Personal Leadership Development

At the beginning of the term, the two main behaviors I wanted to improve upon were challenging the process (Five Practices of Leadership) by asking questions that I found to be necessary and managing my self-awareness (Emotional Intelligence) by actively paying attention to how I act in certain situations and listening to team feedback to make sure my ideas are being communicated in the encouraging way that I want them to. I had to push myself beyond my comfort zone to be able to talk out when I did not agree with an idea. As the term went on, I noticed I was asking more and more questions to make sure our team was on the right track and heading where we wanted to. To make sure I was communicating my ideas in an encouraging way, I had to gauge how my team was responding to my questions and ideas. Making jokes at the appropriate times helped show my team that I was not ever mad or angry, but instead motivated and upbeat about the project. I believe I accomplished both goals, but I can always improve upon these and will carry what I learned in this class into the professional world. I was glad I got to experiment with different ideas to help me improve in these areas. I actively pushed myself to ask questions when I could have just let the matter work out itself or keep the decision as it is. I communicated alternate opinions to make sure, although we already had an idea, that we were making the best decisions possible. After the midterm peer evaluations, I realized my teammates supported my actions, but still believed I should speak up more so I did my best to talk more and give more ideas. Thinking of ideas before meetings helped me say more and help out the team. I believe making these changes helped the team stay motivated and come up with the best decisions we had available. Sometimes the ideas I came up with may have been forced, but that just made it so we were just that much more sure about another idea. Something that I learned that could not be explained in the articles and models in class were how specific people respond to certain tones of voice and ideas. Some people take criticism  better than other and that can only be gauged by experience with those people. I need to continue to push myself to speak out so it becomes more of a habit than a forced action. I also need to continue to monitor myself and my peers’ reactions to my actions to contemplate what works well and what doesn’t. Going forward, I will use and expand off of the ideas I have practiced in this class to help myself become the professional that I want to be.