Julie Womble- Parts IV and V

I really liked the parts in the book about knowing yourself, knowing others, how you both fit together, group conflict, and the relational leadership model. I think that this section of the book I am really interested in because I believe that leadership is all about people and the processes between them that create this relationship that we know as leadership. Dealing with change is another important aspect of leadership, because that is the one thing that we can always count on, change.
It is important to know yourself before you lead because you need to know who you are and how you are going to react to situations. You want to have your base of ethics and morals, and when you are pushed to your limits, your true self will come out. As a leader, you should have great self awareness so that you can see where you fit into the group, how you should react to different types of people, and how you should lead different groups. Knowing others and the group process is important for you as well, so that you know everyones strengths and weaknesses and know how to form the group and have it work effectively. Within all of this group mess, it is imporant to recognize the process and see how it works. The relational leadership model fits all of these components into a diagram which shows the process. There are 3 parts to the model- group, individual, and community values.
Within these values are:

individual:
consciousness of self-basically self awareness, who you are and how you fit into the group
congruence- you do and believe in what you say you do, integrity
commitment- being committed to yourself and to a cause

group:
collaboration- come together as a group, form ideas together and come to some sort of agreement
common purpose- be brought together by a shared goal or purpose
controversy with civility- most effective groups have controversy, which helps the group grow and learn. to be successful, you must be civil and not take opinions personal.

community:
citizenship- committed to who you are and taking care of others around you

One of my strengths in StrengthsQuest (actually my #1) is relator. I feel like all of these aspects combined fill parts of my philosophy of leadership because of the relationships and working together aspects. I really enjoyed these 2 parts of the book!