Blog #5

Vince, Katie and I read Toy Box Leadership : Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child.

Toy Box takes childhood toys and uses them to explain essential concepts of leadership. LEGO bricks represent Relationships, Slinky Dog for Vision, Play-Doh for Mentoring, Yo-Yo for Creativity, Mr. Potato Head for Communication, Rubix Cube for Ethics, Rocking Horse for Efficiency, Little Green Army Men for Strategy, Lite-Brite for Message, and Weebles for Endurance. 

This book helped to form my concept of leadership. We often think of just the high up CEO, or President, or extremely rich innovators as leaders, but that is far from the case. Toy Box takes the qualities of these great leaders and makes them understandable to everyday people. I'm so glad we chose this book because it took very open ended leadership ideas and applied them to toys you can see working. Toy Box helped change my view of leadership from such a widespread idea to an actual tangible, workable concept that can be played with, just like toys. 

I definitely agreed with authors Ron Hunter Jr. and Michael E. Waddell throughout most of the book. They applied a lot of the book to leadership in business, (which is convenient because Katie, Vince, and I are all business majors). In the chapter Yo-Yo, the authors put a huge emphasis on the importance of allowing for failure in the workplace. That idea is one most people disagree with. Everyone is expected to accomplish tasks perfectly on the first try today, but we must realize that success takes time. People need time to experiment and grow. "Many times you reward the attempt rather than the result." I definitely agree with the idea of allowing for failure. I know that the times I have failed are the times I have learned the most, and the fact that it applies in business makes complete sense. I hope to one day be working in a place that allows for these mistakes to happen and allows each employee the chance to grow and develop. 

However, in the chapter Rocking Horse, I had a slight disagreement with the authors. They state, "History books never record mediocrity, nor do we see statues built for people who were average. The Smithsonian has no exhibits for achieving the status quo." This sounds bad, but I have always been an advocate for the middle ground. I am not saying that I think people should sit around and be lazy or shouldn't try, but mediocrity is sometimes the best way to go. Not every person wants to go down in history or have a holiday named after them, and that does not disqualify them from being a leader. Some people lead through daily life and small actions that attribute to the ethical way of life that won't get them a statue or a great resignation, but they can still be great people who are only making it to the "status quo."

My favorite part of the book was the chapter Mr. Potato Head.

This chapter "spoke to me" because I think it is one of the most overlooked aspects of leadership. We worry about doing and saying the right things all the time, that we sometimes forget our faces exhibit just as much about us. 90% of our message is nonverbal. We wonder why people don't understand us sometimes, but maybe it's not their understanding but rather the way we are delivering the message. Not in our tone or words, but in our faces. Our faces have to communicate congruently to our message. "People will trust you once they know you have genuine concern for them." The best way for others to  know you are concerned with them is through your face. Every leader must pack 8 faces to explain what we mean. Empathetic, Confident, Intense, Attentive, Disappointed, Happy, Sincere, and Optimistic. These 8 faces, when used correctly and in combination, can deliver any message you need and connect others with your message. I find this aspect the most interesting in leadership because it requires us to see outside ourselves to how we are coming off to others, not just how we come off to ourselves. 

A few other lines from the book that particularly stood out to me:

"Are you consciously choosing who you imitate, or are you simply following whoever happens to be in your environment?" -- When we pick a mentor, we need to be selective. I know I have been influenced by people who I would not consider role models, and knowing that I have the decision to follow and imitate only those who I want is an empowering feeling.

"The most important creative freedom by far is the freedom to fail." -- like I emphasized earlier, failure being essential to growth is something I value. 

"It's time leaders improve the character of their business rather than letting the business ruin their character." -- Our corporate leaders seem to have such a flimsy idea of ethics today that only those who are adamant in remaining fair and ethical will go on to be considered great leaders. 

"It is not enough to be busy. The question is: What are we busy about?" -- Especially as college students, we consider ourselves sooo busy, but when we sit back and think about what consumes our time, it's normally stuff that really shouldn't even be considered important. 

"The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win." -- The chapter on Little Green Army Men explains that we can't just want to win, we have to want to prepare to win. Preparation is just as important as the actual accomplishment. 

"In people's attempts to be elaborate or clever they often leave their audience confused rather than enlightened." -- I am constantly confused when people are trying to be smart, especially here at OSU, so the idea that others agree with me, makes me happy.

Toy Box is definitely applicable to my life. The emphasis on business will help me in my hopeful career. I plan on going into human resources where communication is key. Building relationships like LEGO suggests will help me connect with people and using the 8 key faces of Mr. Potato Head will remind me to be genuine with others.  Another important aspect of human resources is in the hiring and firing department. Weebles remind me that when someone makes a mistake, they don't necessarily deserve to be let go. "A good leader recognized that when an employee makes a multi-thousand dollar mistake, you don't let him go. You just paid for his education, and what he learned from that mistake will benefit him and your company."

Today, the Rocking Horse efficiency chapter is the most relevant. In college, I sit around on facebook and in my dorm accomplishing nothing. Basically, I'm on a rocking horse getting me nowhere, but looking outside of myself and realizing that I am making no motion will help give me ambition to get on a real horse (metaphorically, real horses scare the crap out of me) and get my stuff done. When I get everything I am expected to done, I don't have to explain why it isn't. Little Green Army Men are also applicable. We're all in college "setting up" for the real world. We're placing our little army men in different positions and trying to figure out what works best for us to achieve our goals. As I set up my future, I need to remember to check my troops, my types, and my time. I am allowed to change my men and my future for that matter because, "A leader who is not willing to revise his plan will rarely reach his destination."

There are so many leadership lessons to be learned but sometimes it's as simple as looking at your childhood toys for that little bit of inspiration.