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PersonalValuesandLeadershipChallenge
Fabricio Crdova
Personal and Theoretical Foundations to Global Leadership
Wendy Rowe
Cheryl Heykoop
Royal Roads University
April 10, 2016

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Personal Vision, Values and Learning Goals
Personal Vision Statement
My personal vision is the path that I follow in my life. This path should be clear and it is
defined by goals and objectives. My personal vision statement is to influence others positively to
find solutions into social problems which are affecting our lives. Collaborative teamwork with
clear goals and putting leadership theory into practice will allow me to produce small changes in
our community in order to achieve big changes in the world.
Personal Values
My experience in military life has given me the opportunity to lead people in different
fields and to practice values that support me in achieving expectations and goals in my life. As a
military leader, I have a responsibility to prepare myself and encourage others to serve my nation
in several aspects through practicing core values. I have identified four core values that guide my
military career and my personal life: integrity, commitment, stability and courage. (See Appendix
1).
Learning Goals
Personal leadership working in a global context.
This competence allows students to comprehend values, beliefs and behaviors of people
(W. Rowe, personal communication, February 1, 2016). It is important to value different
criteria from people. In the same way, it reminds me that everyone is different and [we] can
see the same situations in different ways and this affects how [we] understand the system
(Williams, 2008, p. 4). These differences may affect our behavior or actions with other
people.

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Self-reflective practice.
Increase aptitude to generate self-reflection in order to achieve personal success through
greater exercises of self-suggestion and self-critique.
Resilience and personal adaptability.
Increase ability to adapt in complex environments and diverse teams through managing
internal emotions and personal reactions by listening before speaking.
Self-in-systems management capability.
Increase capability to generate positive changes in diverse systems by keeping a
reflective journal about interactions with others.
Leading in diverse global context.
This competence refers to the ability to engage in effective and appropriate interaction
with others in a variety of cultural context (W. Rowe, personal communication, February 1,
2016). This competence allows me to understand the importance of accepting people from
different cultures and having multiple options before make decisions.
Culture general and specific knowledge.
Increase ability to understand different behaviors, values, norms and rites through greater
knowledge and analysis of different cultures by reducing paradigms and barriers I bring to
my daily interactions.
Intercultural interaction and communication.
Increase capability to interact with people from different cultures through developing
decision making process exercises and using intercultural approaches.

Intercultural group facilitation.

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Increase capability to work with intercultural teams through development of workshops
and teamwork to generate intercultural interaction.
Leading sustainable change in complex environments
This competence allows global leadership students to be more aware of complex issues
and how they impact our life (W. Rowe, personal communication, February 1, 2016).
Understanding these problems is the way to take actions in order to reduce impacts in our
world.
Knowledge of global political, social and economic issues.
Increase aptitude to understand complex global issues through greater knowledge and
application of case study methodology.
Knowledge of international organization systems and change strategies.
Increase capability to evaluate policies, strategies and mandates of international
organizations by contrasting policies and strategies to find strengths and weakness in them.
Capability to lead change in complex environments.
Increase ability to lead a team by organizing multicultural teams and developing
leadership exercises to allow members to identify leaders in complex situations.
Personal Leadership Challenge
As a global leader, I believe that people have human rights to be respected, protected and
guaranteed all times and my actions must promote inclusion and reduce inequalities among
human beings. My personal leadership challenge (PLC) is to promote inclusion of people despite
our differences of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or economic status. This
challenge impacts me because I think that discrimination builds barriers among society members
to achieve personal or institutional goals. Unfortunately, I come from a country where I can find

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patterns of discrimination; for example, discrimination against Colombian refugees to find a job
or participate in schools (Leutert, 2012). Also Ecuadorian statistics show us high rates of
violence or low employment rates for women (Office of the High Commissioner Human Rights,
2015). As a third example, black people are discouraged from becoming Army officers (Agencia
Publica de Noticias del Ecuador y Suramerica, Andes, 2015). People involved in this kind of
discrimination are indigenous, refugees, LGBT groups and women. In my personal experience, I
have played a very small role promoting inclusion of these groups; for instance, as a military
teacher, I tried to expand capabilities to indigenous instructors in the Ecuadorian Army. Since
then I have a clear concept about global leadership and I understand that small actions could
generate big changes globally and that global leaders need to be more inclusive and openminded.
This PLC is important to me because I will promote inclusion for everyone and reduce
inequality among our communities. If I do nothing to address this issue, societies could increase
the gap and barriers for these kinds of groups. This situation could generate psychological issues
in them; consequently, it will generate future social problems such as violence, delinquency and
inequality in societies. This challenge reminds me how Canada is accepting Syrian refugees and
providing support to adapt them to this new place to live. Since I arrived in Canada, I have
learned to accept people from different cultures and religions or with different sexual
preferences.
Many of our readings have helped me to deal with my PLC. A particular reading was in
Mendenhall, Chapter 4, Mapping the Content Domain of Global Leadership Competencies.
Table 4.5. This table provides me a clear overview about some competencies that Global leaders
need to manage people and their relationship. Trusting relationships are based on a respect for
people and their differences, a comprehension of people and their emotions and the ability to

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maintain the relationship (Mendenhall et al., 2013). Valuing people and respecting our
differences allows me to achieve the inclusion of many members of the society. Another
particular reading was in Mendenhall, Chapter 3, An Overview of the Global Leadership
Literature. Box 3.2. shows me characteristic to be developed by global leaders and one of them
is related to my PLC when it argues that a global leader sees differences and diverse opinions as
an advantage (Mendenhall et al., 2013, p. 59). As a global leader, appreciating diversity allows
me to expand my ideas and thoughts beyond culture.
I will take some actions to achieve my PLC; for example, I will organize teams with
diverse members from different cultures and with different behaviors. If my team is diverse, it
will achieve creativity and innovation (Mendenhall et al., 2013, p. 150). Fostering diversity in
teams is a way to promote inclusion of members of society. In addition, I will introduce the rule
of listening before speaking in my team. If we hear others initiatives and thoughts before we
make decisions, we will promote inclusion in all members of our team. These kinds of norms of
communication will help me to understand their ideas and make decisions correctly. Finally, I
will create integration activities in my team to promote interchanges of ideas, intercultural
communication and equality among different ethnic groups. If we know our differences and
similarities, we will be an effective team turning problems into opportunities (p. 153). In this
way, my team will be effective dealing with problems to make good decisions.
When I make these changes, I will be able to transmit my ideas of equality and inclusion
to my team, soldiers, and family. I will be able to promote inclusion in diverse areas of my life
and I will able to build programs and projects with my colleagues to achieve inclusion of all
members of our societies. As Mendenhall (2013) said "Global leaders are individuals who effect
significant positive change in organizations by building communities through the development of
trust and the arrangement of organizational structures and processes in a context " (p. 20). During

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the rest of this term, I will be more open-minded and participative in my teams and I will be
interested to learn how I can develop initiatives to promote inclusion and respect of human rights
making small changes to deal with global issues.
My teachers, friends, classmates and family will hear that my leadership style will change
from authoritarian to participative style to get ideas from others before making decisions. They
will see me talking and sharing ideas with others, they will hear that I will eliminate paradigms
about gender, sexual orientation or religion to be more participatory and open-minded. My global
leaderships instructor(s) will know that the perspective in my PLC is shifting when I do research
and write papers based on social inclusion and respect for human rights. Therefore, they will see
me as more open-minded and receptive to accept behaviors of people from different cultures than
my culture by including them in the decision-making process, sharing my goals, vision and
missions with them, applying listening skills and improving intercultural communication. As an
Ecuadorian military officer and a global citizen, my PLC is very interesting to achieve because I
will promote inclusion and reduce discrimination of specific groups changing my personal
paradigms to be a better global leader.

References
Agencia Publica de Noticias del Ecuador y Suramerica (ANDES). (2015). Ecuadors military
school will have to publically apologize for discrimination. Retrieved from

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http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadors-military-school-will-have-publicallyapologize-discrimination.html
Leutert, S. (2012). Dispatches: Ecuador's Invisible Refugee Population. Americas. Retrieved
from http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/3281
Mendenhall, M. E., Osland, J. S., Bird, A., Oddou, G. R., Maznevski, M. L., Stevens, M. J., &
Stahl, G. K. (2013). Global leadership: Research, practice and development. New York:
Routledge.
Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR). (2015). Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women considers report of Ecuador. Retrieved
from http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?
NewsID=15587&LangID=E
Williams, B. (2008, December 2). Bucking the system: Systems concepts and development. The
Broker: Connecting Worlds of Knowledge.

Appendix 1. Personal Values

Core Value

Definition

Importance to Me

Observable Behavior

Integrity
Integrity involves
honesty and service
to others. It is a

Integrity is a key core

value to me because it
allows me to be coherent

My cohort will see me

share real and complete
information. My

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personal choice to
maintain moral and
ethical standards in
my life.

between thoughts and

actions. Living with
integrity means having
the capacity to lead
groups correctly without
affecting their interest.
Honesty and
transparency are
characteristics related
with this value. In
developing countries,
integrity is a core value
because it keeps away
from corruption.

behavior will be coherent

with my integrity. Friends
will see me speak
accurate information and
my actions will never
affect my cohort, family
and friends negatively.

Commitment is
defined by the action
to give our time and
energy to achieve
something that you
believe. Commitment
means using my
capabilities to
achieve our goals.

Despite my limited
communication in
English, my cohort will
see me take tasks and
work to support them in
achieving our goals. My
family will see my
commitment to follow
my ideas and personal
goals, the Ecuadorian
Army will see me leading
missions and preparing
plans and projects to
achieve missions in the
right way. My team will
see my actions working
in collaborative groups
providing feedback and
listening to their
feedback.

Definition

Commitment is a key
core value because it
allows me to keep focus
in my personal goals. I
practice commitment
when I accomplish more
than what is simply
necessary. Commitment
allows me to be loyal and
work hard to achieve
benefits to society.
This core value allows
leaders to demonstrate
their real interest to do
something and their
actions serve as an
example for others to
follow to achieve their
goals. Leaders need to
practice this core value to
maintain their leadership,
expand their ideas and
propose changes to
others.
Importance to Me

Stability is defined by
the quality or degree
of being stable. It is
the resistance to keep
a condition of

Stability is part of my
key core values because
it allows me to keep the
balance in extreme
situations. It is related to

My cohort will see me

make decisions after a
deep analysis of
situations. I will keep
calm and maintain my

Commitment

Core Value
Stability

Observable Behavior

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Courage

equilibrium in
difficulties

self-control. In difficult
situations, stability helps
people to maintain the
internal balance to make
much better decisions.
This core value is
important to me because
it allow leaders to clarify
situations, make better
decisions and expand
their confidence to others
to take advantage of the
situation.

personal balance in
extreme situations,
exercises or workshops.
They will see me keep
my attitude and
personality despite
extreme situations. My
family will see me
maintain calm in my
studies and my daily
activities.

Courage is defined by
the ability to be brave
to achieve personal
goals and objectives.

Courage is one of my key

core values because it
allows me to follow my
dreams and goals despite
obstacles and difficulties.
Courage is important to
me because it is the
internal energy that
leaders need to keep their
actions on the way to
achieve their goals. If
leaders demonstrate
courage to others, their
leadership will be
expanding. Their actions
teach others to commit
their total energy and
enthusiasm to achieve
goals.

My team will see my

effort to accomplish tasks
in order to achieve team
goals. Despite my
limitations, I will allocate
my energy to lead teams
and demonstrate my
leadership. My family
will see me my optimistic
and positive attitude to
achieve our personal
goals.