Chapter One Exercises Copyright 2007 Bill George Page 1

Chapter One Exercise:

Your Story and Journey to Authentic Leadership

After reading Chapter One, its important to examine your life story and leadership
opportunities to this point, with an emphasis on the influences of your early years and
instances of your leadership.
Discover Your Leadership in Your Life Story
1. During your early years, which people had the greatest impact on you?






2. Starting with your earliest memories, which experiences marked key turning points in
your life?

















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As a young child, was impacted heavily by my Grandmother who as a woman survived in a cattle business
predominatley run in a mans world. She taught me that anything can be done as long as you work hard,
dedicated yourself to any goal imagined and follow through with what you promised. She gave me a great
understanding of what life was about and how you could accomplish even the hardest of goals set forth.
Well as recall and mentioned my Grandmother in my first response, specifically remember her being an
advocate for ustice and being fair towards all people. You see my Grandmother was a woman known as the
"Godmother of politics" in our city. She was a stern woman who never held office but worked hard to get
people into those positions of service. She often would tell my mother,"what ever happens and whatever the
outcome always remember we worked hard to get good people to serve". She would futher add that she
never wanted anyone in her immediate family to run for public office because people had a funny way of
being. They can be there for you one day, but there gone the ne t.
While growing up saw and captured and grasped the understanding that she always talked about and it
was at an election night victoy party that my grandmother walked up to the candidate who won and told
him," ow you have the ability to get things done, Do it right and the people will always be grateful". i was
only years old at the time but that statement has stayed with me for a long while.
A year later she passed away, but her words have stayed with me ever since. So, now wonder what she
would think since her Grandson is the Mayor of a city she strived and worked so hard for and she never
really wanted her family to be involved know that can only wonder and think about what she sees at this
moment. But will forever live by her words, " ow you have the ability to get things done, Do it right and
the people will always be grateful".
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3. In which experiences did you find the greatest inspiration and passion for your
leadership?










4. Looking at patterns from your early life story, what people, events, and experiences
have had the greatest impact on you and your life?









5. Can you identify instances where you were dissatisfied with your leadership, or
received constructive feedback from others about it?











have found that my e perience to work with people in general have given me an opportunity to confirm that
love what do and work even harder to bring solutions to the table for our citi ens. ust the opportunity to
work and st as a group to determine the out come of a problem has been a very rewarding e perience for
me.
As mentioned earlier, My Grandmother and family in general are the one who have layed th efoundation of
service for me. m eternally grateful for the opportunity that the people of agle Pass have given me and
recogni e that with out the opportunity to serve my love for public service intsilled upon me by my family
would never have been a reality.
can certainly identify an area of dissatifaction. arly on in my political career was part of a minority of the
council and we were voting on an issue that was going to increase wages for our city employees. distictly
remember disagreeing with a member of the ma ority of the council at the time and calling him out on it. My
Colleague then called me out on the issue and it became a personal disagreement at the dias. After the
item was passed he continued to banter about the issue and how it was going to burden the city at a later
date. reali ed at that moment that these are public issues that need to be debating and should not be taken
personal. Since then, have worked with both sides of the council and have assured myself that i would
never allow issues to become personal because in the long haul no one wins with taht.
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6. Has there been an instance in your life where you have felt like a victim?








7. Do the failures or disappointments you experienced earlier in your life constrain you,
even today, or have you been able to reframe them as learning experiences?



The Journey to Authentic Leadership
1. Do you currently view your life and leadership as a destination to a certain point or as
a journey in which you seek to maximize your learning and experiences?






2. What are the most significant leadership experiences you have had to date and what
did you learn from them?









Most recently there was an city issue were a city employee abused his privilage with city isssued Gas
Cards. Over , . was stolen from the city by means of these cards and this issue surfaced right
before my re election. These issues are ofcourse administrative issues and are in no way issues for the
council. However, my opponent and several people in the communit y blamed me for that issue. took the
critisim and heat like every publiv official does and kept on kicking. Thankfully, The court system moved
uickly and the individual was sentanced to ail time and restitution was rewarded to re pay all that was
taken from the ta payers. since then, have taken a stronger stance on the finance department and have
weekly meetings with them to address finacial issues.
believe strongly that you cant begin seeing yourself at a certain point or towards a perticular goal because
then you loose sight of what you are doing right now. A perfect e aple of that is, many people are asking me
to run for county udge. Would consider it Possibly, but not right now. f start seeing myself in a chair that
can do some ma or good for our county i will forget about the chair currently sit in as Mayor. That will only
dammage the good that we have accomplished as a city.
Well The most significant leadership e perience have had has been the opportunity to serve as Mayor of
our great city. ust this alone opened the doors for me to serve at a local, regional and state levels
representing our city. When became Mayor i shortly there after became Chairman of the Te as Border
Coalition adressing the needs of teh Te as Me ico Border from l Paso to Brownsville. Then after a year
Became President of the Te as Association of Regional Councils adressing issues of Regional Councils of
Governments and how we could obtain additional funding for our COGS around the state. so this has
given me a opportunity to learn and broaden my hori ons on leadership at all levels. have learned to deal
with a variety of personalities and assure that when there are disagrements there are ways to reach a
conclusion.
have most definatly take failures and dissapointments in life as lessons learned. The best thing to always
do when you fall is dust your pants off and get right back up. there is no sence of crying over spilled milk.
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3. What experiences do you need to develop your leadership to take it to the next
level?










4. If you are just entering a new phase, have you assessed the goals and experiences
you would like to have during the phase?










5. Do you think you need to make any adjustments to your personal and leadership
development as a result? If so, what are they?










believe that there are many ways to develop my leadership and one in particular would be by evaluating
my leadership style and measuring its performace sucess. f it is not successful then i would need to
articulate my leadership stlye to a more effective manner.
dont believe that im entering a new phase but my reponse to uestion number three would give validation
to the assesment of leadership.
beleive that there is a time in everyones personal and leadership development that one must make
ad ustments and re evealuate how you are doing in both aspects. At this point in my life i feel as if im on
tack and will re evaluate my course of action a later date.
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6. How can you take your previous experiences and apply them more optimally to your
leadership now?
My previous e periences are being applied currently to my leadership as they are an integral part of my day
to day professional and leadership lifestlye. Serving at a regional and state level has given me an
opportunity to enhance knowledge and love for leadership. t has further proven to give our city a stronger
voice and recieve ackowledgment for our Governor as he recenlty appointed me to the regional review
committe for our region in his representation to assure that grant funding opportunitie sare given in the best
way possible to our region and the state. So as i see it, the e perience i have gained has only opened new
ventures and validated my leadership as it is seen and respected through out our region and state.
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