Increase School Spirit

For our project in Management and Leadership class, our goals were to come up with a plan that would make a lasting impact on a large group of people while at the same time incorporating our business and management skills as an entire class. In order to accomplish this, we decided it would be best to share a common goal as a class while also separating into smaller committees to accomplish more specific tasks. 

To start off the project, we came up with a list of ideas for projects we could pursue. After constructing this list, we voted as a class on which idea would mean the most to us and our community. After brainstorming and discussing, we eventually decided that the most meaningful project would be to increase school spirit at our school, Glenbrook North High School.

After coming to a consensus on our project, we created two online surveys: one for students to take and one for staff members to take. These two surveys asked general questions regarding school spirit and student/staff participation in events that accumulate school spirit. To market these surveys, we went out during project time to ask students sitting in the cafeteria, library, or blocks to take the survey. We also put up flyers around the school that marketed the survey, and included a QR code on the flyer so students could easily scan the barcode and take the survey. We also emailed the link to the survey to various students. In order to get staff members to take the survey, we wrote out an email for Ms. Ingersoll to send to the entire staff that debriefed our project and encouraged the staff to take the survey with the link attached in the email. This educated the staff members on the project, got many survey responses from staff members, and encouraged staff members to put more emphasis on school spirit in their classroom environments.  

Once the survey results were collected, we analyzed the results from the student survey and the results teacher survey. The survey results helped us to determine that spirit should be increased through dress up spirit days, increased attendance to school events, and increasing the availability of spirit gear to students and staff. In order to increase availability of spirit gear, we decided to create a cool, cheap T-shirt that everyone in the GBN community would enjoy.

Challenge Statement: Increase the overall sense of school spirit at GBN

The Plan: Split into three different subcommittees that all work to accomplish separate tasks that simultaneously contribute to our challenge statement: the marketing committee, the T-shirt committee, and the spirit day committee. Please click on the following links to access each committee’s strategy plan.

Marketing Committee

T-shirt Committee

Spirit Day Committee

Benefits to the GBN community:

This leadership Impact Project not only increased the school spirit here at GBN, but it also educated students and faculty about what school spirit is and the benefits of having an abundance of school spirit. Our class also…..

Definition of Success Criteria:

• Sell at least 214 T-shirts
• Get students to wear the T-shirts to the varsity basketball game on Friday, December 19th
• See a significant increase of student participation in spirit days
• Get more students to attend school events (sporting events, music, theatre, etc.)
• See an increase of student participation in Green & Gold Friday’s after marketing
• Get both students and faculty excited about school spirit
  
  Other Pre-Plan Options that are recommended if another group takes over this project:
  
  
  

  • Competition/Incentives
  • Have 2-3 teachers count the amount of students dressed up in their class
  • reward of food/candy using money from t-shirt sales ($ extra?)
  • bagel breakfast for one class- start in one wing & choose one first time, next time start in the next wing, etc. through the whole school
  • Need someone important to promote: Weiner/Nabo? SA Board? Peer group? A sports team- use their season?
  • SPIRIT/PEP Club
  • talk to GBS students- how do they implement their ideas? when do they meet?
  • Spirit stick competition? each class decorates and one wins (assembly)
  • GBN inspire can take it over? SA Board?

  
  

  
  
  
  

The Sublime Craft of a Leader

Thousands of leadership philosophies exist out there, but what deems a person a leader is his/her ability to possess different ideologies which differ from the others. The mindset I have maintained throughout my life is one that can be described a

s very disputed. However, a large portion of the values I believe that are discovered in leaders are agreeable. Before leadership specification are discussed, it ought to be known that one obtains the prestige of a leader at the end of the walkway. Those that acquire the status of a leader have developed the skills, attributes, and overall personality along the journey through adolescence and adulthood with the assistance of experiences. It is evident that experience is what plays a major role in shaping the distinguished qualities of a being. Included in my philosophy is that success is never achieved without failure. Encountering adversity throughout life tremendously influences the outcome of a person’s contributions.

The Five Emphatic Stepping Stones:

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  Being Proactive: A leader familiarizes himself/herself with the techniques necessary to excel in whatever task is being executed at that moment. He/she qualifies as being proactive if time management, productivity, and realization is performed regularly. On the contrary, reactivity is observed as an indictment to the human mind and should not be viewed as a benefit to social interactions in life or for personal reasons.

• Consciousness: A leader becomes aware of the variations of authority when in a work environment. In such a situation, it is then where management skills are essential. He/she needs to utilize the appropriate gesture based on the given scenario. The styles: autocratic(dictatorial), participative(democratic), and free-rein(laissez-faire) all have something in common. They necessitate a leader at head which provides direction, demonstration, and assurance of a favorable outcome. He/she is not ignorant, but very knowledgeable on how to apply the existing forms of governance.

• Identification: A leader is fully capable of eliminating the peculiarities in a certain position. He/she has the experience and mentality necessary to acknowledge flaws of the system in the status quo. While perfecting proactiveness, reactiveness is also utilized but only under a “must” circumstance.

• 

  Mutual Respect/Trust: A leader is one that has tailored the present belief to granting respect in order to receive it. This idea was very much influenced by a certain candidate attempting to obtain the Assistant Dean position. Courtesy is the single most important aspect when it narrows down to communication because institutes the premise of relationships. From a broad perspective, this may be seen as a component of minimal significance. However, it is an integral part of maintaining the management and leadership quality.

• Beginning with the End in Mind: A leader will continuously have the disposition to prioritize the more valuable things in life such as family. In addition to that, they also tend to forecast the future which ultimately results in establishing goals to be accomplished. With the inspiration drawn from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, I was able to conclude that pre-planning, thinking long-term, and actualizing your hopes/aspirations are absolutely imperative and the underlying essentialities.

Also included in my leadership philosophy is the responsibility aspect of the brilliance:

Matt S. Leadership Philosophy

A person's leadership philosophy is what defines how well they run a group of people. After taking a semester class in Leadership and Management, I have learned several new ideas that have changed the shape of my leadership philosophy. By combining these all together, my thoughts on leading can be broken down into these steps, ranked by importance.

1. Recognize who you are leading. Before you begin to lead, I think that understanding who you are trying to lead is of utmost importance. Understanding this concept helps me understand what type of leadership style to incorporate. During my semester with Management and Leadership, I learned that there are many styles which one can choose from. For example, you could use autocratic techniques, or more democratic techniques. Using either one should be based upon what is best for who you are leading, not who you are as a person. Perhaps in leading a group of younger children I would use a more autocratic approach, whereas with older, more mature people, I would use a more democratic approach. Therefore, I believe recognizing and understanding what type of people you are going to lead is the first essential step I take when leading.
2. Part of the curriculum in this class was reading The 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens. Many of the topics mentioned in the book impacted my philosophy, but one which really stood out to me was “begin with the end in mind”. What this means to me in terms of leading is that when you begin leading a group of people, you must make clear what the end goal is. Getting everyone on the same page in terms of what there is to accomplish is in my opinion the next most important thing to do as a leader. My favorite quote about leadership from Antoine de Saint-Exupery channels this idea by saying, “If you want to be a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long of the endless immensity of the sea”. This channels the thought of beginning with the end in mind and also touches upon the thought that when leading, it is important to be a leader, rather than a boss. A boss would assign people to collect wood for the ship, and create the sails, but a leader inspires them. A leader motivates them for the end goal. Once the followers become focused on the end reward, they won’t need someone to assign them tasks. They will do them willingly. I believe a good leader always has the end product in mind, and is always doing their best to inspire and motivate others to achieve it. 
3. The next most important part of leading for me is the planning process. Once I figure out who I am leading and what the end goal is, the planning is crucial to the execution of the goal. During our unit on management functions, we went over how the planning process works. From this I have taken away that it is important to start the plan as broad and general, and then narrow specific tasks down further in the planning process with dates and specific details. I also learned that it is good for plans to be compatible and flexible, because odds are that things don’t always go exactly according to plan.
4. The next most important part of my leadership philosophy is the behavior used during the day to day process of leading. Simply put, how your followers perceive you and how you behave around them is essential. My key idea here is to be who you want your followers to be. I always want to look positive and motivated around those I’m leading so that they will sense my motivation to accomplish our goal. I believe that if I behave like this, the group I lead will place their trust in me, which is good. It is also good to show faith and perseverance in the goal, especially when you hit roadblocks. If your group sees that you’re not giving up, then they won’t either.
5. In our management functions unit we also touched upon the idea of the organizational environment. In order for the task at hand to be accomplished efficiently, there must be some sort of structure to the working environment. Setting up a chain of command and having each person execute their responsibilities is key when mapping out the organizational structure. As a leader this is key to keep in mind when delegating different members of a group to tasks. It’s always good if a leader can take up a manager role and set up different groups or subgroups to independently work together.
6. Later in the semester we had another unit on communication. I believe every great leader is also a great communicator. Making sure that you can get important messages out on time, to everyone so that each person is on the same page is essential. If the idea of communication is forgotten then a leader may never even see their goal accomplished.
7. Reviewing how well the execution of your plan went is an important part when leading that is often forgotten. This is important to me because by looking back on how things went and how they could have been better will help you improve your leadership abilities for the future.

Conclusion: The world has leaders everywhere you go, but there are many fine details that separate a leader who is great from a leader who is not so great. I believe that by focusing on the key ideas mentioned above, anyone can work to become an excellent leader.

Madison Elsey's Leadership Philosophy

"Leadership is the capacity to turn a dream into reality"

When I hear the word leadership what comes to mind is someone who sets an example for other people to follow, commonly called a role model. A person who is leading a group needs to have certain qualities in order to gain the respect the he/she deserves. A leader has to learn how to manage themselves before they can manage a group of people. Here are the Top five most important ideas and qualities to have when being a leader:

• Positivity

I believe that positivity is the key to a successful business. A leader has to set an example for his workers. You have to remember that you are the energy of the business. When your positive energy is going into your work ethic, the team behind you will feed of you to achieve the same goal. From 7 Habits Of A Highly Effective Teen a Win- Win state of mind is the best of the best, you care for others and are happy to see them being successful but you also are looking out for your best interest as well. Knowing that you are a person that people can not walk all over is a good quality to have but also being able to be happy for others. Positivity also goes hand in hand with leading by example, when you have a good attitude about your life and business people will follow in your footsteps.

• Determination

Your determination is defined by your passion. If you are passionate about your job, people will strive to be like you. I believe that having determination to get what you want out of life is the most important thing because if you are not determined enough to do something is it really that important to you? Passion and determination are linked, your determination to achieve a certain goal is driven my your passion. It gives you a purpose on why you're doing something. If I walked up to you and asked you if you were passionate about your job what would you say?

• Openness

This means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not conform to the common way of thinking. Good leaders are able to suspend their judgement while listening to their fellow workers ideas. They also accept new ways of doing things that someone else takes the credit for. This quality builds a mutual respect and trust between leaders and his/her followers, and it also keeps the team well supplied with new ideas rolling in and out.

• Integrity

Integrity is the integration of outward actions and inner values. As a leader, your integrity is the same on the inside and on the out. Such an individual can be trusted for their honesty, even when it might be hard to do so A leader must have the trust of his/her followers.

• Magnanimity

This means to give credit when and where it is due. A magnanimous leader ensures that the credit for successes is spread as widely as possible throughout the company. A good leader takes personal responsibility for failures. This sort of reverse magnanimity helps others feel better about themselves and draws the team closer together. The spread of fame and blame is a hallmark of effective leadership.

Matt Burdick's Leadership Philosophy

Anastasiya's Leadership Philosophy

Leaders Grow in the Mind & Soul

What are we in this world? Are we born followers or great leaders? The answer can be argued, but I believe we grow into impactful leaders and follow those who inspire us to reach our full potential. That inspiration grows from passion and hard work. But as a leader you can’t just have the soul for it, you need the mind. Important factors of a leader are being proactive and incorporating communication skills from participative leadership. The journey of a leader begins with simple skills, and grow into natural anticipated habits. The main thing I haven’t mentioned is why. Why work hard? Why try to communicate? What’s the end goal of a leader? Well, let’s find out…

Proactive. Communication. Participative.

A great book by Sean Covey, called “ 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens”, was known to be a guide to decision making and effective ways of getting through life every-day. What spoke to me is the constant repetition of the need to be proactive. Being proactive is about taking responsibility of your life. How can a leader care for many if they can't even handle themselves? This is important because in life we face many choices that we have to choose. We have to learn and understand ourselves before going out and helping someone else. You can do that by owning up to your mistakes, studying for your final next week, or even cleaning up the dishes after you ate. The list is ongoing and all it takes is you and your actions. One important action part of this leader's journey is communication. 
Communication is the transmission of information and understanding from one person or group to another. It requires skills such as knowing your responsibilities as a sender and the responsibilities as a receiver. I've learned that as any role you have to be able to listen. Not just listening with your ears, but with all your other senses too. "You don't trust people who give you solutions before they understand what your needs are." (The 7 Habits of Highly effective Teens, Page. 164) Communication is key in any relationship and as a leader you want strong relationships to get you to your goals and dreams. It takes participative leadership to get through the barriers of communication, working through problems together, and being on the same page. A leader always has a team and works together with them to accomplish a goal. 
Brene Brown, a speaker on Ted Talks, talked about how it’s all about communication and connections between people to understand each others perceptions, and we can feel vulnerable from the fear of disconnections and unworthiness. This relates and shows that you need one to do the other. Proactivity, Communication, and Participative have all one important thing in common. They require you to understand. Yourself and others. It’s good to know skills and facts but you need the connection and worthiness to produce great impact.

Passion             Hard work

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire."— Field Marshall

Growing inside is what matters in a leader also because you can grow to inspire many. It all starts with a passion. A motive. It’s the reason why you're doing what you're doing and why you love what you're doing. How can you expect someone to love your dreams when you don't love them yourself? Every great leader needs that motive to strive to be better . The strive comes to our next step of the growth of a great leader: putting the hard work into your passion. Nothing comes easy. Anything is possible if you put in hard work and sweat. A vision isn't enough. Putting time and effort can make things possible. Being a great leader is possible if you put in hard work.

This is a leader. But wait, what is the point of all of this? What’s the incentive?

You decide that. What’s your dream? What’s your passion? What’s your goal?

Brene Brown
The 7 habits of Highly Effective Teens 
Pictures: https://www.google.com/search?q=passion+and+fire&safe=active&rlz=1caleac_enus603us603&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=611&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=npi2VM3AC5CXyASHp4DQAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#safe=active&tbm=isch&q=communication&imgdii=_&imgrc=gRTLRYZfM73-sM%253A%3BmETEUx7prjTtyM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fimage.slidesharecdn.com%252Fnonverbalcommunication-110726160236-phpapp01%252F95%252Fnonverbal-communication-1-728.jpg%253Fcb%253D1311715309%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.slideshare.net%252Fwaqasdilasa%252Fnonverbal-communication-8696831%3B728%3B546

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Dustin's leadership philosophy

Dustin's Leadership Philosophy

As many of you know, I am currently enlisted in the U.S. Army. I leave for basic two weeks after I graduate and have a Combat MOS, 11x, which is Infantry. I am trying out for Airborne Ranger, which is a special operations unit, like S.E.A.Ls and Green Beret. The thing that stands out about Rangers is that they are known as a highly disciplined force that serves as a role model for other soldiers. Their motto is “Rangers Lead the Way” because they are often the first unit to enter combat. They are looked up to as amazing leaders and someone you want to follow. And that is important in the military, because the decisions that your officer makes can affect your life and the lives of others. If I one day make a bad decision as a leader, it could potentially cost the lives of my men and my own as well, as well as being a failed mission. So it is important that I am a good leader. And some of the ways I want to be a good leader is to lead by example, be one of the troops, and implement their ideas.

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Lead by Example

I can’t expect my troops to do something that I wouldn’t do myself. That is unfair to them. So I will lead by example. I won’t ask them to do anything that i wouldn't do myself. I will take point when going into combat zones, and won’t put anyone in a dangerous position that i wouldn’t want to be in myself. I will push myself hard to give them motivation, and someone to look up to and follow. As a Ranger and a leader, I will have troops looking up to me, and following my example. I need to give them a good example to follow. Towards the end of the movie Gungho, Hunt Stevenson started working on cars with his Japanese counterpart. By them doing this, they set an example for the other workers to follow. During the leadership unit in class, we learned that a healthy environment makes a better worker, and having a leader that leads by example creates an healthy environment.

Be one of them

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You can’t be an effective leader if you're not one of the troops. You need to be able to associate with them and understand what they are going through. I will talk to them, spend time with them, eat with them. I will be one of them. There are many great leaders in our history. Some of the ones the stand out are the ones that associate it with the troops. Alexander the Great, King Leonidas, and many other well known leaders were known to always be associating with their troops. Talking to them, chilling with them, and having a good time. People are more likely to follow someone if they can relate to them, and its hard to relate to someone who is never there and is very stand-offish. In class we watched the movie Gungho. In it, Hunt Stevenson, the main character, is an effective leader, and his men respected him and did what he says. This is because he is one of them. He spends his free time with them and listens to their problems. And when he starts to spend less time with them, he becomes a less effective leader. I will use this concept in the future. I will spend time with my troops outside of the barracks and be a friend to them. This will make me a much more effective leader.

Taking their ideas.

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There is a reason that there are many leaders in one organization. It is because of the old saying that two heads are better than one. And the more heads that you have, the more ideas you can come up with. There is a reason that America is a democracy. Because it is effective. People like leaders that use their ideas. It makes them feel important, and valuable. And if they feel that way they will perform better. During the Teams Challenge Course field trip, some of us, including myself, stepped up as leaders. However, we heard and implemented the ideas of other people in the group as well. This helped make everyone feel part of the team and allowed to contribute. If you don’t hear and use your troops ideas they feel useless and unneeded and therefore are less effective as a fighting force. In the management class, we learned about the three types of decisions making styles; Autocratic, participative, and free-rein. My leadership philosophy makes me a participative decision maker. My troops are involved in decisions, which is democratic.

Using these leadership philosophies I will be a better leader. By leading by example, being one of them, and using their ideas, I will lead my troops to victory and a successful mission.

Justin's Leadership Philosophy

My Leadership Philosophy

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Throughout this semester, we learned the tools and makeup of what makes a great leader. This world won't function properly without leaders. As this class comes to an end, the main question for us moving forward is, “What is your leadership philosophy?” My answer is simple and can be broken down into four main points.

Communication:

In my opinion, I believe this is the most important quality a leader must possess. How can a leader be great without having proper communication skills? In the book, 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Teens, Sean Covey emphasized the importance of to seek to understand, and then to be understood. Covey is telling us that with good communication, comes good listening. As a leader, you should seek to listen to others first and then to express your own voice. This skill was vital in the birdhouse activity we did. Select people were forced to keep quiet throughout the entire activity which was painful for them. The point of the activity was to show that leaders sometimes need to take a step back and let others communicate and voice their opinions. In addition, in the DECA Case Study we did, we learned the importance of a breakdown in communication between the manager and the employees of Pacific Surfboards. It’s vital for a leader to effectively communicate between their employees and vice-versa. Without this, there would be no delegation. The good news is that with today’s modern technology, there are so many ways to communicate with others through the use of social media, texting, emails, or over the phone. Therefore, the sender and receiver must know their own responsibilities which will avoid any barrier or conflict in communication.

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Leading by Example:

Look at all the great leaders in this world, Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln. What do all of these leaders have in common? They led by example and had the ability to inspire. They were role models for others to follow. After finishing our Leadership Impact Project of promoting school spirit, one vital thing I learned was how to pass this project to the next class. Mrs. Ingersoll and Dr. Tarjan stressed the fact of passing the baton for the next class to follow. A leader is someone who leaves their mark with a system that everyone can follow moving on. They are the ones who can step up and delegate a group of people and create a domino effect. One activity where leading by example was effective was the interview activity. Each group needed that one leader who stepped up and galvanized everyone else to take control of the interview. After that leader stepped up, it made the activity more comfortable and engaging for others. This is also vital for sports. A true leader is that person who shows up to practice first and is the last to leave. They are the bridge between the players and the coach and they are the ones who sets an example for their teammates to follow.

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Passion:

It’s vital for a leader to have passion. Who wants to work in a group where the leader aren't passionate with their employees or what they do? Leaders who have passion bring an unique energy to a group. I believe this was evident in our class field trip to the Teams Challenge Course. Each student was passionate about our group dynamics which created a great vibe. This made the whole activity much more fun. Group dynamics from Dr. De Bono can affect how passionate and invested a leader is. In addition, passionate leaders have the ability to acknowledge their employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, leaders can adjust their decision making styles with autocratic, participative, or free-rein. Good, passionate leaders have the ability to know which style is best for the group.

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Planning/Organization:

Planning and having a game plan ready to be executed is a necessity for being a leader. A leader must plan accordingly in order to reach a specific goal. Having a plan before executing makes everybody’s lives easier and can help you achieve the end result. In our Crisis Management scenarios, we had to plan and prepare for certain problems that may occur. Also, one of the 7 Habits is to put first things first. This also relates to planning because as a leader, you should prioritize the more important tasks that need to be done first. For organization, good leaders follow a schedule. This creates order and minimizes chaos among the group. Organized leaders know how to manage their time efficiently and are able to meet goals and deadlines.

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