Week 1 Readings

As I was at the hospice and hospital for the majority of the first couple weeks of class I was often recording my thoughts in a notebook and will include them now.

I've found the reflective responses are not socially friendly. If I began restating and paraphrasing in conversations with my friends they would think that I was nuts. However, I have found this technique to be very helpful when conversing with upset customers and patrons. Prior to working at the library I worked at Menards for 5 years and my two biggest "home locations" were Customer Service and the Paint Department. These are two of the departments that interact the most with the customers. Bolton's methods work so well with diffusing the angry customer. Allowing them to first get out what they feel and then restating it to clarify works so very well. of course there are always some who get even more angry because they think that you are mocking them, this was always the signal to find a more senior staff member.

It was nice to see Bolton include sections on body language. I think reading and understanding body language is sometimes a subconscious thing. A person may say they're fine and they smile, but looking at the eyes can tell you the truth. On a side note, I loved the story from page 83, about Erle Stanley Gardner's partner with the auditory "polygraph." When he mentioned the "posture-talk" I realized that this type of observation is what children's librarians use during our storytimes. You pay attention to the kids' postures and adjust as needed. Perhaps after book #2 we should do a song with a dance instead of a fingerplay. After a while this becomes instinctive and you don't even realize you're doing it.

Quick not, I also loved Auden's poem on page 119. It was nice to see the contrast between submissive and non-assertive, I know personally I need to work on being more assertive and I have certainly gotten much better. For years and years and years I was the quiet and meek one and only in my set social circle did I actually express my thoughts and feelings. I could easily say this comes from having 3 older siblings who are much more vocal, but this probably only plays a small part.

Northouse mentions on page 4 that leaders are not above or better than their followers. This is something that doesn't seem to be common knowledge as the majority of the leaders that I have encountered have a strong sense of entitlement. Although I will grant that there are instances where this sense of superiority might be best. If we travel back to my high school days it was necessary for the section leaders in the marching band to establish an air of dominance if you will. A strong sense of the hierarchy within the band.

I find it interesting that the trait research has changed over the years, or not so much that it's changed but that it's gone back to the original method of research. I would imagine that because of this we can expect the method of research to change yet again in the future.

I quite like the style of situational leadership as clearly different styles would work better in different situations. Even the concept of different leadership styles with different individuals. I think it takes the best leader to alter their style for specific members of the group.