Final Blog Post- Personal Leadership Development

Overall Goals:

When I made my Leadership Development Plan in the beginning of the term I wanted to improve on a couple practices of leadership. The two main leadership qualities I wanted to accomplish were to Challenge the Process and Social Awareness. Challenging the Process was one of the Five Practices of Leadership and Social Awareness was an area of Emotional Intelligence. I thought if I can take action in these two areas my overall direction of leadership would improve by the end of the term. I measure my success in these areas by the impact I had on my group members through the evaluation reports and also on personal experience I had during the term.

Challenging the Process

As for Challenging the Process, I wanted to become more involved with group discussion rather than agreeing with every idea. Before this class I was hesitant to speak in groups and never thought about challenging other opinions. As I learned in this class this practice of leadership was a perfect opportunity to try this in a group setting. Ideas are always stated and agreed with because people fear hurting someone’s feelings, so this term I tried to improve some of those ideas by offering an opposite view. During the entire proposal process I would make sure that each topic that was discussed had multiple viewpoints. This allowed the group to recognize each opinion and then as a group we would settle on one idea. Sometimes I would challenge and my idea would be the one thrown out, but at least it allowed our group to generate more ideas than just agreeing with one.

During the mid-term evaluations I saw my improvements made right away. Although none of the group comments actually stated I was challenging the process, a couple comments talked about voicing my opinion when I disagreed. These comments reflected my progression in challenging the process. As we shift now to the final evaluations, my strengths as indicated by a couple of my team members was Challenging the Process. These comments gave me a measure of success on how I went about challenging the process throughout the term. My ability to challenge other opinions was seen as strength by my group so I feel successful in reaching this practice of leadership.

Social Awareness

I knew coming into this class that I needed to take necessary action to realize and understand others in my group in order for the group to create good chemistry. This goal was harder for me just simply because it is just one of those ideas that it hard for me to accomplish with my personality. I will always try and work on it and by having this attitude I feel like I will accomplish this goal. Saying that there were some positives that I accomplished over the term with social awareness.

The mid-term evaluations reflected my ability to respect the group always, but did not emphasize the signs of respect I demonstrated. Saying this it goes to show that my effort in social awareness still needs to improve and I recognize this. On the final evaluations, I took it as making progress but also still needing to work on this type of leadership. My feedback was both positive and negative in this area. I will continue to develop this leadership quality to make a stronger impact on my groups moving forward.

Process Success and Failure:

Success

Even though I was trying to improve these two ideas of leadership and saw success, there were also processes that did not work. As for what did work was how I came prepared to every meeting with questions or ideas I could bring up that could challenge the process. This process gave me the proper preparation when I arrived at meetings and topics came up that I had already noted down. If a group member had a different idea on a specific idea on the proposal I would challenge that idea with the notes I prepared before the meeting. Moving forward, I will use this same technique because it was a positive process that allowed me to excel in group meetings.

Failure

As for a process that did not work out was trying to remain positive each meeting by telling each teammate how they are contributing to the group. I thought this would encourage the heart so I planned on trying this each meeting, but never actually did it. I feel this could have impacted the team in a positive way and kept team members engaged by always giving them positive reinforcement. I feel like I was always too worried about getting tasks completed during the meetings that I looked past encouraging the heart. Looking back, I feel as if trying to complete the task in a convenient fashion can distract someone from actually acknowledging the quality of work being done. As I progress as a leader, I will continue to try and recognize effort that should be recognized.

Improvements to be Made

Moving forward, I still need to work on Social Awareness. During one of the last meetings I discouraged the conclusion of our proposal that one member worked hard on and it was not taken lightly. I need to continue to focus on what others contribute and make them know that I appreciate their effort. I feel like over time in my time at the business school and even after this skill will improve. Over the course of the term, I appreciated team member’s work, but made a few mistakes like the one mentioned above. No one is perfect, but I can learn from my mistakes and improve on those mistakes that will make me a better leader.

What Did I Learn

Over the term, I realized that people in my group demonstrated types of leadership that they did not recognize. When writing the peer and final evaluations I assessed areas of leadership that the group member did not even recognize. I learned after analyzing the way group members work is that leadership can just be the use of eye contact or even a handshake that people relate to either good or bad leadership skills. Saying this, I was critiqued on some leadership skills differently than I would have assessed myself. Leadership is a powerful word that can be interpreted in many ways and because of that I have experienced that people fail to recognize traits of leadership that they do indeed possess.

Although I did not perfect my goals over the ten weeks, I recognize that my leadership skills are still in the beginning stage and will continue to improve over time. As I continue my professional career I feel confident that the traits of leadership I have learned in this class will help me succeed when I am put in a real professional setting.

Professionalism Grade

Over the course of the term I have been asked to evaluate my performance of professionalism based on a five part rubric. I will propose how many points I feel I deserve for each of the categories below.

Punctuality: 

Based on the criteria for punctuality I feel I should receive 10 out of the 10 points. Throughout the term I was always on time to class and never once did miss a class. I always made sure I was at least a few minutes early to class each day to show responsibility. As for the memo and Career Services appointments, I made sure I was 5 minutes early because I knew along with myself they had busy schedules too. I feel first impressions are a huge part of being a professional and by being early to these meetings showed that I care. As for the team meetings, my group members on both the mid-evaluation and final evaluation said one of my strengths was always being flexible with my schedule and coming early and prepared to team meetings. Coming on-time to meetings was important to me because like a job it showed I was ready to work at the time of the meeting. Also during the weeks leading up to the presentation, I made sure I was present at every rehearsal of the presentation to gain continuity with my group members. Based on my perfect and on time attendance throughout the term I feel I deserve the entire 10 points. Score: 10/10

Participation: 

My participation in the class I felt was above average, but I feel I could have answered more questions during class than I did this term. I was hesitant to speak in class in the beginning but as the class went on I answered more questions because I grew more confident. As for the first group presentation, I volunteered because I wanted to improve on my public speaking skills and become more confident talking in front of my classmates. After the presentation, I found myself participating more in class discussions. By participating more in class during the second half of the term I felt like I was contributing more to the class than before. One example of this was when Career Services came into our class to discuss the cover letter. I volunteered a few times during the discussion because the class seemed hesitant to speak. I feel after I participated the class started to participate more as well. Before this class I probably would have sat back, but in this case I volunteered to add to the discussion of the class. Since I started to participate more as the term progressed I feel I could have participated more in the beginning of the term. For this reason, I feel I deserve 8 out of the 10 points. Score: 8/10

Respect for Others: 

Over the course of the term I always made an effort to respect all of my group members ideas and when meeting with the GTF’s and Career Services I took their feedback and applied it to my memo and resume. For example, when meeting when the GTF for the memo I listened to her advice and notes on what I was doing wrong and applied those notes to my memo. As a result, I improved my overall score from a P to a 30 out of 40. By listening to her feedback and applying it straight to my memo I was rewarded with positive results. During group meetings I always listened to each group members ideas and never shot down an idea. Through the in class exercises and the readings I learned that one of the most important ideas to a group is to welcome any and every idea. Saying this I tried to link every idea to our proposal in a positive way. One thing I could have done better though was to stay on task more during each team meeting. Our group sometimes went off topic for periods of time and I could have done a better job of limiting off topic discussions. During my final feedback I was aware that during one of the last meetings for the proposal I said something that a group member took the wrong way. We met for like 7-8 hours that day and I guess I said something that a group member did not like. Although I had a final the next day and was overwhelmed with the length of time we were meeting for I should have been more respectful in that moment. Other than that I feel I was always respectful and a positive team member that encouraged others to form ideas that could improve our group dynamic. For these reasons, I feel I earned an 8 out of 10 in this category. Score: 8/10

Preparation: 

For the readings of the class, I always had the articles read before I came to class. I felt prepared when the topics discussed in class were linked to the readings and felt more intrigued in class discussion. As for the assignments, I submitted each assignment on time and on safe assign and made sure each assignment was completed correctly. When writing the mid-term and final evaluation forms, I made sure I wrote information that my group members could learn from or recognize what their strengths are. I always checked the weekly class schedule on Sundays to make sure I had all the correct information for the week ahead. I never had to rely on other people in the class to let me know when assignments were due because I was always prepared ahead of time by looking on the course website. When we had tasks to complete individually in our group I made sure every member knew their part and came prepared to meetings and class. For example as a group we all had different roles and tasks and through group messaging I made sure my task would be completed before every group meeting. Due to my responsibility for turning in assignments on time and coming prepared to every class and group meeting I feel I have earned 1o out of 10 points in this category. Score: 10/10

Initiative and Motivation: 

Before taking this class I was unfamiliar with all the services that the Lundquist College of Business offers to each student. Throughout the term I realized the benefits that these services could offer and now plan to use these services more often in the upcoming terms. One service I feel I could of took more advantage of is the teacher’s office hours. I feel like during the proposal process my group and I could have used the availability of office hours to make necessary improvements with the proposal during the course of ten weeks. From being hesitant in the beginning of the term to talking regularly in every group meeting I came a long way in regards to my personal leadership development. I learned to challenge other member’s ideas to make sure each idea that was brought up could positively contribute to our proposal. As seen in my final peer evaluations, my group members recognized this trait of challenging the process. Before this class I would have been hesitant to challenge and improve ideas, but I learned this type of leadership is an important part for the group to progress. During the proposal I also took advantage of student interviews and research on our proposal topic. This allowed me to connect with other students in the LCB and get their insight on what services could be improved or changed. Saying this, I used this information in our proposal to strengthen our overall argument. Based on this evidence I feel I earned a 9 out of 10 in this area. Score: 9/10

Overall Score: 45/50

Based on my explanation and my actions over the term, I feel that I have earned 45 out of 50 points. I feel that my professionalism over the term has steadily improved and my efforts and actions have reflected that. The concepts and experience I learned in this class is only going to benefit me moving forward.

 

Preparation for Final Presentation

Now that we are coming to the end of the group project, my focus this week has been on the group presentation. Over the term I feel as if I have gained more confidence talking in front of my peers, which was challenging at first but the more I challenged myself the easier it got. By presenting in the first presentation I was able to build more confidence  when speaking in front of my classmates. If I sat out of that first presentation my confidence would still be at the same level it was before the presentation, so challenging myself to participate in that first presentation allowed me to move forward rather than stay the same. Also by interacting with my group every class and interacting with other classmates throughout the term has allowed me to gain confidence.

As my group and I get ready for this presentation, I can sense the relief of all of work coming to an end. I feel ending this project with a presentation will show off all the hard work we have put into this project over the course of nine weeks. Overall, I have felt that our group has worked well together throughout the term and always were supportive of the final decisions that were made. This being said, I feel the same type of attitude will be carried into the presentation. I feel if I am supportive and positive of my team going into the presentation, my group will do the same for me. I am looking forward to presenting our final product and presenting all the work we have put in over the course of the term.

Social Awareness

This week has been the busiest group week out of the entire term. It has taken a lot of work to reconstruct our proposal and because of that our group has met everyday this week. I have found myself through working hours on this proposal improving my ability to be socially aware of other’s thoughts to improve the quality of our proposal. Being able to empathize with others was an idea I wanted to improve on when coming into this class and this week has shown my improvements. I have learned it is important to understand different points of views from each group member in order to create the best possible ideas. This has helped our group develop the best possible ideas when constructing our proposal. For example, when working on our situation analysis our group realized we needed to use more evidence when backing up our claims. As a result, we invited each group member to express ideas that we could use to improve the claims we made from our first draft. This allowed our group to develop more solid claims that our evidence could back up, whereas before our claims were not supported strongly enough.

This process challenged my ability to be aware of every idea presented whether it was right or wrong and it resulted in our group coming up with our strongest ideas of the term. Before this class I might have been irritated with some of the ideas presented, but after working in a group for several weeks I have learned to welcome new ideas instead of reject them. By writing down that I need to be more socially aware in my Leadership Development Plan, it has helped me reflect on the last 8 weeks and point out the improvements I have made in this area. Overall, I have improved on my ability to value each group member’s perspective on each decision that we make as a group and as a result, our group has came together and worked well when developing our final proposal.

Group Feedback

In class on Monday, I got my face to face feedback from a member of my team and received my overall performance in the group halfway trough the term. I was very humbled and excited to see my feedback as mostly positive and I believe it reflects the time and work I have been putting into the group. When getting back my feedback I compared it to my leadership development plan and saw the progress I have made in five weeks, but also the areas I still need to improve on. One area in which I was given high praise was in offering knowledgeable insight in group meetings. In the start of the term I tended to listen more and offer less insight, but to hear that feedback from my group means I am doing a good job communicating and expressing my opinions on certain topics during group discussion. Another area that I am progressing in is developing new ideas to help the team move forward. This was an area I wanted to improve upon in my Leadership Development Plan, and to receive that feedback encourages me to keep bringing new insightful ideas to group discussion each week. One area that I need to continue to develop is my ability to encourage other group members to participate on every topic in group discussion. I plan to bring new ideas to the table, but forget to invite other group members ideas by asking them what they think about a certain topic. I feel if I continue to improve this concept our group will be even more successful than it already is.

Overall, I feel I have made tremendous strides in my leadership development and try to improve on at least one idea every time I meet with my group. So far in the term, my group is working well together and communicating on a daily basis to reach our goals. I feel if I continue to work on my own leadership skills and encourage others our group can reach our full potential.

Group Self-Evaluation

Now that the term is about half-way through, I feel I am now comfortable in a team setting. Our team has definitely improved from the first meeting, where we had little direction and minimal communication. I feel as if our group, myself included are now comfortable as a team and the work we are performing is reflective of our chemistry. As for myself, I feel as if I had made positive strides since the first group meeting. Going into this class I knew I needed to improve my public speaking skills, and by presenting on Monday I feel I am making slow but positive improvements. I would give myself a good but not great overall grade in my group because I feel there are more things I could improve on. One of these being my participation in group discussion. In the beginning I was less involved and would speak up only a handful of times during the discussion. I am now speaking on almost every topic discussed within the group and not shy about voicing my thoughts on certain parts on our proposal. Another improvement that I can make is performing more research for my group. I have been doing an adequate amount of research, but I feel I need to gather more information that will help my group gain a stronger understanding on our topic. I plan on making these improvements over the next half of this term and will continue to provide positive improvements on our group moving forward. All in all, I feel I am making solid improvements to help my  team grow and accomplish our goals as a team.

Personal Resume #1

This week I developed my resume into a professional style resume. I chose to go with an internship posting because I had high interest in what the internship was offering. The job posting I directed my resume towards, was interning as a personal assistant to an NFL football player. Before this assignment, I already possessed a job resume from prior job experience but after learning more about the details of a resume I saw that my resume needed some work. The first problem I saw with my resume was the format. The dates on my resume were in long form instead of abbreviated form and the right alignment of the dates were not even. Attending the resume workshop allowed me to highlight small mistakes on my resume that job seekers will notice if not corrected accordingly.

I feel this assignment went a lot smoother than the memo assignment because I already had a understanding about resumes. Since, I had jobs in the past I had to present a resume when applying. On the other hand, I have never been asked to write a memo. Therefore, I feel the feedback I receive for the resume will include more positives than I received for the memo.

Memo #1 Results

This week I received feedback from my first memo assignment in my educational career. Although I was not pleased with the grade on the Memo, I realize it is the first memo I have ever written. All I can do is improve from this and learn more of the structure on how to write a memo. One piece of positive feedback I received was with the skim value of the memo. I did not receive much positive feedback, but at least build off of the overall appearance of my memo. To be honest I was in a way shocked by the feedback, because I thought my final product was better than the feedback proposed. I knew right away I needed to go get tutored because my skills are obviously very raw. When writing this memo I quickly realized how the style of a business memo is completely different than writing a normal four page paper for a political science class. From the heading to the overall structure, this professional style of writing is completely different. Not only is it shorter in length than your typical essay, but it includes formatting details such as bullet points and major headings. These formatting ideas are new to my style of writing, therefore, I need to practice to improve just like anything else.

Today, I had an appointment with one of the TA’s to go over my memo and what I needed to improve on to improve my grade. This meeting was beneficial because it gave me a better understanding of the correct structure that is required and allowed me to improve upon my original idea. I thought I would completely change the topic I was writing on, but the meeting assured me that my topic was acceptable by changing a few parts. My needs part of the memo was lacking the need element and instead I was proposing more of a solution than a need. I plan on re-writing my memo this weekend and scheduling another appointment to get feedback on my improvements. Overall, this memo assignment showed me that I have much improvement to be made in my professional writing style.

Group Introduction

During the week, I had the opportunity to get together with my group and brainstorm ideas that will create a successful atmosphere for the next nine weeks. When reading the Five Practices of Leadership, one of the topics stood out to me. That topic was Inspire a Shared Vision. I thought this topic was fitting considering it was the first time our group came together to discuss the roles and goals of our group and what we wanted to accomplish. First, as a group we decided what our final goal for the project would be. Then we moved on to discuss other group details like roles. When we all sat down to discuss our roles, we knew we were picking roles that would end up help produce our final product. These roles were picked from the same vision that led each one of our members to coming up with one ultimate goal. Without a vision or inspiration, goals and ideas can never be achieved. That is why, when reading this article I realized we all had to inspire the same vision for the final product before we started this journey of ten weeks.

First Week of Class

Coming in to the class I had an understanding on what the class would entail and so far it has lived up to that. I enjoy how the class is group oriented and how collaboration among peers is crucial to your success in the class. Saying that, this class is unlike any other class I have taken thus far at the University of Oregon. I believe this class will help improve my public speaking skills and allow me to work in a professional setting that will help prepare me for life after college. I look forward to the challenge this class brings to me as a student and am looking forward to working together with my group.