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Class takeaways- technologies and people with disabilities

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Class takeaways- technologies and people with disabilities

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Through multiple technologies, like online volunteer platforms (Be My Eye), special keyboards, voice-controlled personal assistants, etc., blind people's world can be seen by more people, and they can see society better. Technologies have also improved the lives of people with other disabilities.
At the same time as helping disabled people see the world and be seen, technologies also mobilize more people, including people with disabilities themselves, to see the demand for taking leadership roles, and to strive with the aim of the fundamental civil rights of disabled people.

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5 different ways I type as a blind person

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I really like the idea of "intellectual equality". For educators who believe that their learners have the learning ability as good as the educators themselves, or the ability to act like professionals in the educators' unfamiliar fields, learners' potentials are more likely to be shown.
I remember in one of the previous classes, Willow asked us to write a song or to re-fill the lyrics of some famous song with a specific leadership theme. In the beginning, everyone seemed a bit nervous, even though it was a group activity, because most of us did not have any related experiences before. I was even questioning Willow's confidence in us, but the results from all the groups were impressive, and we were even talking about we should have a class album.
Leadership is seeing everyone's ability to grow, shine, and lead. Leadership is to cultivate, encourage, and affirm others' leadership skills and abilities.

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We were talking about the overcompensation towards the disabled. I have never thought being sympathetic by compensating people with disabilities could be problematic. It is worth more attention in the future to keep in mind that "everyone has something they can do," including those with disabilities, and it is necessary to give them space, for the growth of both them and us. This could be the reason that nobody helpt the man when he had a hard time coming out of the subway in the documentary Crip Camp.
However, I am also questioning if offering more space by being almost cruel and ignorant really better and more ethical than providing help? What if they do need help but can't or don't want to say it out loud? Regardless of one's ableness, I would love to offer help to anyone who seems to need help.
I believe communication is always the best way to know someone's demands. By asking, it might be easier to know if I should just watch them and accompany them without saying anything or actually give them a hand.

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It is interesting when Bre talked about the experience of feeling true belonging, all I could think about were the situations where I failed to fit in because of my gender, my lack of knowledge, my race, my language, etc.; the situations I used to spend so long to ignore.
It is very accurate that "it is always the people make the differences," deciding if we could fit it or not (Bre, 2022). Even if my gender, experience, race and language are not the same as the majority of the group, I can still feel a sense of belonging if someone in these groups could welcome me, appreciate my existence and offer me a space to allow and encourage my growth. And leadership for me is to be someone like this belongingness provider.

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As I mentioned in my touchstone story, I believe leadership is not an individual thing. It could start from one, but it will influence many others and eventually need everyone's efforts to develop and maintain the most appropriate leadership. Like how this story kept reminding me that everyone is a leader, and it takes the entire group's endeavour to support each other to be leaders, I would love to share this story with my peers. All my classmates are supportive, and we support each other to become better versions of leaders. Each of us is unique and intelligent, and I have learned so much from all of them; sometimes, I just can't stop myself from taking notes on what they shared in class.
So when it comes to using aesthetical ways to show my learning about leadership so far, I would love to use this gif to describe that leadership is like a bowl of soup. Good soup needs so many materials and ingredients, and each element supports others to taste way better than any individual one alone. Each component is a good leader, and I appreciate being part of the soup.

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Theme 4B-Two steps of being a better leader (probably will change someday in the future if there are more suitable methods)

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Theme 4B-Two steps of being a better leader (probably will change someday in the future if there are more suitable methods)

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Knowing more about how to be a successful leader is a lifelong journey, and I don't think I will have any clear answer soon. But there are a lot of good tips for me to walk further on this journey:
Brené said she always has a notebook with her, which contains numerous reminders, and this became my step one toward being a better leader. After reading the book, I started to have a memo page on my phone with multiple reminders, like: Perfectionism hurts! Vulnerability=bravery! Be supportive! Protect yourself by setting boundaries! etc.
After doing so for a while, I am now more mindful of what I listed on this memo page, especially when combining this technique with daily reflection, which is my step two.
I reflect every day before falling to sleep that if I did anything fail to meet the goals I set for myself, and if so, what I can do in the future to avoid it; if not, I would give myself a round of applause.
These two steps are simple and easy to accomplish but have helped me a lot, and I am sure they will help me more in my future journey.

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I have heard so many stories of good leaders. I have experienced being a good leader (like the story I shared about trying to persuade my student's parents to support the student). I have also experienced doing nothing to prevent from being dragged into complicated situations (being silent when my colleagues experienced pregnancy discrimination more than once).
However, to be honest, even after learning so many theories and concepts of how to be a good leader and how to be supportive, I still face challenges. Sometimes I am afraid I would not receive any support when I try to support others, sometimes I don't think I could afford the risks of helping others, and sometimes I might be considered weird if I choose to support people or ideas which the majority group of people don't agree with, even though what I try to do is to maintain equity and/or equality.

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Conventionally, once the worldview has been created, it is hard to change it; nevertheless, it is possible to change one's worldview when people around them change. I used to be a student coordinator helping international high school students find their directions when applying for undergraduate programs. One of the students I was in charge of was an intelligent Chinese girl. Her academic performance is one of the best I've seen, and she has always dreamed about learning electronic engineering. But she has kept being told that girls cannot study Engineering-related programs well, it is too hard for them, and they do not need to be so good.
I remember one day that girl came to me, almost crying. She said she used to question her ability to fulfill her dream because of what people around her kept saying, so she almost gave her goal up. But after she came to Canada, her school teachers and counsellors continuously told her how intelligent she was and how she could be at the female engineering leading-edge someday. After two years of studying in Canada, she decided to apply for her dream program, regardless of what people in her hometown told her; however, she did need my help to talk to her parents from an educator's professional perspective.
Fortunately, her parents agreed with her goal and started to be very supportive. She eventually got an Electronic Engineering program offer from the University of Toronto.
After her year one studying, she sent me a short message, saying that the courses were challenging, just like how she imagined, but she did enjoy them.

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Worldview-A-Main factor affecting one's leadership style

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Worldview-A-Main factor affecting one's leadership style

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Our worldview is one of the main factors which affects our understanding of leadership and how we act in terms of being a leader.
In the book Educated by Tara Westover, Tara's father was an authoritative leader, and her mother believed that doing what her dad told her to do was normal and the right thing to do. This is because of their belief that fatherhood is to be a decision maker, while motherhood is to follow the order and obey the rules. In other words, this male-privileged leadership style is created and maintained because of their worldview, which originated from their religion, what people around them had told them and what they kept talking about on a daily basis.

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Class takeaways-  We don't come from the same direction

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Class takeaways-  We don't come from the same direction

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When talking about the book Love Lives Here, one of the classmates (I believe it was Vera?) shared her understanding that it is important not to argue with others' stories. I hold the same belief, especially when we have never experienced the same thing, for example being isolated by peers. Even if we did experience that, we may experience it due to different reasons, and our totally different life background would lead us to not share the same feeling or understanding of what happened, so there is no way for a heterosexual people who got isolated because of race to fully understand how a gender-non-binary people got bullied, and vice versa. Therefore, judgement would be made improperly or even unethically.

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Everyone supports each other, everyone can be a leader. Better development comes from collective efforts- value every voice, cherish every vulnerability and bravery.

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Everyone supports each other, everyone can be a leader. Better development comes from collective efforts- value every voice, cherish every vulnerability and bravery.

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She then stopped to do what kept her busy, and came to the desk to help me. After the wave of busyness, she told me she overheard the conversation between all the guests and me, and between the delivery guy and me. She praised my multitask ability first and then said she also felt my anxiety and concern, so she came out to support me. She also told me that there is no need to hesitate to ask for help, she would not be able to help if she couldn’t hear and realize what was going on, and she would not be able to help if she didn’t know what and how to best help with my growth.
Working at a hotel front desk is never easy for me, so I always panic before going to work. But after the conversation with my supervisor, although I still needed to solo for most of my shifts and deal with harsh guests, I had less fear and concerns, because I knew I could show my vulnerabilities and talk to my supervisor about what I am not good at, and my supervisor would care enough to offer help and to lead me a better and more competent me.
“People, people, people, are just people, people, people” (Brené, 2018, p. 108). With this experience, although my understanding of leadership remained fragmental, I did see that part of the necessity of being good leaders is to be human to show care, and to treat their team members as human beings by allowing their vulnerabilities and concerns, as every person has things they are not good at. Also, a good leader creates an environment for the team to grow and improve.

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I used to work at the hotel front desk. For the front desk, 3–5 pm is always the busiest time during the day since the guaranteed check-in time is 4 o’clock.
There was a time, during the peak travelling season, around 3:30 pm, there was a line of guests in front of me waiting to be checked in. At that moment, I was the only one at the desk, dealing with all the guests across the desk and picking up the phone calls, and my supervisor was at the back as she was busy preparing for the meeting with other managers in half-hour.
And there was a food delivery guy came to me, and asked me to activate the elevator using my fob, so he could deliver the food to the one who ordered it. But that is not how it works in this hotel. Because of Covid and security issues, we called the guests to come down to pick the food up in the lobby. So I explained to the delivery guy, but he started to shout at me, saying how this hotel deals with food deliveries is ridiculous, regardless of how patient I was explaining the safety and security reasons. It was absolutely an overwhelming and awkward moment for me. A line of guests was waiting for me, the phone was ringing, and a delivery guy was shouting at me, all at the same time.
And there my supervisor came out, said to the delivery guy, with a clear and calm voice,
“Sir, you need to treat my staff better. She doesn’t deserve anyone to shout at her.”

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An art piece like this bee hive (absolutely not the best art piece loll) is an excellent reminder for us to keep in mind how great we are to lead others to see the awesomeness in themselves, how great we are to be the ones to support each other, and how great that we all are leaders.

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In Friday’s class, Jae talked about that “leadership style is fluid” because there is no one leadership style that would work for every situation and every team member. I can’t help myself nodding my head. At the same time, I also started to think about whether leadership is fluid as well, because leadership does not exist on managers or supervisors only, but also every single one.
Leadership for me means contributing to others’ developments, in other words, helping them to be better people or see how fabulous they already are; so I do not need to be in a leader’s position to play the leadership role. For example, after knowing that I was being supported and cared for by my supervisor and realizing how much more confident I became after learning that I could show my vulnerabilities, whenever new colleagues came, I told them the same thing:
“Don’t hesitate to ask for help; in this team, everybody cares for one another, we see your values, and we support your development; we grow together.”
The new colleagues told newer colleagues the same thing or at least took action in this way, and this team co-creates a supportive work environment within the department. Although we only had two supervisors and one manager on this team, I see every team member as a leader, regardless of their positions and experience. Whenever something happened, we got each one’s back. The trust among us and the picture on our office board (the bee hive) are the best evidence of how everyone could play a leadership role and the outcomes of seeing and encouraging people to act this way.

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Besides the continuous learning from observing, reading more leadership-related books and taking leadership courses would also help those who want to learn and develop leadership skills and capacities with their understandings of theories and concepts through authors’ comprehension of leadership and from class conversations. One of my biggest take-away from the leadership courses so far is to realize that leaders are not only those at a higher level of the hierarchy, like company managers. Many of these leaders use their power as their technique to push team members to work well and make decisions based on personal understandings without hearing from the group. Compared with these leaders, I prefer the other type of leaders who look and feel more ordinary. Although they are ordinary, they have the power to make and promote changes, and always strive to let the less privileged ones’ values be seen and voices be heard; for example, those who started a social movement for justice. I believe this shift from limiting the definition of leadership within the power hierarchy to a broader understanding of it in the social equity and equality aspect has been a trend since several years ago. This shift is great because more people could start to realize the social issues they kept overlooking, and take their social responsibilities to contribute to solving these issues.

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I believe the best way to learn leadership is through observations. For instance, observing the leadership style of the good leaders around us and of the not-so-good leaders on a daily basis. With these observations, I would be more able to keep these good behaviours in mind and avoid the methods or styles that others have proved not to work well. The evaluation of whether a leader is doing a great job could be determined by the outcomes (is every team member being appreciated; do they feel motivated; is every team member on the same page; is the team atmosphere healthy for everyone to speak and share opinions, even when the views may sound silly; are everyone’s opinions being valued; etc.).

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Class take aways-Writing letters as a functional way?

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Class take aways-Writing letters as a functional way?

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I remember we were talking about if writing letters is a functional way to solve conflicts. Part of me agrees because of the readings, while the other part doesn't due to my personal experience.
I used to work in a company whose culture and norm was to follow the hierarchy. The only thing that mattered was what the manager said, whether correct or wrong, wise or stupid, based on reality or assumptions. I've written a long message to the manager. However, the manager didn't take it seriously and saw my behaviour of sending a message to her as childish...
So I think maybe writing letters or long messages to someone to fix conflicts would only work if the letter and message receivers would love to care for others' views, see others as mature, and accept the truths that they could make mistakes and others could make valuable contributions. This is especially hard when the receivers are leaders and locate at a higher level of the power pyramids, because they are likely to consider themselves more powerful and privileged (as Brené discussed) and thereby fail to make decisions after collecting information from all the staff. Rather, they make assumptions and believe they will always be correct because leaders are always the more knowledgeable ones.
This was not a great work experience, but good to know what good leaders shouldn't do.

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Class take aways- storytelling is an equalizing process

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Class take aways- storytelling is an equalizing process

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I like how my classmates summarized that storytelling is an equalizing process.
Through storytelling, the believed-less-privileged people could be educators, share knowledge, and be respected (like the parents in the writing groups in Every Person Is A Philosopher). Also, these less privileged people are always the ones who see the issues they are experiencing and the limitations to solve these issues the most clearly, so they are more likely to come up with something practical and efficient compared to the so-called professionals from random places. And this process of being heard, respected and valued without the effect of education background, social status, and other factors, is the equalizing process.

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My blathering on my leadership artifact story

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My blathering on my leadership artifact story

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It was a fantastic experience, not only because everything that happened there was out of our expectations but also because we felt like we were included in the process of awakening Chinatown and letting more people know about Chinese cultures and traditions. Chinese in Canada have always been seen as immigrants and outsiders, and the stories of the first groups of Chinese who came to Canada were rarely talked about, even though they contributed a lot to the construction of the railway yet were asked to pay for the head tax. Because of our nationality and the understanding of our positionality, we were proud to be included in this education process, even though it is as simple as teaching others to play a game.
I always believe that leadership does not need to be doctrinal; it could be informal and relaxing, like the decision to have a whole set of Mahjong tiles in the museum for visitors to play. Although this board game cannot educate people about the complete history of the first groups of Chinese in Canada, at least it attracts people to be in contact with Chinese traditions and cultures with interests and to know what the first groups of Chinese people in Canada did for entertainment.
I also believe that leadership is to let others shine. I have seen a sentence before that roughly said that leaders do not really need to do anything, sometimes doing nothing is to allow others to be successful and be leaders. This resonates with the curator. Instead of being the educator and doing all the talks and education works herself, the curator chose to stay in the background and invited visitors (my friend and I) to participate in the education process and encouraged us to be leaders.

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To be a "complex, messy, awesome, whole person".

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To be a "complex, messy, awesome, whole person".

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Class take aways- Reflections from leadership artifact stories

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Class take aways- Reflections from leadership artifact stories

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Although everyone's understanding of leadership is different, it is always prevalent to hear people say that true leaders should be mindful on letting others shine and have the possibility to be leaders. However, after enrolling in this program, I have a consistent feeling that theories from articles and book are always separated from reality.
What if the group doesn't want the leader to hide in the background, what if the group needs the leader to be not only a facilitator?
Also, my friend and I were invited to be leaders & contribute to the culture awakening process in the Chinese Canadian Museum because we are Chinese and know how to play Mahjong and some of the history of what the first groups of Chinese in Canada experienced,  so will the let other shine principle also work for people with other nationalities or those who are not familiar with this part history in this museum? If not, does that mean there are restrictions on who could be leaders, and the idea of staying back＆ letting others shine is contextual?

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This is the "Awakening Chinatown" board I saw outside of the museum

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This is the "Awakening Chinatown" board I saw outside of the museum

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My leadership artifact is a Mahjong tile because of a recent experience.
I went to Victoria Chinatown last week with my friend, and saw the Chinese Canadian Museum, which started to operate this Feb. Behind the entrance is a table with a whole set of Mahjong tiles on it. For those who don’t know what Mahjong is: It is a traditional Chinese board game; we play it with our families and friends, generally on special days like festivals. Surprisingly, many people were standing around the Mahjong table, including locals and people travelling from other places, but none were Chinese. As the only two Asians in the museum other than museum staff, the curator asked if my friend and I knew how to play and if we wanted to teach and play with people unfamiliar with this game. So, instead of being random visitors, my friend and I became game players and instructors. After a few rounds, we left and saw the “Awakening Chinatown” board.