Political Sexism?!

What is wrong with our citizen's and our media that they need to bash our presidential and VP candidates? Why are we so cautious of the racial issue in this campaign, yet still so blatently degrading and making fun of our female vp candidate? Is sexism still that common? I clearly understand the psychology of gender and our roles, but this should not come into play so much in a presedential election. I do not agree with Obama and his campaign, but I cannot say that I have ever ridiculed him for anything and I have not torn apart aspects of his life that essentially have nothing to do with his campaign. People have been discussing Palin's wardrobe costs (please read the article) in a effort to further the liberal gain in the polls and focus on soemthing that is not only irrelevant, but incorrect. I am not blogging here about my political views and I have an open mind and respect (most) other people's views. I am just here stating that I am sick of the aesthetic emphasis we put on our women in politics and the other issues that we bring up to push them down. 'We the people' need to focus on the issues and exactly where each candidate will take this country. Please vote on the issues and stop worrying about what our intellgent capable women are wearing.

Sit. Lead Pic

Though this has been updated to R1, R2, R3, R4 instead of D1, 2, 3, 4 this picture is a pretty good example of the Situational Leadership Model developed by Paul Blanchard and Ken Hersey. (Picture found at http://www.kenblanchard.com/img/pub/SSL_model2.jpg)

Sit.Lead.Pic2

Situational Leadership Model by Ken hersey and Paul Blanchard (pictures taken from http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/what-is-situational-leadership-means/)

Leadership

Sara was blogging about employee motivation and commitment and it reminded me of the Transformational Leadership class I took this summer. We discussed Situational Leadership and the model developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. I posted the Wikipedia descriptions of this model on her blog and wanted to talk more about it here. I do not work in training currently so I have felt a bit 'out of the loop' regarding some of the blogs posted by other students in class. As I though about this leadership class (also in the ALOP program at Drake) I decided it would be a great thing to share with the rest of you and anyone else reading my Blog. The model encompasses a lot of leader/employee areas, but I found the 'Leader Behaviors' (S1, S2, S3, S4) and 'Follower Readiness' (R1, R2, R3, R4) the most interesting and useful. Essentially the Leader Behavior model of Situational Leadership outlines how the leader/manager's behavior should adapt to the level of readiness their employee exhibits. For example, a leader should use S1 (Telling) behavior and use high task/low relationship behavior with a new employee who is possibly at an R1 level of readiness which means they are unable to do the task and possible insecure as well. An employee that is categorized as an R4 and is willing and confident in their job/task can be lead by using a Delegating S4 style of leadership which is lower task focused and lower relationship as well. I hope I have explained this clearly and I will add more links to help if needed. i look forward to reading what some of you 'trainers' and leaders think about this.

Election 2008

I am more involved with the political process this year than any other voting year. I think this is true for much of our population (at least I hope so with such turmoil in our country). I follow Glenn Beck on CNN and I find him one of the most logical people in the media especially on politics. I can't say when I have disagreed with his thought process. His show is very interesting and I am following the Glenn Beck BLOG as well. Please check it out and the Glenn Beck website as well!

Thoughts on the text...

I wanted to blog about what I had shared in class regarding the conflict that I have with the idea of 'prosumers' in chapter 5. I really believe that it is a benefit to our society that 'we the people' have more opportunity to innovate, collaborate, customize and have a hand in the media through current technology. I think that the 'i-reports' and YouTube type of citizen controlled media are great ways for people to be more involved with the world outside of their own community. I think that the use of this new technology has been able to inspire the younger generation to be more involved with things such as politics and current affairs than previous years. I am conflicted, as I said, in that I am hesitant about the wikipedia or even Blog type of collaboration where any 'joe six-pack' (lol Had to quote Palin once) can sumbit information without any type of scientific basis. I am a person who needs to know that the information I have is backed by research or correct information. I have be in academia for so long that I appreciate solid research and I am leary of information put on a global platform that could be completely outlandish and faulty. I think there is a need for people to be educated on what to believe when using tools like wikipedia online just as we had to adjust to the same for radio and television. Although I wasn't alive, I do know about the mass hysteria that began to erupt from a certain radio broadcast regarding alien invasion. I think that people now are much more aware but we should be informed about these platforms and the possible inaccuracies within. While the flexibility of this new technology is liberating, I am cautious.

First Experience with Podcasts!

I am going to start looking up and watching podcasts this week and decided to read up on them through Wikipedia. I found great definitions and explanations of podcasts and thought I would share with the rest of you!

Mental Health Blog

I found this blog directory that gives people suffering from mental health problems the chance to post and share their stories. Sharing and talking with others has therapeutic benefits and I find this site especially interesting since I have my education in Psychology and Counseling and plan a career in the field. Please check out this site http://mentalhealthdirectory.blogspot.com/ and learn more about mental issues and how we can all be more aware. Please also make use of the blogs and connections if you yourself would like to share a personal story.