Leadership Project: How to lead older, more experienced people?

The Leadership Project requires each student to lead a group of people (friends, workers, fellow workers, fellow club members, etc.) in a project or activity that they would not normally undertake. The only rules of the project are: (1) students must not tell their friends or co-workers that they are doing it for a class, and (2) it should take at least three weeks of contact to complete. 

1. Read the Journal of Management Education article titled “Personal Leadership Conundrum” (referenced in the Module). This article is available through the Saint Leo online library and the link in the course Resources area for more information about accessing the online library. 

2. Identify the leadership conundrum you will look into as you lead the group (what personal issues do you need to address, etc.) . State it in the first person and in the form of a question. 

The leadership conundrum "How do I lead older, more experienced people?" for the group I plan on leading. Some personal issues I would need to address are the mindsets of understanding the individual's way of thinking and completing tasks, I will need to discuss the level of motivation during the change of leadership, how to deal with a difficult situation and people, managing culture issues. Lastly, I would need to address respect issues for individuals and the workplace.

3. Explain why you have chosen this conundrum: Why is it of interest to you? How does it relate to your experiences? How does it relate to who you are? In other words, what about yourself and your experience are motivating you to seek the answer to this conundrum? 

This topic interests me because I am currently a new member of the United States Air Force (USAF), and this will be one of the issues that I would be faced with one day shortly when I crossover to become an officer. I can offer a lot of leadership experience from the civilian aspect but will be faced with many challenges when it comes to the USAF as an officer. One of the difficulties being as a brand new officer with only two years of USAF experience having to lead personnel with over 14+ experience in the USAF. This relates to who I am because I am currently in this situation as a brand-new Airman with well over 15 years of civilian leadership experience I now fall under individuals with less experience and education than me but have more time in service. I want to seek answers and understand this conundrum because I think it will be beneficial to me during my USAF career. This will allow me to understand my role in leading individuals with more time in service as a new officer in the AirForce.

4. Create a bibliography of at least two peer-reviewed, academic journal articles that deal with the conundrum (see below the Recommendations section for examples of journals that qualify as academic and peer reviewed), at least two periodical articles (newspaper, magazine, website, etc.), and at least two books, stories, myths, parables, movies, poems, or songs that will help you better understand and gain insight into your conundrum.