A500.1.5.RB_DiazBrian

Intellectual perseverance is the ability to draw tenacity from within, to set upon a well thought out plan or approach, despite any fears of failure or unforeseen difficulties that may arise.  These feelings of fear may be drawn from one’s own perceptions of the ideas or materials they may be challenged with.  Intellectual perseverance for me is an opportunity to accept that which I do not know and challenge myself to have a better understanding of a subject, thought, or idea.  When I began my Legal Studies degree I knew nothing about the law, its history, how it developed, and the different methods of research.  Over time and through hard work I was able to grasp the elements that go into establishing laws, how they are implemented and how they are applied in society.  I did not become discouraged, and accepted the challenge.  I adapted and established a plan of action.  I applied myself and set goals.    

Intellectual perseverance and leadership share many traits.  Both require one to consciously and effectively utilize critical thinking in order to achieve goals.  In order to be effective at both you have to be able to ask questions.  Planning is imperative to intellectual perseverance and to be an effective leader.  I feel this may be one of the more significant traits shared by intellectual perseverance and leadership.  Failure to have a plan of action in place can be a formula for failure.

Leadership can be describes as a planned approach that embraces the effective communication of expectations to achieve a common goal.  An effective leader should be responsible, positive, and an influential role model.  Furthermore an effective leader should be creative and have the ability inspire others while being an affective listener.  He/she should be goal oriented and cognizant of the importance of rewarding and acknowledging team members for their contributions and/or sacrifices with the use of positive reinforcement to achieve optimal results.  For example, I am fortunate to work for an organization that values leadership.  This is evident anytime we have monthly departmental meetings.  I am always impressed how my Director for Online Learning is prepared for these meetings.  He is always encouraging of my team members.  He presents goals for us to achieve as well as provides substantive and empirical data for us to review.  He inspires me to want to achieve greatness and goes out of his way to praise us.

Here is how I plan to achieve the qualities above:  

·         Ask to meet with various members of leadership within my organization.

·         Elicit information that has made them successful in their positions.

·         Set goals for myself (my first goal thus far is to obtain my Master’s degree).

·         Practice the qualities above to become a respected leader.

·         Empathizing with others in order to better relate.

·         Become a better listener (one of my weaknesses).

·         Be adaptable to change and open to idea of adjusting. 

As I progress in my studies I can use my current lessons to apply and incorporate these ideas I am learning to become a more efficient critical thinker. This will allow me to achieve the most proficient outcomes as a result of my critical thinking in order to accomplish my goals.  As I move forward with my studies I aspire to embrace this process of learning.  Will this be easy?  No, just as I imagined, it has been quite the opposite.  Am I going to be hesitant about this program or have self-doubt about failure?  Most likely but I understand that it is human nature to fear what you do not know. But I intend on overcoming those fears and move forward.  I think of this process much in the way one might build a house and the questions they might face.  

In order for a house to stand it must first have a solid foundation.  Once that foundation has been established you can begin to put up walls.  Once your walls are in place you can put a roof on.  But there are many other elements to building a house.  How much square footage?  What colors or materials am I going to use?  Do I have the necessary permits?  Besides the walls and the roof the house still needs electrical, plumbing, insulation, drywall, etc.  Just as our critical thinking needs extra elements.  In defining leadership I set the foundation for that definition by mapping out the process by which I would begin (much like an architect) defining the term.  Then I reflected on my idea of what leadership is.  From there I asked myself many questions.  I used reasoning to answer those questions and I believe in those reasons.  You see, I built upon my foundation of what I perceive the thought of leadership to be.  Much like one would might build a house.