A Great Blog

After receiving a B- on my first essay, I managed to receive A’s on my next two essays.
This will likely be the third.
Did someone say ‘Turkey’?
The prompt for my management class was…

Could you apply the Good to Great Model to CSUN? If you did what would you find?

My Good to Great model defines that everyone possesses the capabilities to become great, but only a few choose to do so. Before we can achieve greatness, we need to be better than good. We can distinguish how to be great by looking at what is good. “We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools” (Collins, page 1). I disagree with this statement because CSUN is “good” compared to “great” Ivy League schools. I believe that CSUN concentrates on solving their biggest problems such as budget cuts, and lack the energy and resources towards their biggest opportunities, whereas Harvard’s outlook distinguishes them towards greatness. Attending a good school does not bind me from becoming a great leader.

CSUN can become the best California State University. Therefore, I do not have to confide to its “good” values; instead, I can become a great leader by blending personal humility with professional will. “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice” (Collins, page 11). My circumstances at CSUN do not dictate whether I choose to be good or great. I choose those qualities for myself. “The transformation [is] a process of buildup followed by breakthrough, broken into three broad stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action” (Collins, page 12). My breakthrough came six months earlier when I decided to pick up the Cross and follow [Jesus] daily. By following Jesus’s disciplined thoughts and actions, I, too, can possess great leadership.

The process of being good to great is a “human problem” more so than an institutionalized problem (Collins, page 16). There are many factors that determine an institution’s status; therefore, not every institution has the opportunity to be great; however, each individual’s “capability resides within them, perhaps buried or ignored, but there nonetheless” (Collins, page 37).

Attending CSUN is not a boundary that excludes me from becoming a level 5 executive. “Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless” (Collins, page 22). I am on the road to becoming a great leader; will I continue to follow it?

Works Cited

Collins, James C. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don’t. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001. Print. *I recommend this book.

As much as I want to transition from good to great, I may get there, I may not.
However, Jesus never transitioned.
He was great from the beginning.