Effective Leadership Interview Assignment

When interviewing a leader in an organization in order to discover their leadership style one must ask critical questions. I had the opportunity to interview Casey Aguirre who is a Team Manager at the Salem Call Center for T-Mobile. Casey has been with T-Mobile for over 11 years. In this interview we discussed her leadership style, the steps she took to become a leader, her biggest challenges, and her greatest achievements among other things. While interviewing Casey I kept in mind the connection between women in leadership and the cultural disadvantages and advantages that women in leadership

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others , helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.

Being a leader was never my strong suit, but I often put myself in situations that required me to improve. I would frequently see my younger family seeking advice but were often discouraged since they felt uncomfortable asking their elders. This led to me becoming their mentor because I experienced similar issues first due to being a first generation student.

I am applying to be an RA because I enjoy being a role model and a positive influence on others. I have been in positions before in which I was in charge of multiple people around my age, and I really enjoyed those experiences. I believe that an effective RA has strong leadership, communication, disciplinary, and charismatic skills. An RA is in charge of around twenty other students, it is important that they must be their residents’ friend and a big brother/sister to the residents and by having those skills the residents should feel as if the RA is a big brother/sister. In my opinion, the most important skill is communication. If a resident is struggling with a class, a resident is homesick, or just has any personal problems the RA is probably one of the first people they talk to. Communicating to their residents in those times can mean the world to them; just a simple conversation can help improve a person.

I often wondered what a typical day was like for the leadership team of the multibillion dollar company American Family Insurance. I got my chance to learn about this while interviewing Chad Cerkoney, the director of risk management. American Family Insurance with its corporate office in Madison, WI. It currently operates in 19 states mainly across the Midwest with insurance products in life, health, business, and personal property. Chad has been working for American Family for over 30 years and has held positions such as Insurance Agent, Workforce Manager, Actuary, and now Risk Management Director. Chas received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin in Business Administration.

I had interviewed about leadership with Lee who is the manager of strategic planning in my company. To sum up the interview, he defined that leadership is causing other people to do what the leaders want. That is, leadership is helping other people to rise to their full potential while accomplishing the mission and goals of the organization.

The term “Culture" can have many varying meanings, traditionally, it is thought of as the shared beliefs, traditions, religious practices and values of an ethnic group; or the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people. Culture can also be defined as people with shared beliefs and practices: or a group of people whose shared beliefs and practices identify the particular place, class, or time (era) to which they belong. It can also be defined as the shared attitudes or particular set of attitudes that can characterize an ethnic or religious group of people. Culture is also art, music,

This week explored and learned that there are desirable leadership traits to acquire, that becoming a leader can be a conscious process and that being a leader also means to owe respect and have a responsibility to others.

My experience as a returning RA has given me a well-rounded perspective of what it means to be a leader. An ARD is a leader who motivates others to do the best work they possibly can. My experience as a coach fits this role of an ARD perfectly. My passion is helping people to help themselves, and I have experience connecting to and motivating a

My current resident assistant was unavailable to interview because he is usually a very busy and had a deadline coming up tomorrow, so instead I interviewed an RA that was working at the Willkie. His name was Vasu and he was super open with me about being an RA. He was really honest too, he said that the process of becoming an RA was and is hard and that it is a very competitive process.

When I was younger, I always thought being a leader was all about telling people what to do. Glenwood taught me that was not the case at all. Here at Glenwood, I learned to lead by example. I am the battalion commander in our military program. When I teach our new students how to do a certain commander, I demonstrate it. When I have to teach them how to make their own bed I demonstrated it. Lead by example. I as well learned how to control my emotions and when I lead to lead with my head. All leaders are not perfect. It is not the mistakes that show me who I am, but I how I deal with

Being an RA is by far the most rewarding job I’ve ever had and the best decision I’ve ever made. I am not the same person I was two years ago and I can neither put into words nor hardly fathom how proud that makes me. There’s a lot of work that goes into it behind the scenes- it’s not just putting together programs and making little door decs with residents names on them.

To inspire and influence others, a leader must possess many skills and abilities. As motivational speaker Peter Northouse, states, “a leader should be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant” (Northouse, 2013) Moving an entire group of individuals toward a singular goal is a considerable undertaking. Without effective communication skills and a clear vision of what needs to be accomplished, one will feel like they are trying to herd cats rather than leading.

In order for a leader to be a leader he/she must begin with the assumption that you are the one who matters most. As a leader you have to possess that level of confidence in yourself that you are capable of leading yourself “before you can lead others”. And when you develop this belief then you are better able of affirmative influence “on others”.

How have you grown as a leader? Be specific and try to use examples of your leadership in and