Good and Bad Experiences with Leadership Introduction

In school I have had good and bad experiences in dealing with leaders. Two good experiences I had with professors at University of Tulsa were in classes where the professors recognized for me being an international student. I appreciated their recognition because I feel like it is something that is obvious but not always recognized. One bad experience I had with a professor was a situation where the professor did not care to get to know the students and seemed to be there just because it was a job and not because he loved to do it. My favorite teachers have been those who show an interest in the students. To me, they possess leadership qualities like Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence. They also sometimes show servant leadership skills, which I like because it makes me think they really care about helping me to achieve my goals. When the teachers act like they are the best and know everything and that we students are unintelligent because we do not have degrees, I feel like the teacher is trying to compensate for some absence inside and that the teacher is not really being a good leader. Bad leaders bring negative energy to an environment and they can pull down morale (Schyns, Schilling, 2013)—and that is what happened with me in this one case of being in a classroom with a teacher who did not show that he cared about students.

The Two Good Professors

The two good professors that stand out in my experience at the university appealed to me because from the first day of class they showed interest in getting to know the students. I am also interested in getting to know the professors, so I liked that we did not just dive right into the class material and ignore the fact that we are strangers. We will be investing time together in one another so why not take a little while to know one another and share some things about each other. I used to not like to do this because I was shy and embarrassed about sharing information about myself because I did not know what I wanted to do with my future—but that was a while ago and I have since made up my mind and decided who I want to be—so I am more confident now. Sometimes in class it happens that a student is like the old me and is uncomfortable talking. What I liked about these two professors was that they did not try to make fun of the student or make the student feel strange. Instead they showed their sensitivity and expressed interest in what little the student had to say. One of the professors would ask some good questions or show good humor and that would help the student open up. The student would laugh and feel more comfortable. Another time, a student did not laugh and the teacher saw that this was not a good way to get the student to open up and instead said something serious to show the student that he was respectful of the student’s ideas. This worked and the student sat up and began...

I liked this about the professor. Both professors had this ability to be effective communicators.
When it came to me, they saw that I was an international student and they took interest in where I am from and they asked questions. What I also liked was that they did not show any greater interest in any one student than they did in another. So it was not easy to say that, oh, this teacher likes this kind of student more than that kind. No, it could not be said. The professors were very genuine and kind to everyone as they got to know us, and I did not feel out of place but felt much more connected to everyone. I think everyone felt easy and comfortable about being in the class after taking the first class just to get to know one another. We realize that we are all there together to get the same job done. We all want good grades and to be successful, so after that first day, in both of these classes we realize that we can help each other and talk to one another very freely, asking questions and offering solutions.

I later realized that these two teachers are friends and that helped me to see why they had such similar styles: they seemed to be part of this same attitude of servant leadership and want to express this style in their own lives. I really appreciated this the most and wish that all my teachers were showing this—and not just showing it but really embracing it and believing in it. Sometimes a teacher can show it but not really believe it or even be interested in it. This is a problem because it makes me feel like I am just being used so as to be part of a silly formula that the teacher feels he must follow in order to get through the process of teaching. I do not like feeling that our contact and communication is just formulaic for form’s sake. I want to believe that there is genuine interest and regard when I am speaking with someone.

The One Bad Professor

That is what brings me to my bad experience with a teacher. This teacher did this same method of getting to know the students—but it went very quickly and there was not much ease or comfort about it. The teacher did not show any signs of enthusiasm for getting to know the students and it just seemed very perfunctory and not even of interest to her. I don’t know why she had us introduce ourselves to the class because there was no exchange of idea, as there was with the two professors I liked. They talked to each student in the class and for several minutes sometimes because they were interested in us. This teacher, however, just acted like she wanted to get this procedure out of the way and that she really didn’t even see the point in it. I like talking about my interests now and wanted to share my experience as an international student but this teacher was not even looking at me as I was talking. She was looking at her lesson plan or notes and waiting for me to…