Brian Blackiston

After carefully reading over my Leadership Development Plan as well as reflecting on where I started and where I am now, I realize I have come a long way.  Starting off, I realized my main two struggles that I wanted to change were encouraging the heart by complementing and supporting the other members in my group, as well as being aware of other members of the group’s feelings.

The first focus I had was to take more time to actively listen and understand each member of the group’s point of view and where they were coming from.  I love to talk a lot and it took me a little while to understand the equal importance that active listening has.  Throughout the course of the term, I started listening more and fully understanding the point of views of each of the members in my group.  Multiple times, when I listened to group members, I used their ideas in combination with mine to create a stronger idea to discuss. This ultimately led to a more productive group camaraderie, which our group saw as one of our strongest areas.  Due to our overall understanding of each other’s ideas and emotions, we avoided conflict and worked tremendously as a group.

In regards to encouraging the heart, the main focus I had was being optimistic with everything involving our project.  Whether this was supporting ideas or providing constructive criticism, the best way to encourage people to succeed and be confident in them was through positive reinforcement.  The main example of this was when a couple members of the group were not a fan of speaking in public and presenting for the class.  Through encouraging them and giving them confidence, these members were a little more comfortable in an area that they were uncomfortable being in.  Encouraging the heart is essential for the overall success of the group because it prevents members from getting too discouraged and helps to provide a positive working environment.

The main problem I saw with the things I put in place was that it was not tangible and the success was ultimately up to my own personal interpretation.  When I encouraged members of the group, it was difficult knowing if this played an impact on their performance or if it was just an empty statement without much meaning.  Granted, I felt my actions were effective and our group worked effectively throughout the term.

Moving forward beyond this class, I feel like the main problem I need to work on is my ability to challenge the process.  In the midterm evaluation, challenging the process was an area two members of my group said I needed to improve upon.  I get caught backing out of areas I am uncomfortable being in and this is something I noticed during the term.  Through working strongly on presenting both the introduction and conclusion in each presentation, I put myself in an area of unease which was something I saw, improved my leadership abilities.  However, my ability to challenge the process was something I definitely lacked during the term.  The way to change this going forward is staying in the uncomfortable areas outside of my comfort zone.  I back out at times and this does not challenge myself as a leader.

Overall, I have learned more about myself as a leader in this class than in any other class or experience I have had.  Outside of the leadership principles and emotional intelligence, I have learned a lot about other leadership strategies that work.  The first thing I learned is that everyone leads in a different way and no way is right or wrong.  The best leaders are those who utilize the strengths and improve the weaknesses of not only themselves, but everyone who they come into contact with.  When leaders work together, the main problem is conflicts of interest however if you know when to step forward and when to just listen, that is when leaders are the most productive and leadership is at it’s strongest.  Active listening was by far the most important aspect of leadership abilities I learned and although it was states indirectly in the packet, I feel like this leadership ability is key to overall success.

This class taught me a lot about myself and I have grown tremendously.  Not only have I improved in my communications ability both verbally and written but as a leader, I have become stronger and more confident.  From week 1 to week 10, I have proved incredibly and I know that this class is just a step into becoming the leader I know that I can be.