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.

For the last 8 years of my career I have been in leadership positions within financial service organisations. I have lead team of up to 30 people, across multiple regions and locations, and I have been in leadership positions that have no direct report and required a high level of stakeholder management and influencing skills to achieve outcomes. My first leadership position was with QBE Insurance were I was a team leader for 18 people in the Property and Casualty Insurance claims department. IN this role I was responsible for leading, coaching and developing my team to ensure we maintained required service levels and financial results. From this role I moved into a National role with the Commonwealth Bank, were I lead a support function team

“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?

Over the last seven years, I have been fortunate to increase my potential as a leader through the positions I have held, the professional development opportunities I have been afforded and, most of all, the opportunity I have had to be part of the Educational Leadership Doctoral program at the University of Delaware. I joined the ACCESS (Adapting Curriculum and Classroom Environments for Student Success) Project at the University of Delaware's Center for Disabilities Studies in the fall of 2011 as an instructional coach for the state. I was young and inexperienced in my role as a teacher-leader but was eager to learn. I wanted to know in what ways I could make a difference for students with disabilities. As I began doctoral classes in the spring

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.

At the begging of this class, I thought that a leader had to be someone who had an extroverted personality and had what people see as leadership skills. What I learned and noticed as this course went on is that not everyone is a born-leader and some leadership qualities can be learned if you try hard enough. Now I think of a leader as someone who is in charge of getting people to meet a certain goal together. A leader is also someone who is confident in themselves and can reflect their confidence on to their followers. I also know that my definition of what I see a leader to be will change over the years in due my life experiences.

In order to evaluate and reflect on my own leadership practices and style, I completed the Seven HabitsⓇ Profile to shine a light on my current status. Initially I will review the document and my results. I will then evaluate my leadership practices, strengths, weaknesses, recommendations for success, discuss S.M.A.R.T. goals and end with some final thoughts.

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.

What do you think is your passion? Why do you say this is your passion, as it may be manifested in your personality, personal history and lineage?

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.

Being a leader to me is a person's who is dedicated to helping people attain their personal goals. Being a leader means exhibiting moral and ethical courage, and setting an example for everyone that they lead, and impacting a person life in a positive way. Leadership is a skill, behavior, relationship, and an influence process. This course has been very insightful for me on a personal and professional level. One of the many things that will stick with me is a quote I read from the first power-point. The quote stated, “Leaders are people who do the right thing”. Before taking this class, I didn’t see a difference between leaders and managers, but after going into detail in reading I now realize managers and leaders are different. Managers like to control their people, leaders do not.

I believe that being a leader is an opportunity. An opportunity to lead a team to better themselves while working alongside one another to accomplish a common goal. A leader is someone who is always eager to learn and grow. Leaders understand that it is important to continue to improve their skills, and they look for opportunities which will further their knowledge and strengthen their ability to lead. Effective leaders understand that listening is an essential skill to understanding their team. After understanding what motivates each member, they will use this knowledge to inspire and drive each member to greatness. Leaders are committed to their team, and the objective or goal the they have set. If a situation arises, a leader is willing

Famous author Daniel Goleman said, “Self awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives.” This quote describes one of the most fundamental takeaways from my class: Religion, Violence and Strategy: How to Stop Killing in the Name of God. Professor Jerry White taught our class, when examining a conflict, is is essential to go beneath the surface, symptoms and effects and find the root cause. Albeit this way of examining conflicts in the Middle East and abroad is effective when trying to achieve impact, I now believe that this same root cause thinking can be applied personally when examining one’s leadership ability and potential. Using this strategy, I am now aware of my greatest