Personal Leadership Reflection

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.

What are some of the personal dynamics in my life that impact my leadership style? I believe that it all starts with me and how I raise my children. As a parent, you are called to be a leader. We teach our children to be honest, respectful and, do their best at whatever they set out to accomplish. We do this in hopes that when the time comes for them to leave home, they will have a firm understanding of what it takes to be a good person. The similarities in parenting roll into my leadership at work. As a leader, we apply the same principles that we are teaching our children to our constituents, in hopes that they aspire to grow in their professional lives.

“It is unequivocally clear that leaders are not like other people” (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991, as cited in Northouse, P. G., 2016, p.22). I have always thought that I was not like other people; I see the world through a different lens. This difference, which sets me apart from my peers, has sometimes restrained my progress; however, after studying my differences and seeing them as strengths, I can now focus on these strengths that make me a unique, passionate, progressive leader. In reflecting on my leadership skills, I will analyze the results of the leadership questionnaires, as presented in Peter Northouse’s book, Leadership:Theory and practice (7th ed.), connect those result strengths with the

What insights have I gained about my role as an educational leader from these chapters?

I am committed to continuous learning and have a strong desire to inspire others to action through exceptional leadership and a clear vision that promotes the delivery of superior services, both internally and externally. The Behavioral Health Division will benefit by receiving the highest level of competence and ethical practice along with a personal commitment to quality. I embrace challenges and will initiate and support any necessary changes within the organization. This program will further promote my creativity and innovation, which will enhance the work environment and the delivery of services to the public. My leadership style is a combination of charismatic and innovative. I am extremely energetic and motivate others to move forward

My perspective of leadership remained constant for a large portion of my life. I never thought about what it takes to become a leader or how various aspects of leadership impact me every day. Over the past three months in this course, I have been given the opportunity to apply different skills and concepts that combined critical thinking and the ability to work towards a common goal with a group of people. The main points being addressed will include my experience with leadership and the value of specific iLead principles. I will also expand on my relationship to integrity and discuss my internal and external behavioral expectations. It is important for apprentices to understand their personal qualities and the value of teamwork so they can

Reflective learning is important as it allows one to realize their strengths and weaknesses, develop self-awareness, understand how you learn, and plan your own development (University of Kent, 2012). According to Barbour (2013), “reflective practice is the cyclic process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience, which creates and clarifies meaning in terms of self, existing knowledge, and experience; resulting in a changed conceptual perceptive and practice” (p. 7). This allows us to better understand ourselves so that we can grow and develop. There are ten complexity principles that help leaders thrive in the environment of chaos and complexity. Moreover, leaders need to qualities of courage and will to be effective. There are several leadership assessment surveys that one can take to learn more about themselves in order to understand areas of strengths and areas where growth is needed.

The three most important things that I have learned are based on the foundation of systems theory. Communities are made of a giant system and immeasurable subsystems acting and reacting with one another. When the various systems become unstable, resulting needs arise. Often, there are so many contributions to an issue; one has a great deal of difficulty understanding the source of the problem. Rather, the primary importance is accepting the relationships between individuals and environments. Communities must recognize that those within the system are responsible for taking the steps to provide stability for existence and intervening to strengthen existing structures (Homan, 2011).

The field of nursing is dynamic, challenging, and continuously changing, requiring strong and encouraging nurse leaders. From working at the bedside and providing direct patient care, nurses leaders are in a unique position to promote safe and quality patient care. A systematic review by Wong, Cummings, & Ducharme (2013) found that the relational leadership style resulted in improved patient satisfaction and patient safety outcomes, such as lower patient mortality, reduced medication errors, reduced restrain use, and fewer hospital-acquired infections. With a continuously changing and demanding healthcare environment, identifying and developing nurse leaders is challenging. Self-reflection and awareness is necessary to be a good leader, allowing one to identify limitations in leadership style to develop and improve upon leadership skills.

During the 2016-2017 school year, I engaged in an Educational Leadership Internship. The journey to gain an Administrator I Certificate began in 2015. My personal belief is that the world can only change one child at a time. Therefore, I was a classroom educator for 12 years. In those years, I found educating 3rd and 4th grade students to be extremely fulfilling. For 3 years I have been a small group intervention teacher focusing on mathematics with approximately 60 students. A part of my professional practice is to reflect at the end of each school day and at the completion of each school year. At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, I asked myself, “If I could inspire 30 children as a teacher per year, 60 students as an intervention specialist, how many could I reach as an administrator?” That question has led me to this insightful and thought provoking internship.

In my previous assignments, I described why the cooperation negotiation strategy, dispositional flexibility, equal opportunity, emotional health dimension, and inclusion was important to me. To elaborate on those concepts, I included some past incidents I encountered that depicted each concept. In doing so, I managed to identify a common factor in the way I led. As a leader, I seemed to only act when there was an issue that needed attention. At that point, it became very evident that I was emulating the behavioural traits of a transactional leader. To be more specific, my leadership style aligned with management by exception passive. My passive approach to leadership works in certain environments but I now understand where I was lacking as a leader.

This paper summarizes my reflections of my experiences in the Leadership Simulation course. Issues, challenges, and solutions from my experiences are presented below from the perspective as a member of the Social Services sector and a representative of the City Council. Furthermore, reflections are also described in a team setting and as a leader.

Over the past three weeks I have learned a lot about myself; specifically, that I have a lot of developing that I need to do so that I can become the leader that I need to be. As an Air Force leader, it is my responsibility to guide and grow Airmen into future leaders. I plan to find myself to be a transformational leader who can positively influence my subordinates, peers, and my supervisors. Over the next three to five years, I plan on developing myself into a transformational leader by using the different leadership styles that I have written about in my prior Personal Leadership Development Plans. I plan on building a better bond with my subordinates and my leaders. I will also utilize the knowledge that I learned from these modules to develop my Airmen into future leaders.

As an educational leader, I have encountered several new and existing school policies. I never thought deeply about the various processes and the stakeholders involved in policy formulation and implementation. This semester I am engaged in the course Managing Educational Policy as School Leaders (EDLM 6005). This is Semester III, 2016/2017. My course coordinator is Dr. Timar Stephenson. Dr Stephenson was my course coordinator once before and was very helpful whenever I needed clarification or when I had a difficulty. I am thrilled to embrace the new ideas and learning opportunities embedded in this course since it teaches issues which I experience at work. Dr Stephenson, during his introduction reminded his entire class that success in this course would only be realized through hard work, dedication, and commitment. Therefore, it is imperative that I have the right attitude as I navigate this course. The course involves seven weeks of intense work. I am pleased to have a wonderful group facilitator by the name of Rhonda Joseph who has already given us a BBC to explain the requirements of the course and our first two modules.

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.