she had someone that pushed her to graduate, but it was the negativity and discouragement from the rest of her family that caused her to start, but never finish.  I knew that graduating from college was something I wanted to do, but there were times where I wanted to quit.  There were times where I got distracted.  There were times where I wanted to quit school and make money instead, and there were a lot of times where I sat in class, trying to understand how anything the teacher was trying to teach could ever help me in the future.  If my mother didn’t push me to finish college, I would have never made it to see The Entrepreneurs Club, I would have never made it to find GreenGlobile LLC, and I would have never made it to graduation.

When it comes to gratitude, my experiences in life have caused me to be grateful for all of the good things that have happened.  My experiences have taught me that bad things can, and will, unexpectedly happen.  I have learned to be thankful for what I do have, because things can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye.

Strength #2  Judgment, Critical Thinking, and Open-mindedness

Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are.  You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions.  You are able to change your mind.

I guess writing this blog and spending five hours on it up to this point confirms this signature strength.  I didn’t plan on taking this long on it but have become fascinated by learning how my experiences in life have transformed me into the person I am today.  I have learned never to jump to conclusions because there could be an exception to everything.  

Strength #1  Humor and Playfulness

You like to laugh and tease.  Bringing smiles to other people is important to you.  You try to see the light side of all situations.

This couldn’t have been more true.  If life has taught me anything, it’s that you got to enjoy it.  I feel like during my life I have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  But no matter how bad things got, I survived them all and I’m still here.  I’ve learned that things that used to seem so important really don’t matter.  I gambled all my money away and I’m still here.  I’ve flunked class after class and I’m still here.  The only thing that matters is your ability to enjoy the ride.  Life can be as fun as you want it to be. 

Weakness #3  Caution, prudence, and discretion

You are a careful person, and your choices are consistently prudent ones. You do not say or do things that you might later regret.

Experiences in my life have taught me that no matter how careful you are, some things are simply out of your control. 

Weakness #2  Love of learning

You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

I believe that this is misleading.  Obviously I enjoy learning things such as how to start my own business, and my VIA Signature Strengths.  I believe I love to learn, but only the things that I choose to learn.  I think I made the decision a long time ago that learning things that aren’t relevant in my life are a waste of my time.  I wish it were different but it’s the honest truth. 

Weakness #1  Self-control and self-regulation

You self-consciously regulate what you feel and what you do. You are a disciplined person. You are in control of your appetites and your emotions, not vice versa.

Ha Ha I think that about sums it all up.

  All of my VIA strengths and weaknesses were supported by experiences in my life.  At first glance you are led to believe it is the experiences in life that mold you into having certain strengths and weaknesses.  But if you look deeper, I repeatedly made decisions that placed certain things above others on my priority list.  This leads me to believe it is my signature strengths and weaknesses that ultimately choose my destiny, and not vice versa.  For example, when I was at Fresno City College, I chose to put gambling ahead of my schoolwork.  I missed class repeatedly because I was too busy and too tired from playing poker.   Four years later, I become a part of The Entrepreneurs Club and placed the club over my schoolwork.  Once again, I found myself too busy doing what I was truly interested in to attend my other classes.  Two completely different scenarios, with two similar results.  If experiences in my life caused me to have certain strengths and weaknesses, I would have learned not to make the same mistake and to put my grades first, even if it meant spending time on something that did not interest or benefit me in any way at all.  But I didn’t.  Why?  I continued to behave in the same manner and made the same exact decisions.  This supports the fact that my strengths, and in this case my weakness #2, caused me to act in a certain way that I had no control of.   I don’t think anyone would disagree that I have learned way more this semester while spending my time and energy on The Entrepreneurs Club than I did wasting my time and energy four years ago at the poker tables.  The sad thing is, I will probably receive similar grades this semester, although I have learned a whole lot more.

Hopefully, I will be graduating this semester after spending four years here at UH Manoa and I will be the first person to admit, college has not been easy for me.  College was difficult for me not because I’m stupid or anything, but because the majority of my classes, which happen to be the requirement for graduation, were about subjects that I weren’t interested in.  Even when I selected a major that I was interested in, the majority of the required classes I had to take were about things completely different.  I believe EDEA 360 is the most important class anyone could ever take at UH because it teaches you precisely what college is supposed to teach you.  EDEA 360 teaches you about yourself, and that should be the most important subject for everybody, regardless of your major.  Although my grade in EDEA 360 this semester may not be satisfactory, I know that there are more important things than receiving a letter grade.  I know that the only thing that truly matters is what you learn, and your ability to use what you have learned to become successful in the future.  The most rewarding thing for me as a student, is to be able to say I learned something.  This semester in EDEA 360 I learned more about what is most important to me than any of my other classes I’ve taken throughout my long academic journey. 

So to answer the most important question of them all:  Are leaders born or are they made?

We are each brought into this world and placed under different circumstances, and throughout life we each go through different experiences. I believe that it is possible for anyone to become a leader, but first they must make the decision to be one.  Leaders are the people that choose to learn from what their experiences have taught them.  We each choose our own destiny and if being a leader is what you want to be, there are enough experiences in life that can teach you how to become a great one.

Eric T. Togo

My five top strengths

1. Curiosity/Interest in the world;

This falls into wisdom section of the explanation sheet distributed in class last week, which means, as i quoted, openness to experience & flexibility about matters that don’t fit one’s preconceptions; these folks, myself included, just tolerate ambiguity, they like it and are intrigued by it. Curiosity is actively engaging novelty. The passive absorption of information doesn’t display this strength. To lack curiosity is to be easily bored. when reading this explanation i realize this is true with myself in that i am always curious and questioning almost everything around me. I question the reasons things have to be the way the are. For instance, I constantly ask myself about inequality of Education that is happening around the world; many kids in developing and underdeveloped nations have little or almost no access to basic Education. When I was in my country I observed my kids stay out of schools because of many reasons and the most obvious one is financial constraint. But when i came to the United States, I see things different; students in this country take almost everything for granted. With this, I am inspired and motivated to work with International Organizations that deal with Education like UNICEF and UNESCO after graduating from college to help kids in poor countries get into schools.

2. Kindness & Generosity

This strength says that people who have this strength, like myself, never too busy to do a favor. This is true because I always enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if i don’t know them well. I used to work as a volunteer in the Habitat of Humanity as to help my community rebuild their houses that were destroyed during the war in 1999. I was actively engaged in this work though I wasn’t paid, but enjoyed it very much because helping people is a valuable thing that I value the most in my life. Also, and as i mentioned in my previous blog about the student-based organization I set up a few years ago is all about helping people to make a good decision about going to school. Again, i pretty much enjoyed doing this without any payment. So, now with the help of the survey I can assure myself of what i need to be doing in my next life and that is to continue assist people like children in my village to get their basic education and also continue work on rebuilding my community.

3. Leadership

My third top strength is leadership and this one suggests, as quoted, that I am good at organizing activities and seeing to it that they happen. Humane leader must be an active leader by attending to getting group’s work done and tending to intergroup relations. Forgive enemies and include them. Acknowledge responsibility for mistakes and is peaceable. I am the kind of person who alway try to forgive and forget. I think this particular strength is the one i am still working on it and is something i have been too passionate about. In the organization i lead, i used to be the one who organized activities and so i think i believe in the survey that i am a good activities organizer. Therefore, I will go back to join my group and keep on organizing important activities that way i can put into practice leadership theories i have learned from this class, EDEA 360.

Now that I have presented to you the results of my three top strengths  from the survey i took last week. I firmly believe this survey is no doubt useful for me as it has helped me explore on my strengths so that i can recognize them in my leadership life. I, therefore, highly recommend you, especially  those of prospective leaders, to take the survey because doing so, you’ll investigate your interests that you might not yet know them well. So, please visit this website Authentic Happiness and click on “Via signature strength questionnaire, which can be found on the “engagement questionnaire” section. There are 24o questions you need to answer them all to get your top strength and so please take your time to answer those questions. I strongly argue if you are planning to be  a leader, which you are in your daily life,  at any circumstances,  you’ll find this survey meaningful and interesting. Once you open the section i mentioned about, you’ll be required to sign up. If you want you can the book entitled “Authentic Happiness” like the sample bellow:

 I have a love for travel.  After I’ve graduated from college in Hawaii I am planning on travelling overseas to South America and Europe with a friend of mine from Sydney.  I would love to live and work in London after this bout of travel to experience something different, to immerse myself in a different environment.  This is also the same reason why I’m in Hawaii.  I’m from Sydney and finished high school at the end of 2006.  Most of my friends were taking a gap year or going straight into university, but I knew I wanted something different.  This is why I’m here studying in Hawaii today.  However I think it’s something in my genes.  My parents are still living in Sydney but my sister is living in Kentucky and my brother, his wife and baby are living in London.  So travel (and combined with that, curiosity) is an integral part of who I am.

Team work is also an essential part of my life which I think is pertinent to my love of team sports.  When I was in high school, my week nights and weekends were filled with going to various sports competitions.  Throughout the year I was busy with hockey, soccer, netball & tennis.  And now I’m here on the soccer team.  When I was playing tennis I didn’t like singles too much but thrived when I was in a doubles partnership.  I get a great feeling when team-mates help each other out and encourage each other on and off the sports grounds. 

 I enjoy doing kind things for others, helping friends with any of their problems, if they need help with assignments or advice I’m always there to lend a helping hand.  If someone asks me for help it is very rare for me to turn them away.  I realise though that not everyone is like this and sometimes become disappointed in others.  However I just need to remind myself that it just isn’t everyone’s strength. 

 I have really enjoyed taking this leadership course this semester.  It has really opened up my understanding of others and to what other people’s strengths can be.  I think it has helped and will continue to help my relationships with others in the future.

Laura Euers