Leadership in the Church - President Samuelson

President Samuelson explained the importance of accepting callings. Please describe how you plan to respond to different calls that will come to you over your lifetime.

I was really impressed by President Samuelson's discussion of accepting callings. I plan to accept any call that I am offered. I want to follow his council and be sure to keep my leaders informed about my life, so that calls can be extended properly.

President Samuelson identified the practice of being “too critical” of ourselves as being worse in effect than not being critical enough. How do your expectations of your own performance effect how you serve as a leader. How do you intend to avoid the practice of over self criticism?

My expectations of my own performance effect how I serve by driving me to more success. I think my consistent high expectations allow me to achieve what I normally wouldn't be capable of. Sometimes this can be bad because I can get frustrated when I don't meet my own expectations.

I plan to avoid the practice of over self criticism by remembering that all I can do is my best. I want to be a hard worker and strive to meet my goals. I think the root of avoiding self-criticism that is too critical is in remembering my true worth as a child of God.

President Samuelson shared his method of organizing his plans to include, long term, mid term and short term. What approach do you currently use in organizing the work you are responsible for?

I currently use a similar method of planning to President Samuelson's. I always make sure to plan each week, morning, and night to help me to be the most effective with my time.

Please describe your motive for serving in BYUSA. Has this motive changed or evolved as the year has gone by?

I serve in BYUSA because I am passionate about the vision. BYUSA is the best way I know how to serve BYU, the school that has given me so much. I want to give other students the opportunity to serve and have good experiences as I have. I serve because I want to eliminate the poor on campus by helping the individuals here. My motive has definitely changed as I have come to better understand the purpose of BYUSA.

Leadership Opportunities in Your Career - Brother Jones

Bro. Jones described his career path and an experience where he received a recommendation from the President of Dixie State College. This recommendation came because of Bro. Jones reputation as someone who would follow through on any assignments he received. Please describe what practices you will engage to make sure that you are considered someone who is reliable in completing projects.

I want to always to make sure to set deadlines for myself so I can effectively follow through on the projects I need to get done. I want to be better at listening to the concerns of others and working to solve their problems when they ask me to, and not delaying until later. I am going to be better at setting deadlines for myself and letting others know what those deadlines are so they can be sure that I will prioritize and attend to their needs.

Bro. Jones mentioned the opportunities that he has had to be an example for those who are not members of the church and has been an influence for changing opinions about Mormons. Please describe how you will consider the opportunity to make friends for the Church as you start and grow your career.

I want to make friends for the church at a start and grow in my career by first striving to be an example of kindness to those around me. Being an amiable person can go a long ways. I want to be recognized as a hard working, honest employee that is kind and respectful towards all of my coworkers. By building relationships first, I can then open the door for Church discussions in a comfortable environment.

Bro. Jones described his work on the Festival of the American West. One aspect that made that event successful was the inclusion of many different people and allowing them to shine with their talents. Please explain how this concept of involving others and allowing them to utilize and showcase their talents relate to our practice of leadership in BYUSA and in the future.

In BYUSA, we are striving to build individuals and help them to have a good experience while here at BYU, so they can be prepared to go forth to serve. By delegating tasks to individuals who will be able to carry them out well, it allows them to shine, and allows the program's success to be greater as a whole.

In the future, I will be able to be more successful if I allow those with different talents to perform well in their roles. Teams are almost always more successful than themselves.

Leadership in Your Career - Brother Cox

Select at least three of Bro. Cox's 12 career "hints" and report what you are currently doing to follow his recommendations. Be specific in describing how you are living each "hint."

Currently, I am striving to be more prepared before opportunity knocks. I want to be the type of leader who is able to serve on a whim because I am already prepared. I think BYUSA has really helped me to develop this skill because I am often asked to report on things or perform tasks I have not done before. I want to continue to be prepared for the unknown.

I am definitely not measuring success by fame or fortune right now. I am not famous and definitely not rich. :) More than that, I really try to focus on the successes of my team members in BYUSA. Without them, there is no way I would be able to succeed in the office with my area. I hope that they are able to understand my honest gratitude for their efforts.

I have realized the truth of the hint to try new things. I have set a number of goals this semester, one of them being that my roommate and I really want to get a group of friends in our ward. We have been actively inviting people to do things, and it seems to be paying off finally! Being proactive in a social, non BYUSA or academic, setting was a newer thing for me.

Select one or more "hints" from Bro. Cox upon which you feel a need improve your focus. Be specific about your plans to better incorporate this "hint" into your life.

I really need to improve on my ability to do more than is expected. Lately, I feel like I have been spread really thin with my many responsibilities, but I do want to achieve greatness somehow. I am going to start choosing one focus per week that I will try to do more in. This is an attainable goal for me. Once I have more time, maybe I will be able to conquer this goal a little better.

Leadership in Your Career and Community - Judge Griffith

Judge Griffith spoke about his career and how he had moved around to different opportunities seeking to find his passion. Please describe what you feel you are passionate about today and where you think these interests will take you as you start your career path.

The interesting thing about my life right now is that I know I am in the right major, but I'm not exactly sure how it is going to get me to my true passions. Honestly, I love my classes as a public health major, but I have always dreamed of teaching someday. Teachers can have such a profound impact on the lives of those around them and are able to change lives one child at a time. When it comes down to it, I am passionate about service and helping people. I know I will take jobs that help me to do this. Hopefully, this is the underlying passion that will always guide my career path.

Judge Griffith quoted several versus in Jacob 2, in reference to the pursuit and use of wealth. How will you apply the concepts that Jacob shares with us as you experience success in your career.

I have always lived a fairly frugal life and I plan on continuing that way. I want to pursue riches in the worldly sense, so I can be in the position to serve at whatever capacity I am asked to serve. If I am willing to work hard today, I will be able to serve 'harder' tomorrow. I am grateful for the examples in my life who have shown me that this is a great way of living. If I am old and can go on 3 missions in a row, that would be great! :)

Please share something you learned about leadership in your career from Judge Griffith’s presentation.

Judge Griffith's presentation helped me to realize that we can be a leader in any position, but I need to want to be a leader. It won't do me any good to go about life trying to accomplish the 'shoulds.' In order to work hard, I will need to set myself about the task of working hard.

Well, here's my resume!

Leading Change

Considering your role as a leader, please describe who you view as your “customers” and how you practice the idea of meeting the needs of those customers.

As a leader in BYUSA, my role is to be a leader of leaders. I need to inspire my team to achieve greatness. I also need to help them understand the power they have to achieve great things during their time in the office. My "customers" are my executive directors, program directors, committee members, club presidents, club members/officers, and BYU student. I can strive to meet the needs of those customers by getting to know their needs. I can only know so many people, but if I am able to help one individual while in BYUSA, I will consider my experience to have been a success. In order to be consistently meeting needs, I strive to focus on the goals I have to reach the different "customers" and reevaluate them according to my opportunity to serve. It is possible for me to gain results during my term in the office.

Please describe a time when you you have been involved in a significant change. Identify what those who were leading the organization did to help make the change successful or unsuccessful.

The first idea that came to mind was when Nate left our team this semester. This was significant, especially because his tasks cannot be met by any of our other team members. I was unsure as to how we could effectively move forward from this decision. I didn't know how I would be able to communicate to my team members after this change, or how they would react to the situation. Adrian helped me to successfully adapt to this change because he educated me on some shuffling we could do help Nate's responsibilities still happen. He also helped me to know how I could communicate this with my team members to have the least impact. I was also impressed to see my team's reactions to the change. They were comfortable with their new responsibilities and eager to see positive changes occur. It was great!

Describe why you believe that networking with others is a vital part of leading change?

Networking allows me to know 'how to deliver services that delight customers by meeting and exceeding their expectations.' I also want to be influential in helping club members to have all of their needs met. This would enable me to lead change because I would be able to identify the people that are essential to my success, get to know them, and gain knowledge from their expertise. I want to be able to support my team by gaining ideas about our 'organizational strategy, goals, and direction' and using those ideas to benefit us as a whole. We have a such a potential for success. I just need to be willing to work towards it. I cannot do this job alone, so it is essential that I glean knowledge from those around me first!

Goal Setting

Have you established stretch goals for the team that energizes the team to achieve more?

I still remember the presidency meeting where we were able to decide on a focus for this year. I am completely amazed by that experience. It was about an hour and twenty minutes of intense deliberation and then we came up with our goals. We wanted to build and inspire: Unity, Service, and Students. This was my first experience establishing stretch goals with this team.

My second experience was when my team and I worked to establish a vision, or stretch goals, for our area. It was a little bit harder this time because very few people had a good time deciding what they wanted to do with their time in the area. Regardless, we were able to establish goals for our area.

Do you keep your team focused on team goals and objectives?

I strive to keep my team focused on team goals and objectives, but it isn't a sure thing all the time. In stewardships, we regularly discuss our priorities and commitments to our work with others. This enables us to work together to assess ourselves on our program-specific goals. I also strive to establish incremental goals, so instead of trying to accomplish everything at once, we can give ourselves steps to reach the final goal.

Have you spent time with your team to reinforce goals with everyone that's committed?

I have spent time with my team to reinforce goals. We strive to work together and evaluate our progress. I think I could do better at reminding them though. I know that as we talk about them, we will be able to come up with better goals and better ways to achieve our goals.

Do you regularly discuss your progress towards achieving those goals?

I do try to regularly discuss our goals and progress towards them. I want to be better at this though. We could be a better team if we asked ourselves what we are trying to accomplish with each of our events before trying to accomplish them. I want to be more prepared to give ideas on how we could reach greater progress.

How did applying established stretch goals in your week go?

Applying stretch goals in my week was really effective. I am going to try to do this each week because words says that it only takes 21 days to create a habit. By setting goals, I could have a lot of good habits by the end of my life. :)