by William Guth
MSC 529 Maximizing Performance of Self and Others
Fall 2020
This artifact is an individual writing assignment that I submitted for MSC 529 titled Assignment 1 What’s Your Story? For this assignment I had to initiate a conversation with someone known to me, a colleague, acquaintance, family member, or perfect stranger where possible, and find out their “story.” Personal story was a core lesson of the course. Stories are made up of details (or facts) and meanings. Factual stories are “stories” with a little s or lowercase s, and stories with greater meaning, connection or undertone are “Stories” with a big s or capital S.
The intended outcome of the assignment was to demonstrate I have learned about leadership and/or what I learned about myself and my own leadership as a result of learning someone else’s “Story.” From this experience I was able to identify some general lessons about leadership from the conversation experience. As a leader, understanding the people I work with and depend on will help me to make use of their strengths. And to understand people we have to listen to them and understand their experiences. In doing so I can get an idea for how I can and should communicate with people. And that it is an opening for me to communicate my vision and expectations in a way that engages them in the process, building collective wisdom, and greater commitment.
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