Personal Reflection Of Leadership

Leadership is the ability to inspire and focus members on a common goal, whether short term or long term and have the same vision. Leadership is more than telling or ordering, but having members believe and want to follow the same path as you. It’s a commitment to your people built on trust and respect. Many leaders shaped my personal leadership philosophy, to include several negative and positive experiences. Negative experiences from poor leaders and lessons learned on my part have uniquely shaped this vision. Difficult to be a good follower when your leader lacks competency, integrity, and your trust. If a leader takes credit for work other than their own, or forces and ideology onto others, but does not follow it themselves; these negative influences damage the trust and respect required by all leaders. However, positive experiences can also have a career lasting impact. A leader who inspires through personal actions and convictions can change how an entire unit operates without ever saying a word.

My definition of Leadership is similar to the Coast Guard’s definition of Leadership, which is to influence others to achieve the same goal. The Coast Guard’s definition of leadership from the Leadership Development Framework COMDTINST M5351.3 is Leadership is the ability to influence others to obtain their obedience, respect, confidence, and loyal cooperation. My previous leadership influences during my career were able to lead myself and my shipmates by influencing us to accomplish many missions. The BMC Rick Barones and the MKCM Darcy Collins of the Coast Guard influence their people with compassion and respect. They also lead with confidence and knowledge of their rates and craft, which made them worth listening to.

1. Webster’s Dictionary defines leadership as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization”. That definition does the word no justice as leadership can look like a great many things to different people, and there are equally as many ways to lead. A leader can lead through fear or respect, by word or by action. Numerous leaders have influenced my career and leadership style to this point. Most notably, the Chief of my first Patrol Boat was one of the biggest influences I have experienced in my career. He conveyed confidence, empowered his people, and exuded the charisma to inspire people to want to be better, if nothing else, to not disappoint him. Simultaneously, he demonstrated the ability to hold people accountable, and

What a semester it was. From all the undergraduate classes I have taken, I truly enjoyed this one the most. It was meaningful and different from the traditional classes I have taken. I have gained new experiences, perspectives and friends from this class. From all the meaningful moments during our time together, I would say the simplest and subtle moments were the most meaningful. For me, I truly enjoyed the three deep breaths that we would take in the beginning of class. For most people, they were just three random breaths, but for me they were much more. That was the moment during the day where I got stop everything I was doing, physically and mentally. The breaths were therapeutic to me where I got the chance to let go of all the stress and thoughts of the day and just think of nothing. This

Leadership to me is the ability to influence other people to accomplish things they normally wouldn’t do on their own. In that respect leaders can be positive or negative. A good leader will push an individual or group to places they never thought possible. In order to do this they have to have extensive knowledge and foresight in their field. A bad leader has no plan of action and will dump an excessive amount of responsibility on those beneath them due to their own incompetence. I have had the privilege of working with both types leaders. I say privilege because I’ve learned just as much from both types. I have always strived to be the best mechanic and aircrew member that I could be in my career. The leadership influences I have respected the most are the guys who knew their subject of expertise; mainly the Chief and First Class Petty Officers that knew everything about the aircraft we were flying on. Those are the people that I always looked up to and wanted to be around because I always knew I was going to learn something new from them. As I have progressed in rank and realm of responsibility, the area of knowledge that is important to my job has changed, but not the type of leader I respect. The leaders that still have the greatest influence on me remain the people that have extensive knowledge in their area of expertise and are able to teach their knowledge to those that need it.

Being able to critique oneself is especially difficult when attempting to pick out the flaws that need to be worked on. In my personal life, I have been able to capitalize on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths. For example, I used to be socially awkward and not be able to hold a conversation if my life depended on it. I have since joined Toastmasters, an organization that is determined to help its members achieve their goals, and have been able to overcome social anxiety as well as build a solid network that includes my fellow members in the organization.

I define leadership as the ability to provide the strength to provide coverage and support a Sailor, regardless of rank. To instill values, provide training and the tools one will need to excel in both their professional and personal life. To support a Sailor, any Sailor, during the high times of a career, but to be a solid force if there are any lows.

. I always assumed that leadership was more on how you managed people. If I accomplished the day’s tasking successfully, I led my people properly. After making Chief Petty Officer (CPO) in 2010, I started to see that leading was not managing and vice versa. As a CPO, it was not just about “me” but more about those under me. Eventually when I advanced to Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO), things finally clicked on what leadership meant. I also started to realize what kind of leader I was and how I wanted to lead. Now after almost 21 years of active duty service, I can confidently state that leadership is about people and taking care of those people. It is not selfless and you must practice what you preach. If you lead by example and inspire those who follow but at the same time not have fears of following others, you will become an excellent leader. My best example of a leader who inspired me in my career was a man named Pat DeQuattro and who at the time was an LCDR. Of course now he is a Rear Admiral and I honestly feel he could be one of our next Commandants in the future. Admiral DeQuattro was my TACLET CO and the way he inspired me was by leading by example. Specifically I remember that he was the only CO that would deploy with a team and conduct boarding’s. I’ll never forget seeing him in coveralls and conducting an intrusive search for contraband alongside me and my teammates. For me this stated that he did not feel he was better than us and he was not going to ask us

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.

Making the transition into the role of an effective leader has not come intuitively, being someone who has spent their lifetime honing the attributes of impeccable followership. I have been privileged to have a select few mentors in my career to positively influence my idea of leadership. Unfortunately, numerous of the qualities of leadership that I strive for derive from the more abundant negative examples. These factors have all had a share in developing my personal leadership philosophy: working with others to provide direction towards a common goal.

As I felt my hands getting sweaty and my heart beating faster, I took a deep breath and entered discussion hall where I had three students waiting for me. I had been assigned to help them in geometry because they were struggling in the course and were not growing on the ACT. I’ve never been in charge of any student’s growth until I was told by my principal who taught my leadership seminar class to help these students. When I was asked to complete this task, I initially thought it was not for me. I struggled tremendously in math freshman year and I had never been a leader of a group. I tended to shy away and stay in the back while someone else took the lead. My principal thought otherwise; she believed that I displayed leadership qualities in class, and she noticed my growth in math. She saw the way I interacted with my peers, gave helpful feedback, and motivated those around me. I began to notice the qualities she saw in me, and I decided to take a risk and help these students.

On the morning of November 2, 2017, I woke up upset and feeling unmotivated—this tends to happen from time-to-time. In fact, I have a habit of second-guessing every step that I take, as well as tend to underestimate myself, especially my ability to succeed academically and professionally. As I walked out of my room and into the bathroom, I found myself being speechless; however, my state-of-mind began to change the moment I started getting dressed to head to New York City, the “world arena, to attend a DPI and NGO youth lead briefing—“An In-Depth Look at How You Can Affect Change Through Policy and Action.” As I got dressed, I told myself the following: “Kevin, you are succeeding and you will continue to succeed and make a difference in society.” I fully realized this the moment my colleagues and I began making our way to the “world arena.” My colleague, Kristina Tawadros and I currently have a pivotal leadership role in Felician’s United Nations Fellowship Program. For the past two weeks, Kristina and I have been leading our class to the United Nations, and it has been an amazing and life-changing experience for me. When I think of leadership, I think of taking the importance of taking initiative and sharing of one’s passion for the work that he or she does. In fact, Robin Sharma, a Canadian writer, lawyer, and leadership speaker once said, “Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results,

As I reflect on what I’ve learned this semester and what I’ve learned about myself and academically I’m pleasantly surprised. I had moments this semester when I thought, “I’m not going to make it.” I did, thank god, but I’m now in the middle of finals week looking back and pondering who I am becoming. She’s nothing like who I would’ve imagined when I was younger but she’s stronger and more compassionate. I feel like each semester I become more and more the person I’ve always wanted to be and to parallel that I learn new material and concepts that I’ll carry with me and find ways to implement them in my life and in my career as I move forward. One of the most relevant classes this semester has been Intro to management because of it’s immediate applicability. I realized I had strengths I had never recognized and things I could grow in. As we covered each module I tried to analyze myself and compare myself currently to who I’d want to be. I want to a mentor who can help encourage constructive conflict, and help create change by leveraging my power ethically and effectively. I want to become a visionary who can bring about change in the world and in my workplace by effectively walking people through the process of change, but I know in order to do that I need to learn boundaries and how to keep people accountable for non-compliance. I could also learn a lot about how to better organize and coordinate projects, after I have communicated the vision. Through this class I’ve

If you ask anyone about the importance of leadership, you will undoubtedly hear about how important of a task it is. Ask that person what leadership is and you will hear as many answers as the amount of people you ask. In all honesty, there is surely a decent amount of subjectivity that goes into it, but there are certain things that are non-negotiables in leadership. I have read my fair share of leadership books whether for class or for leisure. I could always pull certain things that I liked or believed would be helpful as I am being shaped into the leader that I one day hope to be. However, this book was different.

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.