A500.2.3.RB - Tell Your Story

A500.2.3.RB - Tell Your Story

28 October 2015

Richard Martinez

MSLD500

            Standards are used every day in many aspects of our lives. We use standards to help guide us to reach a level of quality in ourselves and the things we do every day. Having high standards helps us to be the best that we can be. Critical-Thinking and Non-Critical-Thinking uses the same standards we have set for ourselves in our daily lives.

            I learned from an early age to have a set of standards in my life, some of which were passed down from my father who served 24 years in the U.S. Army. When I turned 17 I joined the Army and began building on the standards that my father taught me. After 28 years in the U.S. Army I have developed a well-defined set of standards that I live by on a daily basis. In the Army we attend several leadership courses at various stages in our career based on our rank. In these courses we are taught leadership and to have high standards in everything we do. Our lives depended on us having a high set of standards to conduct ourselves by and to live by. We apply these standards to our Critical thinking as well. There are 6 standards that I have applied to my life to make me a better person who is always trying to improve. These standards are being honest, reliable, well-organized, accurate, having integrity, and courage. I have tried to use these standards in my thought process as I grew thru my leadership roles in the Army. Along with the standards I applied a set of core values that I was taught while in the Army that has served me very well in everything that I do. These core values are Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honesty, Integrity, and Personal Courage. A simple way to remember the core values is to take the first letter of each word to spell LDRSHIP.

            With time I have developed to use my standards and core values to allow me to be a very reliable person in everything that I do. I apply them to my work, school, thought process or critical and non-critical thinking and my personal life with my friends and family. I have applied and practiced my standards to evolve and adapt to new technologies and ways of thinking. The more I practice and apply the standards my critical and non-critical thinking will continue to improve and be a bigger part of my future.

A500.1.5.RB_MartinezRichard

A500.1.5.RB - Intellectual Perseverance
24 October 2015
Richard Martinez
MSLD500

    Leadership is something that I thought I knew very well. I have a background of over 20 years of leadership from various levels. Almost all of my leadership skills come from when I was in the U.S. Army. The military taught us to be great leaders and we trained every day in some form or fashion on leadership. The better leader you were the faster you moved up the ranks to higher positions and greater responsibilities. I soon learned right after I retired that there was this whole new world of leadership in the civilian sector. I soon found that I had to take what I learned in the military and apply it to a whole new way of thinking and doing things. I quickly adapted and found that not only was I learning new things I was also teaching what I learned from the military to my civilian counterparts.

   In applying the SEE-I process as a guide to Intellectual Perseverance in my studies and how it relates to my concept of a good leader is to State It, Elaborate, Exemplify, then illustrate it. I would use the definition of Intellectual Perseverance as my statement. The Critical Thinking Community defines Intellectual Perseverance as having a consciousness of the need to use intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper understanding or insight.

Intellectual Perseverance will allow me to develop new strong opinions and beliefs based on a deeper understanding of the principles of leadership. Looking deeper into new and old areas of leadership will give me a better insight of what leadership really is. This new knowledge will also allow me to better apply new skills as well as old skills that no longer work in today’s society. Having intellectual perseverance will allow to look deeper into my studies for a better understanding of what is being addressed. It will also allow me to dig deeper into a subject when I am having a hard time understanding or grasping the topic. To push through to find a way to full understand leadership and how to apply it in everything that I do.

    Having new strong opinions and beliefs may change some of my leadership practices and skills sets that I am currently using based on new found knowledge from my studies. This will also allow me to apply my leadership skill sets individually and in group settings. I hope this will also allow me to adapt knew leadership skills with my old skill sets and apply them in any environment and circumstance. 

   To illustrate I would continue in my practice as an ethical and moral leader with validation of my leadership skills. I would continually strive to learn more and understand new ways of leadership and how to apply them in any situation required.

References:

Intellectual Perseverance. The Critical Thinking Community. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/valuable-intellectual-traits/528