Journal Entry 1

In our first exercise, we were charged with answering various prompts about a portrait of our choosing. Here is the portrait I used. I found it simply based on a google search of the word portrait. When I originally searched the word, I only saw pictures of white people. Upon realizing this I chose to keep scrolling until I found the first picture of a black person that I saw and found this.

The first thing I was asked to do was to spend fifteen minutes writing about my impressions of the character of the person in this portrait. It was suggested to think in terms of “The Big Five.” The Big Five meaning thinking about if I felt that the person in the portrait seemed Open, Conscientious, Extroverted, Agreeable, or Neurotic. This would become the acronym “OCEAN.” Another route was offered to where I would ask myself if I thought the person seemed honest, courageous, curious, kind, humorous, or trustworthy and what it was about the portrait that gave me this impression. This line of thinking is what I leaned into more. I answered this by saying that I believe that the man seems very serious and driven. There is something about his look that tells the viewer that he means business. He also looks intelligent but intelligent to the point where he knows too much, and it causes him to overthink at times and prevents him from being happy at times. If he were to be a leader, I would imagine that he would be the type of leader that leads through analytical strategy. I was then informed that although making assumptions about people solely based on a picture isn’t constructive, “it is part of the pseudoscience of physiognomy” (Sandridge.)

Another prompt was for me to simply writing down anything about the portrait that I noticed. This being either the portrait itself or the person in the portrait. I noticed that the camera focuses on his face and makes his surroundings look blurry. I also noticed that his hair is big and curly. I noticed that he has a beauty mark on the left side of his face above his lip. Additionally, he is looking directly into the camera. His right eye is slightly lower than his left. He also has a serious/mad look on his face. He’s wearing a green jacket, and lastly, he has a defined jawline.

I was also asked to give the portrait a caption that would remind me how to lead. I chose to say, “Change will not come without putting in the work to make it happen.” I felt that this fit the portrait based on my answers to the other prompts.

After that, I was asked, “If you could recruit this person to address any kind of human problem or crisis — for example, a political conflict, a disagreement among two groups, a natural disaster, a war, or some kind of psychological disorder — what would you recruit them for? What kind of leadership behaviors could you see this person bringing to the problem that would be helpful? (You may find it helpful to review this list of common leadership behaviors as you think about this question.) What challenges of leadership would this person face? Explain your answer to yourself using the evidence you have observed in the portrait.” I answered these questions by saying that I imagine that this person’s motives are to make a positive and lasting change in the world. He imagines a world where everyone is treated equally and fairly and there is not so much darkness in the world. If I were to choose him to address a world problem, I would choose racial injustice in the American legal system because he seems to have the strength and drive to do some good and the issue will likely be dear to him because it directly affects people who look like him.