Reflection

Leadership 101’s effect

How has the work you have done in this course promoted reflection on individual strengths, identity, and power, and how has this contributed to your understanding of leadership or your capacity to lead?

‘The most important thing about communication is hearing what isn’t being said’ Expanding my view on the importance of complete communication is the most prominent lesson the Leadership 101 course has shown me. This reflected on my individual strength of being a strong empath in a constructive and destructive sense when it comes to me being a leader. In this class we have reflected on our interpersonal strengths through the CliftonStrengths program. In my results, I showed an aptitude for Influencing and Relationship Building, important skills for someone looking to create long lasting relationships. This class however showed me the downfall of solely focusing on the social aspect of leadership as being a leader includes being knowledgeable and productive. I observed this prevalence through the Mine Okubo’s ‘Citizen 13660’, where she doesn’t make it a point to build connection with the other people around her, but rather grow her leadership of her narrative through productive knowledge about the conditions in the camp and the effect thereof on the people around her. For me in my practice as a leader I tend to neglect the other side of leadership that comes with the academic and knowledge building of the group. The value in creating an actual product was shown to me through our leadership 101 class. Here while we do have class discussions and do have a focus on collaboration, we are required to collaborate over how we leader different facets of knowledge. Through especially this recent debate where I had to argue that ‘yes, it is ethical to write about other’s lives in one’s own testimony’. While yes, I don’t find myself incapable of creating knowledge and utilizing points, I have become more self-aware through the course that as a leader I am lacking in the standpoint of contributing relevant information. While this is not an issue when it comes to me getting to the position of leadership, it does come to head when trying to maintain that trust and confidence in me as a leader to others. I find myself from this course as more of a supporting role and then a leading one; I like to lead people to confidence rather than make example of myself as some strong, ironclad leader. However, I believe that’s a role so consistently devalued in the world of leadership that it makes me more of a leader in my strongest section of the social facets. Returning to the base quote from Peter Drucker that the most important thing to hear is what’s not being said; Reading into what others need and truly mean rather what they feel comfortable enough to ask for is the most key skill the internal reflection created by this course has shown me. As a leader knowing your audience is more than just outward casing, but more so knowing what they’re unconsciously and conscientiously looking for. I observed this through the reading Rigoberta Menchu’s memoir ‘I, Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian woman in Guatemala’ where she’s faced criticism for fabricating the perspective but not the story. However, in a culture where gaining empathy is the best way to get a reaction, she died what she believed was best to help her community. Lastly another facet of my leadership perspective that this course has made me look into looking at things (and individuals) ‘for what they are not for what they can become’; especially believing in this as a leader fortifies development.