Since the start of my Leadership Development Plan, I have spent an excess amount of time reflecting on my past experiences and leadership skills. This assignment has forced me to look into my participation and role in the various groups I am involved in, and pull out the components that make me a leader. Through this continuous reflection process, I have realized that I am extremely self-aware. I have a strong understand of my emotions, thought processes, and reactions to specific situations. But I have also realized, through this experience, that I have much difficulty pin-pointing my personal-best skills and qualities.

When I first started thinking about self reflection, prior to taking the Student Leadership Self-Assessment Survey, I was anxious. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to articulate or interpret my leadership experiences into tangible and specific skill sets. I had always thought of myself as a leader, but conveying my experiences into action plans or resume bullet points and cover letters seemed daunting and overwhelming. Then, after reading about the 5 Practices of Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, I was better able to categorize the type of leader I am. This was extremely helpful in my self-reflection, because I was able to see the structure of what made up a “great leader”. Before, leadership to me involved an exceptionally long list of traits, an extroverted personality, and much experience to back it all up. Now, I feel like I have much more to say when conveying my experiences into specific leadership characteristics.

Self-reflection is a continuous endeavor that I will be pursuing all term and the rest of my college career.