My Leadership Philosophy

Taken into account all of my leadership experiences throughout my life is undeniably unrealistic, as I have engaged in a plethora of activities during my eighteen years of existence. Having had the opportunity to experience a significant number of leadership roles has helped mold me into the young aspiring pediatric surgeon I am today. Whether, it is being the salutatorian of my graduating class or assisting my classmates during their times of hardships; I have found an appreciation merely for those leadership opportunities. On the other hand, there is one leadership position in particular which I value dearly.

Throughout my time as a young adult I have had countless amounts of people tell me that they see me as a leader. They told me that I have the traits and the skills of someone who can have success in leadership positions. Truthfully, I never really understood what they meant. I knew that I was a good public speaker, but I never really understood what else I had. In high school I was always put in leadership positions whether it was an officer of the National Honor Society or captain of my sport teams, but I never really understood what drove me to attain those positions. I continued my quest for leadership positions in high school with every student organization I joined. Whether it was Pi Kappa Phi fraternity or Dance Marathon I felt the need to prove to others that I can more than just a member, but a leader. It wasn’t until I took this class that I truly understood what made me a leader. Because of this class I was able to better understand what are my leadership traits, my leadership styles, and how I use those in order to attain and succeed in leadership positions. Throughout this paper I will explain how Career Leadership Academy allowed me to realize what made me a leader and analyze the ways to improve at my future leadership positions.

In my future career of being a sports doctor/trainer you need teamwork and leadership to be successful and be able to treat a patient. As a sports doctor you can’t just have one doctor doing a surgery by themselves, to treat a patient you need a whole team of doctors and different nurses to help the person. When you are a sports trainer you have a whole team of different trainers who are there to help you and you need leadership because you need someone to take control of the action or be the person to show the team how to take care of the problem.

I am not the type of person who needs to be in charge of every detail. Generally, I prefer to put my energy into supporting them by carrying out their instructions. However, when it becomes necessary, I can step up to become a leader. Because I am able to remain patient and open-minded, I can work well with others to accomplish our goals. My ability to lead will enable to accomplish my goals in life and leave a lasting effect on the world.

Who I am as a leader is derived from my personal fundamentals of leadership. The essence of leadership is having the following character traits: integrity, showing mutual respect, inspiring people, setting vision, making decisions, owning the failures, sharing the accomplishments, leading by example and never pressuring anyone into unethical actions. To me, at this time, those qualities are what make a leader. However, I am not that leader today, it is what I aspire to be. Before revealing the leader I am today, I will explain where the fundamentals, listed above, originate.

Leadership is many things. It is humble, playing to your strengths and knowing your weaknesses, giving people the tools they need to succeed, and influencing others to achieve a common goal. My personal favorite is: being a coach with a passion for developing your players.

“Volunteers are not paid--not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless” (Into The Wild). As the quote mentions, volunteers do not get paid, but they serve for others that are in need and the value is worth much more than money. Life is not always about wealth. Time is valuable too and if a person spends a little time off of their phone to help a great cause, it could save many lives or even lead to a bright smile. In leadership class this semester, I have taken time out of my busy schedule to aid others happiness, which pleases me in the end. Reflecting upon my experiences, I have used three main standards of a leader such as engaging in strategic planning, facilitating productive group process, and showing initiative.

Throughout the history, until now, we have witnessed many great leaders. But what leadership skills make them a great leader? What are their strengths and weaknesses, their values and credibility? I have never asked these questions to myself up until taking this course. I have realized that being the one in power or being the one that leads is not enough to make you a great leader. There are many different elements of leadership and everyone has a different leadership style. Keeping all these in mind, I thought about my leadership and my personal vision. I have learned a great deal about leadership in this course and I aim to apply them all to my leadership experiences in the future.

Leadership. Like all ideas leadership can be defined in a variety of different ways, and so it become challenge to choose just one way to word such a definition. To me a strong leader is one who can effectively develop an idea which they can they can then achieve by conveying this idea to others and motivating them to reach the goal with themselves. I have no doubt that I possess some of these qualities but certainly not all of them. I believe that I am quite strong at developing a process to reach to reach this said goal, and also at directing people to reach the goal by following my plan. At the same time I am aware of certain leadership skills that I lack. The most predominant one for me would most definitely be my difficulty in establishing

Leadership is at its core an abstract idea; what is the manifestation of leadership is style. Each leader has some type of philosophy, know or unknown. This would be what I call a “leadership belief.” Irwin says, “As with others we must vet these beliefs and root out any that are fundamentally untrue.” (Irwin 2014) This subject may be one of the more important subjects in a person’s life. In my very core I have beliefs, and these beliefs matter. When a leader has a belief or even a mistaken belief it is manifested in his behavior. As Dr. Irwin wrote in “Impact: Great leadership Changes Everything” “How we act depends on what we believe about people and their trustworthiness to do their jobs” (Irwin 2014) My philosophy tells others how I will behave. In the culture of today I

Knowing what leadership is, are one of the greatest skills in life. Leadership requires responsibility, motivations, and management. Few of my greatest accomplishment having to do with leadership is volunteering at the Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, being a president in a club and being part of Peer Listener. Methodist Hospital gives me an opportunity to use my communication and commitment skills. As volunteering at the hospital gives me a greater sense of self-worth and I communicate with patients; not every patient has a family member to care for them. It is important for me to motivate them and to be there for the patients. It gives me a chance to make a person’s day brighter. Being the president in a club requires management and responsibility.

“Heading the leadership imperative and taking up this mantle is what is required of leaders in healthcare today” (Dye pg. 13). From a “leadership in healthcare” class, which is taught by Professor Gretchen Murphy, I have learned what leaders are required to do in order to become effective and successful and how to build myself as a successful leader.

Becoming a leader is a skill that grows throughout one’s life. Individuals are not born leaders rather the skills and traits are developed over time. For me personally, I have broken down my life’s leadership training into three phases, the early years, my teen years, and my adult years. Each segment is unique and builds for the others. Every phase has been absolutely necessary to build my leadership philosophy.

Leadership abilities and the ways in which we influence others can come about in many ways. From a young age, I was not presented with many ideas of good leadership. I was raised in a dysfunctional family, by two lesbian women that fought constantly, and had a father that I wouldn’t have known existed if it weren’t for annual phone calls on my birthday. With all of this surrounding me, I was a quiet and introverted “watcher” of a kid. What I watched taught me infinite knowledge about bad leadership and the effects actions can have on a person physically and emotionally, though I never saw the effects on me. As there was no representation of leadership within my family, my first true influence on my leadership style would have entered my life when I was a freshman in high school and played varsity baseball for Jimmy Webster. From the simple position of being a baseball coach, Jimmy Webster taught me so much about life (and baseball) in a span of four years, that I credit this man and the game of baseball with saving my life.

The practicum activities that I have attended contributed and made an impact to my learning such as leadership class, telemedicine courses, reading, and the research for my capstone project in different literatures to obtain evidence based practice. As I am preparing my career path for higher education in the future, I have come to the realization that higher learning is the key to better tomorrow and leaders are not born, they are made. Leaders are people who truly understand themselves and recognize the various elements of human nature. Communication is the most indicative trait of an effective leader because if a leader can empower followers to comprehend precisely the message, production and success are the results. I also learned that by taking these courses on higher education and leadership this will develop and mold me with the critical and analytical skills that will prepare me to compete with other healthcare professionals.