"Relational Leadership Model?? Duuuude, what's that?"

It's nice of you to join the class, Jeff Spicoli... even though you're late..as always..
Sad to say, but if you keep this up, you'll never graduate Ridgemont High!

Basically, in chart form, it looks like this:

"Duuude, it looks like those bubble gumballs you get from those machines for 25¢ ...   

 I like the purple one, grape flavor's my ultimate favorite!"

*sigh*..All right Jeff, I'll help break it down for you. Now pay attention!!

The key word to the Relational Leadership Model is RELATIONSHIP.

There are five components to the model: Purpose, Inclusive, Empowering, Ethical, and each one of these components work together to contribute towards the fifth component, Process. Each component of the model relates to one another, and holds connections. Each is a link towards successful leadership, and if one is missing or broken, the model would simply shatter and fall apart.

The Knowing-Being-Doing aspect to each element of the model is the glue that holds each link together. Without the knowledge and understanding of who you are as a person, who your group members are, and what you want to accomplish, leadership would not be possible. Without maintaining the right attitude and possessing the right skills, success would not be possible... You see, everything connects to each other!

"Ohh okaaay dude. I got it. So... what does this have to do with YOU?" 

Everything! Let me start off with..

PURPOSE.

I have always been committed towards diving into challenges. A strong purpose is what pushes me to attack any conflicts that may arise, no matter what they are, driving me and my fellow members forward to ultimate success! A purpose of overcoming certain challenges and creating a positive change in myself and in the situation itself has always acted as my motivation and driving force. Knowing what is driving me and my group members to work as hard as we do motivates the whole group to continue working hard towards seeing a positive change. Acting without a good purpose leads to feelings of emptiness and confusion.

An empowering, ethical PURPOSE is what acts as the stimulus of leadership. 

INCLUSIVE.

I believe that everyone is unique, one-of-a-kind, and beautiful, and plays a very significant part to the community. Everyone has something special to contribute to society. Understanding where everyone comes from has always been my goal when working with others. Understanding that everyone comes from a different background and holds various beliefs, mind-sets, and traditions is extremely important to me when I am making decisions within my group.

Being open-minded and not just believing that there’s only one solution to each problem helps me engage diversity in everything that I do, and has helped me to be successful in coming up with new ideas. Everyone in your group has something to contribute, and by taking all contributions into consideration and respectively combining them all, you will be able to come up with ideas that everyone will be able settle with.

EMPOWERING.

Get used to seeing Harry Potter references in my blogs... (-_-)

Helping to heal others when they are down, and encouraging them to try their best at whatever they do is severely important. There will always be obstacles coming up and knocking down your fellow members, and without creating a positive environment full of hope and inspiration, the group’s motivation and general mood will go downhill, leading the group to gradually fall apart. 


I feel like empowerment is one of the elements I should work on. I have found myself sometimes spending a little too much time cheering people on in my group when things aren't going too well, and not enough time focusing on finding a solution.Whenever a conflict may come up, I would always stay positive as the generally optimistic person I am, keeping my team members' spirits up, but failing to work towards fixing the problem that's slowly dragging us down. 

Lean on Me!!

In other instances, I would be lacking in the "empowerment department". In high school, when I would be assigned to group projects and some of the members of my group would fail to complete their section of the project, instead of motivating them and encouraging them to complete their responsibilities, I would instead take on their sections and finish them myself. Since we were being graded as a group, I didn't want their lack of commitment to the project to drag the whole project and group down, making all of us get a bad grade... 
I would like to work more on empowering others to willingly commit to their sections, instead of "giving up" on my members and taking their work into my hands.

Being a leader means you have a sense of power that you must respectively put to good use. Use “The Force” wisely!!!  Instead of abusing your sense of power and using it to manipulate others around you recklessly, respecting the power you have been given for use in your position and using it for the greater good is ethical.

ETHICAL.

How do you view yourself? Do you believe you're a good person?
Those are tough questions! One of my daily goals is to make decisions throughout the day while being faithful to my morals, beliefs, and religion, while being thoughtful of how my decisions may affect others around me.  

Empowering others to work with good ethics and morals is extremely important towards maintaining the well-being of the group’s motivation and goals. I believe that encouraging each member to believe in themselves and to trust their naturally honest, moral and ethical instincts when it comes to making decisions will guide the whole group towards the right direction. 

PROCESS.

How does your group get along and work together effectively? How does your group deal with certain situations, unfortunate or not? How does your group accomplish all goals, and keep focused on the main purpose that drives them towards their goals? Combining all these elements of purpose, inclusiveness, empowerment, and ethics is what completes the overall aspect of process.

Things are constantly changing: situations, the society, and even yourself. Some of these things may be overbearing. Understanding where you stand as a person and where the other members stand themselves is always important towards making good progress.

Process is another element that I would like to work on. I sometimes may be stubborn when it comes to accepting that things change all the time. For example, when I sense that perhaps a good friend of mine has changed, I become greatly discouraged, concluding that "He/She's not the same person anymore. I don't know them anymore!", often beginning to shut them out of my life, unable to accept that people are constantly changing all the time.

Though I am open-minded to new ideas, I am the kind of person who adapts a certain rhythm to my everyday life, often building certain "rituals" and patterns to everything that I do. When a change comes along, though I know that it is inevitable, I refuse to adapt to the change for the longest time until I finally have to surrender to it, finally incorporating it into my life. I would like to work more on accepting changes as challenges, molding the changes into myself and my life to let me grow more as a person. 

I believe that adapting to these certain changes and polishing and updating your group’s ideas will lead you to success! Though things will constantly change as it is naturally a part of the ever-changing process, the core of the group, it’s ethical, inclusive, and empowering purpose, will remain strong, true, and honest. 

"Awesome!! Totally Awesome!!... well, I'm gonna go surf now, so I'll be going.
Hey Bud, let's party!!!"

*sigh*... Well, you go have fun with that. Hopefully he picked up some of what I had to say...