Classical Leadership Lessons of a Caribbeanist.

Journal Entry #1

Thursday (8/25) 9:40-11: I am introduced to Dr.Sandridge and the course: Ideas in Antiquity: Leadership in the Ancient World. 

Wow what a course. I had no idea this was going to be so centered on leadership (when registering for the course all I saw was Ideas in Antiquity) but I had no idea what these ideas were going to be or in what way I was going to benefit; I did know it was going to be somewhat beneficial though.

We began with a thought-provoking icebreaker about what Leadership meant to us and how studying leadership in the ancient world could benefit us presently. Is leadership just the ability to make people follow you and make decision on their behalf? Is this not what leaders do in the most basic sense of the word? Are there good leaders or bad leaders, and are these distinctions clear in everyway? These were the questions posed to us. I only knew for certain that some leaders were better than others. But what were the qualities these "better" leaders possessed. Are there traits that all leaders possess, whether good or bad? And how are these traits developed. Howard University says it produces leaders and doesn't train leaders. What is this production process??


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Real leadership is about creating an environment where people can change and improve. There is certainly a difference between leadership and being an influencer, and the difference is in the answer to the question: "Who benefits from this realtionship?". There should be a benefit of followers or at least a mutual benefit between the leader and those being led.

The 4 Facets of Leadership are:
  1. Authority
  2. Responsibility
  3. Accountability
  4. Prestige 
The authority aspect of leadership involves getting people to put a certain trust in you to have authority over them. When I considered this point after class I realized that the government or the president or the Professors that have authority over them is because of the trust we place in them to lead us. their authority comes from us, the people, the classroom, the student body. Leaders convince us to bestow a level of authority on them. This brings us to the second point of Responsibility.

We trust these leaders in authority because we believe they have and will live up to the responsibility of the betterment of those they lead. Authority as we learned in class is an internal dedication to duty. An abiding sense and decision to do what is right.

Accountability issomething that comes from oversight (someone is watching so I should do what is right). Any leadermust have this sense of accountability or else those they lead risk falling into tyranny. 

And finally leaders must possess a certain quality of Prestige. In other words professionalism. They must possess some level of qualifications and experience because what they are expected to do and the decision they have to make can affect any amount of people depending on their occupation. 

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8/30 9:40-11
We touched on the relationship between gender and leadership. Aristotle believed that a major trait that all leaders possess is
Andreia 

A greek word literally translating to man-ness (Andr-eia). The huge gender bias assumption is somehting that we will explore later in the semester. But this bit of knowledge meant that for the course we would have to use Rhetoric (art of persuasion) & Philology (the love of words),  allowing us to carefully consider what words meant.

8/31 1-3pm
On my own I researched coursework on the LIFE'S FIVE GREAT STORIES.

These being the stories of 
  1. Leadership
  2. Career
  3. Love/Friends
  4. Enlightenment
  5. Partnership
Each of these five stories are what we all search for and seek to develop at one point in our life or another. How we develop or script these great stories and how we seek to weave them into each other and materialise them will be the determing factor. To me juggling these stories may be the hardest thing about life, it may also be the sweetest thing about life and gives the most satisfaction to accomplish. School itself is hard enough and when combined with a social life can be a pain. I feel like I have to choose between my grades, my enjoyment and hobbies and between sleep. And these are not tomention the stories about spiritual enlightment, leadership and a business partnership.

But my own idea about leadershipis just begging to bud, and I say "my idea" because it truly is my own. The expectations of my family for the school I attend, the major I choose and the career I go into has all been laid on me from way before I attended college. I was to go into engineering like my father, and up until two weeks ago I was in the Chemical engneering major. Yet I wanted to do other things.WHat if I could write articles, publish books, be a real force within the Caribbean sphere? Surely I could do all this as a petroleum engineer, but is that what I wanted? I did some research and realized that while my family put a pressure on me of their expectations, society had put a pressure on my family called the "practical man syndrome" and I was feeling the combined strain of it all.

9/1 6:30-8pm
The "practical man syndrome" says that humanity career paths like become a writer, painter, artist, philosopher, historian and so on, do not put food on the table. this syndrome dictated that I become an engineer, an agriculturist, doctor, dentist, vet, nurse and other technical fields in which job there is always job security. But I didnt know what I wantedmy major to be, I just know I wanted to be great, to be a great thinker. To think Big in the ideas of philosophy, economics and political science. To know about sociology and culture and to do research and publish books and articles and be a contributor for a prominent newspaper and I wanted to do it all from the point of view that I was from Trinidad and that I was a Caribbean man. I wanted to develop a Caribbeanist view from all these disciplines. But there is no major for all these things, and telling my family all of this just elicited the response that I didnt know what I wanted to do, and that I was waivering and indecisive. But I knew I wanted to be my own leader and that I had "my own idea" about the type of leader that I wanted to be. So I looked for help. I asked professors around campusand settled on a major in History in the hope that I would be able to do research in subjects that interest me and make a vluable contribution to the Caribbean. this is how I plan the "great story" of my career. How I will juggle the rest of these great stories is not yet apparent. 

Ultimately this Course has 3 Main Goals:
  1. To become better leaders
  2. To help and work better with the leaders in our own lives 
  3. To develop an appeciation/understanding of the challenges of the leadership role and how fascinating it can be. 
I think the 5 features that all/most leaders possess are
FInally in class on Thursday 9/1 we went through the Socratic dialogue and the ideas contained in it about the training of leaders.
The Howard University mission statement says it produces (not trains) global leaders. What does the university do to produce these leaders?

An important trait for a leader to have is EPIMELEIA 

Dr. Sadridge said this means that a leader should be paying attention, have their finger on the pulse of their environment and organization and be able to identify all the key players, issues going on and the pivotal changes occuring. 

For me i think this may be the hardest thing. Something tells me that that leader needs to have good intel he/she can really rely on and to just be overall prepared for whichever direction things my go concerning his group/organization. I'm thinking of an extreme example, for instance the political candidates going up for election, but it seems important for a leader in any position, to have epimeleia. 

In the Uniprez dialogue, Socrates is interested in whether or not someone becoming a leader in one field, can transfer his leadership value in another field. Can leadership be transferable? Another point of considderation is how people become interested in a field, and how that initial interest is developed. And also what are the motives for seeking a leadership role. is it because one is a philanthropist, derived from the word: PHILANTHROPIA meaning a fondness of human beings and a love for seeing human beings succeed. Or are there selfish motives behind the leadership role. Be it because someone seeks power, or the center of attention. Or is it because they genuinly believe they can help make a change for the better. This bring back the point of who benefits from the leadership role. And if good leaders must benefit those that they lead, then good leadership means having a knowledge of what is "good" and the pursuit of that "good" for those they lead. These appear to me to be the best and most realistic motives of being a leader. 

As for the Howard mission statement about taking students and producing leaders, I see three fundamental ways in which the institution does so:
  1. Through Professional involvement - Howard exposes its student to a wide variety of concepts and fosters the opportunity to get involved
  2. Education - Students gaining a proper and well rounded education here allow them to see the problems affecting their community, state, nation and even the globe in a clearer way and brings them one step closer to coming up with solutions
  3. The historical heritage of the university fosters a desire among students to live up to and honor that legacy. Stemming from the many successful graduates at Howard and their stories it allows student to feel as though they can be great leader also.
Other people in my class gave answers of How Howard produces leaders :Then it was asked if Howard could be doing more to foster leadership, to which i thought they could be doing more civic dialogue among students to involvethem more aswell as have at least one mandatory leadership course for all matriculating students

I myself could do more to foster leadership at Howard by becoming more involved in the discussions of problems facing my community. By starting organizations that involve my own passion and also to join the student government or newspaper to make a valid contribution to the student body university and to lift the involvemt of the student body.

In the discussion on slack Imade these two contributions


9/1 (10-10:30)
"the journal entry is  going great so far.  I am on my own personal discovery.  I was discussing with some friends just this summer that I wanted to develop my leadership skills because I'm a bit timid when it comes down to making hard decisions because of the delicate balance that I need to strike between getting what I need done and not coming off too forceful or overbearing, so the lessons that i'm picking up in this class is good. Along with maturing and accepting that I cannot please everyone"

"from a student point of view and my own experience I think being encouraged to leadership at this particular time in my life has a lot to do with knowing what I am passionate about and now having the opportunity to share my feelings on it (as dr. Sandridge said). Besides that, being in college where professors aren't as silent toward the national and international issues going on around us is really encouraging, unlike high school where teachers would express their opinion to the class and that would be all, I now see faculty members speaking to large crowds at symposiums and conferences and functions, publishing literature that not only educates but sometimes critiques the status quo; the student population is much more vocal so it makes it easy to chime in and even develop enough courage to stand out from the crowd and speak up if it's something deeply felt. And I think the heritage at Howard is something that I want to live up to. Being from Trinidad, our first prime minister was a political science professor at Howard, and came back to lead Trinidad from British rule to independence. After learning that, I had to know I could be the next great. And I think every student from any school on this group or even outside of this group if they're serious about leadership will have some key reasons of why they are now encouraged, those are just mine."

9/29-9:30
"Hey, what do you all think about the 48 laws of power? A lot of my friends have read it and they like it a lot and implement it in their own lives towards power/influence/leadership. I started to read it and felt that it was a little manipulative and I didn't finish. I told this to my buddy Kareem (the one who put me onto the book) and he was telling me that even if I don't use the laws in the book that it was still good to know the laws so that I can safeguard myself from being manipulated by over people who use the laws lol. The whole thing was a bit much. But does anyone have thoughts on the book or think he is right? Does a leader need to know manipulative tactics? Is it corrupting?" 

9/2 2-2:50
These are some of the questions I would like to answer in my research of Leadership. One person in slack agreed with Kareem and commented that some level of guile is necessary for leadership. Professor Sandridge says that maybe I can start and group into the Humanistic side of Leadership. how do these two ( guile and humanism) reconcile? which type of leader am I going to be, one that has a staunch moral code or one that adjusts my morals to suit the particular situation at hand. Which is the better leader? Maybe one that is unwaivering. Which is the most effective leader? Maybe one that is versatile to his/her environment.