3 Semester Review

Reflection

1. My time in Public Leadership has been deepened during my two years in the scholars program. Before I joined PL, I thought leadership was a very defined practice with a certain checklist of characteristics needed. Now that I have completed my courses, I realize that there are so many different styles and qualities associated with leadership and no leader is the exact same as another. 

2. I find myself to be a consensus leader due to the fact that I am always willing to hear every person's side and understand their motives and am very empathetic. I realize that in formal leadership, a directive approach is often necessary but I have reflected and decided that it is best to combine directive and consensus leadership in a formal setting. As a leader, I believe that actions speak louder than words and always try to lead by example. As a continue to grow as a leader, I want to try to develop some of my directive characteristics such as my assertiveness and confidence because those are traits that don't come as easily to me as some of the consensus traits such as empathy and being a good listener. 

3. The piece of work that has influenced me the most during my time in PL is my Leadership Philosophy paper, attached at the bottom of this page. Being able to reflect on what my Dad, who is my role model, has done as a leader has allowed me to realize which of his traits I want to emulate in my own leadership style and also which traits I wish to add to my style of leadership. My dad's ability to listen to others, his commitment to his family, and his strong communications skills have allowed his to successfully lead his company through a pandemic and still be a supporting father who is always there for us. In addition to my dad's strong leadership style, I aim to also strengthen my empathy and organization skills to become the best leader I can be. 

4. This past semester, I served as the Director of New Members for my sorority. I was responsible for planning multiple events for the entire 150 person chapter and leading 45 girls through their new member process. This job was very demanding and a lot of my patience and leadership skills were put to the test. There were times where I wanted to lose my patience with the girls because I was very overwhelmed, but I always chose to remain positive because I knew how important it was to make sure the girls respected me as a leader and did not feel scared coming to me with  questions and concerns. I did not know if I was doing a good job in this position until one night I had multiple girls reach out to me about personal problems they were having both in the sorority and outside of the sorority. This was a great moment for me because I realized some of the informal leadership traits that I had been trying to employ such as empathy and being a good listener had actually paid off. 

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