Reflect on your understanding of leadership. How has it changed over your time in PL? What do you think of leadership now/What does leadership mean to you now?
When I entered the Public Leadership Scholars Program, the only leadership experience I had gained was in extracurricular activities in high school. Coming into the program I didn't know exactly what I wanted out of it, but knew that the skills I would learn could be applicable to any career that I chose to pursue. Throughout my time in PL I have gained knowledge of who I am in a leadership sense through personality and leadership strength tests. I have also learned how to work with a team and utilize leadership to reach a common goal within an organization. After having these experiences I believe that my understanding of leadership has changed a great deal. Before PL, I believed that leadership simply meant management and ordering others to do tasks. I now understand that there are many different kinds of leadership styles that can be used depending on the need of the situation or the team. Leadership to me now means to inspire others, to innovate, and work together to achieve a common goal.
Describe your leadership style referencing Strengths, leadership theories/styles, etc from class
At the beginning of our freshman year we took the Clifton Strengths finder test which gave me insight into the kind of leader that I am. My first strength was ideation which means that I focus on ideas and try to find connections between phenomena in the world. I also have individuation as a strength meaning that I can find the unique qualities of people and determine how different individuals can work together efficiently. I believe that this strength will greatly benefit me in my future career because it will allow me to create teams that can be productive and inspired. Woo is another strength that the test determined I have, and this strength means that I enjoy meeting new people and attempting to win them over. I have found that this strength rings true in my ability to create connections and network in my field. In accordance with the four tendencies quiz I am classified as a questioner, which means I do what I believe is best according to my own judgement. In connection with these strengths and tendencies I have found myself to be an emotionally intelligent person in that I am empathetic in my interpersonal relationships. I hope to better myself in all aspects of leaderships using what I have found about myself in this class, and hope in the future to be a transformational leader that inspires others to succeed.
How have you used an element of leadership learned through PL in your life? (either a formal leadership role or a personal interaction).
In CPPL200, we learned about toxic leadership and how to deal with toxic people that are in positions of power. Toxic leadership can be defined as a behavior from a leader that goes against the interest of the organization by sabotaging the goals of the organization and undermining the well being of their subordinates. I have experienced a kind of toxic leadership when working on a group project for a class this year. We had a leader of the group that would often belittle the rest of the members and manipulate us into thinking that our work could not be used. It was evident that this person lacked empathy and felt they could not trust the work we were putting into the project. In order to combat this, I used what I have learned in PL. When the leader would try to put us down, I would stand up to them and make it very clear that they could not treat us in that way and that we all know what we are doing. I also encouraged others to stand up to them and we reported the toxic behavior to our professor to make it known that he was not collaborating well. After using the skills that I learned in PL, they stopped belittling others and knew that they could not treat us that way.
Position Paper
This paper allowed me to connect my concern for gun safety with leadership policies, which taught me to utilize my knowledge from scholars to help argue for the safety of my community.
Leadership Philosophy Paper
In this paper, I discussed what I believe are the most important traits that a leader can possess. The paper shows how over the course of being in PL I have formed my own views of what a leader can and should be to be successful.
Service Paper
In this reflection I looked at how I can use the leadership skills I have learned from the scholars program to impact my community through service opportunities.