My Reflection Of Leadership

Throughout this course, our textbook readings, the posting to threaded discussions, my responses to a classmate’s post, and reading various classmates’ responses helped further digest, comprehend, and synthesize the leadership content within Daft’s “The Leadership Experience” textbook. Our weekly lectures with various classmates’ interpretations and responses during the open discussion forums about the textbook themes brought a variety of unique viewpoints to the specific leadership topics. This reflection paper was an extension of this learning, and provided a deep introspection about leadership concepts; how did I, how am I, and how can I apply this knowledge in my workplace. This writing exercise uncovered new meaning and insights while both challenging and supporting certain personal views and ideas about leadership.

I have never considered myself to be a leader other than in my household. Even though I am a very active member in my church and have many responsibilities, at work I have never given myself the title “leader”. Since beginning this class and reading the assigned text I come to see and understand why I am and should be called a leader. The two self-assessments that I took made me realize that the everyday things that I do are actually the skills and attributes of a good leader.

This week's assignment helped me to understand more about the meaning of leadership and what it takes to become a true leader. It might sounds discouraging; however, I have known I am not the material to

Just as every story has an ending, every season of life has a close. As the final days of the semester draw near, a time of contemplation and reflection is due. This semester’s journey in the Eagle Scholar Leadership Program has been one of the most personally rejuvenating and challenging times, as the semester’s focus was on self-leadership. Self-leadership, or the practice of leading oneself first in order to more effectively lead others in the future, is one of the greatest lessons and actions that a leader can do to improve their leadership capabilities. Too often, leaders focus on outside behaviors and principles to develop their leaders. However, true change begins inside. Though arguably the hardest area in which to truly grow, as self-leadership often requires brutally honest self-evaluation and change, it has the greatest impact on development as a leader. Throughout this semester, I have had the opportunity to observe, learn and implement the following

I have learned that while I am strong in some leadership areas, I am also weak in other areas. Prior to this course, I looked for my approach or style of leadership through other individuals. Essentially, I tried to model or shape my behavior and viewpoint by looking to others. Now, I see that is a critical mistake as I must discover my own unique style of leadership, not someone else’s – this is about being authentic and true to myself. It all makes sense now as I never could get it right before – felt like I was acting and being fake (and I was). This has given me a renewed sense of confidence in my leadership potential. I strongly believe that with hard work and commitment, I can be a great leader.

Throughout my life I have experienced a variety of things. Among those things I have dealt with is leadership. Leadership is having the ability to lead or guide others. Anyone can become a leader if they set their mind to doing it. A quote I always liked said “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better” –Bill Bradley. This quote to me simply says that you have to enhance the lives of other if you want to be a great leader yourself. In my paper I would like to discuss a few leadership experiences I have been involved in while here at The University of Southern Mississippi.

“Leaders must regularly turn off the noise and ask themselves what they stand for and what kind of an example they want to set” (Harry Kraemer). In this final paper, I will be going through chapter by chapter how I assessed myself based on each chapter’s topic. I will also be providing an analysis of my strengths, gaps, patterns, and themes to gather a leadership profile of sorts. And will finish it all out by developing a leadership plan of my own.

Before beginning this semester at Southeastern, I didn’t see myself as a leader. To be honest, I only chose to major in Organizational Leadership just for a fast pass to graduation. But throughout this semester I have learn a tremendous amount about what being an effective leader means and what it entails. Along with leadership, I have also learned about what it means to work in a team and grow as a follower. From the self-assessments and class activities my perspective on what type of leader and follower I am has become even more clear throughout this course.

Before this class, I had a very primitive and vague definition of leadership. Not only did I define it as per my views and ideologies, but I also said that each individual has their own definition of leadership. My initial belief was that leadership does not have a clear cut definition, but there were well defined leadership traits which made an individual. I also initially believed that personal traits did not translate into leadership traits with no strong correlation. After going through the various modules this class offered, it is safe to say that I have significantly redefined leadership and underwent a strong personal assessment. This paper talks what I took back from each of the class activities, assignments and how my self-assessment compares to the perception of others.

There are two main points to what we have begun to discuss in this course, our leadership styles and how to improve as a leader. If I want to make a difference in this world then I need to become a leader, and my specific personality and strengths will make me a different leader than others. I need to take everything we have talked about and apply it so that I can improve as a person and as a leader.

Before taking this course, I was under the assumption that people were either born leaders or they weren’t. Through learning from authors like Robert Quinn, James Hunter, and many others, I have realized that developing into a leader is a process that anyone can submit themselves to, regardless of background. Looking at the examples of Jesus and other famous leaders has helped me realize what this process of becoming a leader looks like.

As a graduate student approaching her final semester in school, thoughts regarding my leadership abilities in the soon-to-be “real world” have occupied my mind lately. To further explore and develop my ideas about leadership, I decided to develop my personal leadership theory. So, I asked myself the following questions: What makes a successful leader? How do you recognize a leader when you meet one?, and lastly, what is my theory of leadership? With this last question I thought about what leadership meant to me personally and how I personified it in a role of authority. While I had given thought to how I led, I had rarely taken the time to fully understand what my personal leadership theory entailed. Throughout the length of this paper I will analyze how my leadership skills, traits, values and elements from both Authentic Transformational theories help me to shape my leadership philosophy. In doing so I hope to define the leadership values that influence the way I view and practice leadership.

The Leadership Studies Minor at Baylor University provides students with the opportunity to learn about leadership in ways that will be useful in their vocation. Classes in this minor are designed to teach students about the theoretical and practical uses of leadership that are relevant to the work force today. The leadership courses I have taken at Baylor and my time as part of the Leadership Living-Learning Center, better known as LEAD, has shaped my opinion of the importance of the Leadership Studies Minor. This paper will examine how the Leadership Studies Minor helped me learn about myself as a leader and guided me to pursue my passions in the next chapter of my life.

When I walked into the first class of leadership training, I thought that I had a firm understanding about what leadership was, and how to lead in an efficient matter. I quickly learned that I had a lot of room for improvement to become a better leader. My leadership journey prior to this class was not diverse, most of my leadership experiences were in athletics, there were only a few times I lead in other situations. In high school I was the captain of the varsity soccer team my junior and senior year, captain of the varsity basketball team my senior year, a member of student council my junior year, and a member of the the student ambassador program my senior year. 90% of my leadership experiences have

Due to my passive nature, I’ve always avoided leadership roles. With that being said I still aspire to be someone who can be looked to as a leader. In order to reach that goal I observe and try to mimic the actions of people that inspire me. There have been many people I’ve taken orders from, but I have “followed” few. Those are the ones I consider to be true leaders, and have tried to be like myself.