Leader in the Field

 Meeting Mr. Williams was a bit of a chance. I was at my sister homecoming picture “ photo shoot” and he was standing next to him. We started with some small talk and I told him how I am currently of journalism major but I have no idea what I really want to do. He instantly began telling me how he runs an ad agency that specializes in radio advertisement. Of course I slowly worked my “Leader in the Field” paper into the conversation, and he said he would love to be interviewed.

  Mr. Williams utilizes live endorsement radio ads in which the on air personality does the ad live and in the context of their daily broadcast. The ads are designed to be a live and personal endorsement of each product they represent.  Ad Results Inc. is the largest company of this type in North America. And to put it in perspective on any given day they have ads running on over 1200 radio stations in all 50 states and also Canada. A majority of the work at Ad Results Inc. is group work. Each person has to know his or her role and execute it well. Each person has their strengths and Mr. Williams said “there are some things that I do personally better than anyone else here and so I tend to concentrate on those items.  I am not above having someone else give me their input however.” It’s important to know what your good at, but also know when to step back and listen. Mr. Williams continued to go on and say, “You need to leave the ego at the door in this business as there are just too many ways to have one of your ideas go bad and not work.  If that happens, you just move on and try something else.”

Mr. Williams said the key to his leadership is LEADING BY EXAMPLE. He believes “leadership is causing other people to achieve things they didn't believe they could achieve before.  Hopefully at that point they will take the lead and become leaders themselves.” As for leadership in projects these three items are needed to be successful:

1.   1. A clear goal, set an obtainable goal and make it clear to all involved what the goal is.

2.   2. A time line, make sure the deadline is clear and map out a step-by-step process.

3.  3.  A clear division of tasks, with specific responsibilities for each person including the team leader.

  Mr. Williams said he has two favorite parts of his job. His “number one would be delivering results for his clients; “When a client calls me and says that our ads are causing the phones to ring off the hook or the website traffic is through the roof, that really lights me up.” His second favorite would be interacting with the radio personalities he works with, since they are interesting people and enjoyable to talk to.

  When asked Mr. Williams what it took for him to get where he is today he summed it up in two words: HARD WORK. He went on to tell a story of when he asked a very wealthy friend of his dad’s what this secret of his success was. The friend said “thirty years”. He ended by saying “The other thing is to build a good team who buys into the idea and has the same smarts and work ethic that you have.”

Future @ OU

Right now I am just involved with my sorority. I love it so much, but I definitely want to be involved in other things besides my sorority. My favorite parts of involvement on campus are defiantly the service organizations. One of my favorite charities is charity:water. They are an amazing group that raises money to provide clean drinking water and help raise awareness about how lucky those with clean water are. I would really like if there was some organization that raises awareness about the world water crisis and educates people on just how lucky we are to have clean water.  So maybe one day I'll start some group that raises awareness and money. I don't know if OU already does something, but maybe even creating interest in World Water Day or something along those lines. I would really liked volunteering for Shack-a-Thon and I would love to help make it a prominent activity on campus. Shack-a-Thon was so fun and it is such a great concept so it would be great if even more people knew about it and there were other was to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. 

My interests are definitely in raising money and awareness for other organizations so I hope that in my future at OU I am able to be more involved in that way.

Attitude

"Our Attitudes are Our Most Important Assets"


Attitude really is everything. When the going gets tough you have to get positive. I know my attitude can really make or break my performance and my effort. The other day at U-sing practice I kept messing up all of the dances and have silly memory mistakes; and I had the worst attitude EVER! I was homesick and tried and sad and cranky. My attitude was sidetracking me from having fun and doing good. I know that I learn absolutely nothing when I have a "this is stupid" attitude. I never really realized how important attitude is until I really looked at others. 


In high school I was a cheerleader, and there would be practices where we would all be tense and start sassing to each other. We would all have bad attitudes; some of us just didn't want to be there  and some of us we "too cool" for what we were practicing and some of us thought that what we were doing was the most important thing we have ever done. But in the middle of all the bad attitudes, there would be Caylin.


Caylin wasn't the best cheerleader on the team and she wasn't the most talented, but she always had a great attitude. She always made things constructive and positive. She never thought she was better than anyone and always kept a positive outlook. Her asset to the team was her attitude! Without her positivity and encouragement are team would have fallen apart. I look up to Caylin's attitude so much. She may have been the worst one in the room at times, but you would never of know because she had such an amazing attitude.


Attitude is the greatest asset. It can set us apart from the rest. We can all have the same skill or the same frustration but what attitude we have will vary. the attitude we have can make us better or bring us down. Attitude is so important in leading others because part of who we are is our attitude, and who would want to follow someone with a bad attitude and negative outlook.

Problem Solving Strengths

My number one strength is positivity and this would really help me in problem solving. Many times when I am trying to solve are problem are even just get organized I seem to get overwhelmed and when you add negative energy to the mix I crack. My positivity helps me keep a realistic perspective on all the is happening and helps me focus more on what is going right than what is going wrong. 

If the problem I was trying to solve involved group work I definitely think my number three strength, developer. As a developer I can focus on finding each person's strengths. Then help each person find a position where they serve the group best and are able to use all their strengths to help solve the problem.

My second strength, connectedness, could help a group see how the work we are doing fits into a bigger picture, but I could end up trying to get everyone to see the big picture and get sidetracked from the task at had. 

My fourth strength is belief. I have a really strong faith and I try to do everything for God's glory. My faith, as much as I hate to say it, may "freak" some people out in a group project because when times get tough I always turn to prayer so it may be awkward for others in the group. But on my own my belief is a HUGE help because having quiet time and praying really helps me regroup and gain a new perspective to the problem.

When I am trying to solve problems with others I usually struggle with staying away from socializing and trying to pump people up rather than helping them solve the problem. I basically can be a distraction.