Vision and Mission

When thinking about an objective or a goal that a group or entity wants to accomplish, it seems only natural that you would want to devise a short summary that sums up what are the important elements and values of an organization, company, or even a team.  However, it seems so challenging to be concise, clear, and descriptive all at the same time and with so little space to recap what you mean. I feel like the only way a mission statement can be written and the process can be accomplished is through passion.  I feel like a mission statement has to embody and really summarize who you or the company really thinks and knows they are. A rough draft of a mission statement for myself would be something like:

“Always know where you’re going but never forget where you’ve been. Be fearless but wise, be daring but not carless, be exciting and strategic, and most of all listen and trust but always verify.”

However, when you take into consideration the mission statements that companies write, many of the times they focus more on touching on several points and thus become to general, such as the case of McDonalds. As a result, this many times works against their advantage rather than towards it, since they are unable to establish a clear or sometimes accurate perception of what the companies mission exactly is.

Similarly, when a company creates a vision statement this can too happen since it can be too broad or sometimes too specific and end up a disaster. Nevertheless a vision statement does differ from a mission statement in that it motivates the leader (CEO), allows the leader to realize and understand the support he or she has behind them, and also helps in creating new bonds between the individuals in the company. This is extremely important since I feel like it allows people to establish a relationship; it builds customer loyalty, forms bonds, and allows familiarity with the customer to arise.

I feel like if I would attempt to write a vision statement it would sound something like this:

I am at my best when I am inspired, motivated, and have my whole heart in the game.

I love to help people, explore, and come out of my comfort zone. I try to find new and exciting opportunities and experiences in everyday life and enjoy making people listening, being attentive and nurturing. I believe I can do anything I set my mind to and plane to learn several languages and travel the world. I think my life's journey will be indescribable. I will be a person who will have learned everything I could, and taught everything I have known. However, My most important future contribution to others will be to help others and myself become better versions of ourselves and better people for the world.

Ultimately I think that if you are able to clearly define and understand who you are as a person, what your values, morals, and ethics are and what you want to get out of life, your mission and vision of life will be that much easier to set. However, the part that challenges us all is being able to find that one thing that sets us apart from everyone else.

Toxic Leadership

For some, leadership can be seen solely as a way of control. A way to be able to reveal their true nature and desire to seek an environment where they can be dominant, arrogant, and able to satisfy their own enormous egos. These toxic leaders often can be seen as intentionally hurting others with their egocentric decisions, and/or unintentionally injuring others through displaying reckless actions and carelessness. I for one have experienced both types of toxic leaders.

The first time I encountered an intentionally toxic leader was when my former friend and I were doing a presentation together that was intended to educate people about safety. Nevertheless, she ended up going on a trip the weekend before it was due, which resulted in me doing the whole pre-planning/, project myself. However, this was not the actual issue that bothered me, what really showed me the toxicity and lack of leadership she had was the fact that the day we were presenting she took control of the presentation entirely and then proceeded to say that she had “slaved endless hours” over the research, that I had consequently done. By doing so, the teacher removed points from my grade and gave her a higher grade due to her self-enhancing actions that cost me a lower grade than her; needless to say we no longer are friends.

The second experience I had was with an unintentionally toxic leader who was my boss. Although she was a nice individual, I believe she was not suited for her job. The reason I say this is due to the fact that she did not know how to go through inventory, check supplies, nor manage the employees and often gave into peoples demands in order to be the “liked” manager rather than the good or competent one. As a result, this caused a lot of miscounts during inventory and resulted in hundreds of dollars being lost/stolen in merchandise. However, although my boss did display the signs of a toxic leader, I felt like the unintentional toxicity was not as grave as the intentional since she did not intend on people actually getting hurt but rather simply wanted to be liked/accepted.

Nevertheless, in both situations where you either have someone who is deliberately trying to injure others in order to get ahead (intentional) or is so incompetent that they drag other people down with them (unintentional) both have significant consequences that can ruin interrelationships and working environments and ultimately sabotage the goal or company that is trying to be improved and achieved. Ultimately, I found this reading interesting since it did not only give you a theoretical idea of toxic leaders but went into depth with the characteristics and behavioral issues toxic leaders possess, and gave you tips on how to improve the situation you are in or at least cope with these inevitable individuals who you will meet at some point or another in your lifetime. 

Followership

When grouping people into who falls under the “follower” category and who falls into the “leader” category I feel like this is a task that at times can be rather challenging. Especially when considering that many of the traits that are usually coined to describe a leader can many times be characteristics that can be seen in an active follower. Although I fee like it is true that leaders tend to be more inclined to propose a goal or a solution, and promote a new idea, I do believe that neither a leader nor a follower can stand alone. This is especially true when you think about how many individuals it takes to really execute a large project effectively and how being able to take direction is equally if not more important of a skill than being able to direct. However, one must take into consideration the type of followers that a leader at one point or another will work with and how this will affect the productivity level and effectiveness of the work based on the type of follower he or she is.

Unfortunately, as a result of several group activities I have done throughout my schooling I have met great contributors as teammates and individuals who do the absolute minimum to slide by. In one of my projects I remember it was a subject that was not my strong suit and I wanted to go the extra mile in order to show the teacher that I was at least making an effort to understand the ideas being taught. However, this was easier said than done when I ended up being paired up with two other individuals who wanted to do the absolute minimum. This is what I would take to be the isolates, the people who rely on others to do the work. Fortunately, although I was not able to accomplish as much as I hoped, I was lucky enough that the project did not end up a disaster considering the fact that I had to take it upon myself to do all of the work. However, it did make me realize that in life there are those who try their best to succeed and then their are others who just do not really care and just want to scrape by.

However, in another project I did, I luckily was placed with people who were really motivated, and enthusiastic about the topic. They wanted to meet about 3-4 times a week to work on the project in order to get it to the level of perfection. These people I admired, because while I wanted to do a good job I felt like they were very intense and at times overly devoted to perfecting the project. Even though I would consider them more of leaders in this circumstance (given the fact that they knew a lot about the subject and were very knowledgeable) I felt like these people could be grouped into diehards. Ultimately my experiences with followers and leaders made me realize something, there are circumstances where there is a clear line between who is a follower and who is a leader but many times this line is unidentifiable since I feel like we all possess qualities that make us both good followers and good leaders.