The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership Model
BA 352 has taught me that my original definition of leadership was incomplete. I used to think that leadership was only acquired by those who were extraverted, because it involved talking in front of crowds, directing groups of people, and organizing teams to accomplish a goal. Now, I strongly believe that anyone with a vision and a goal can be a leader, if they work toward building the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. In Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s book, The Leadership Challenge, they state that, “Leadership is not about personality; it’s about behavior.” Leadership can be created through acquiring a strong understanding of self and of other people. Successful leaders have a strong grasp on both emotional intelligence and on each of the 5 practices:

• Model the Way
• Inspire a Shared Vision
• Challenge the Process
• Enable Other to Act
• Encourage the Heart

With that in mind, I know I can create leadership opportunities in almost all aspects of my life. Although I scored lowest in Modeling the Way and Challenging the Process in my Student Leadership Practices Survey, I have made major progress in those areas throughout the term. In my Personal Leadership Development blog post I talked about my improvements in Modeling the Way, so I will focus the following section on my progress in Challenging the Process.

Challenging the Process
This component of leadership development involves searching for opportunities by taking initiative. Challenging the Process means to experiment, take risks, and look for innovative ways to improve. Great leaders are able to venture out and continuously seek out challenges in order to test their capabilities. “They search for opportunities to innovate, grow, and improve,”–excerpt from The Leadership Challenge.

This course has really helped me grow in this area of leadership development. Throughout the term, I worked on staying highly motivated and taking initiative on every task assigned to me. Especially within a group setting, I am consciously aware of my actions toward Challenging the Process. For example, when the other groups in our BA 352 class had very similar proposal ideas, a teammate and I recognized an opportunity to do something different. We collaborated on interviewing more stakeholders to solidify our conjectures and eventually presented the proposition to the rest of our group. Even though we had to revise our original idea several times, we eventually created a successful proposal for the class. Aside from my initial contribution to recognizing the new opportunity, I also supported the idea from its starting place to the final presentation. I was willing to experiment with this, because I wanted to create an innovative solution–even if it involved taking risks.

Emotional Intelligence
Successful leaders are able to understand and manage their own emotions as well other people’s. Emotional intelligence means being able to effectively perceive, identify, and understand the emotions of the people around you, as well as yourself. In Richard L. Daft’s book, The Leadership Experience, he states that, “those who are more expressive of their own emotions and in tune with the emotions of others make more money”. At first, I was surprised to see that there was a correlation between emotions and earning power, but after reading chapter 5 of his book, I can understand his reasoning.

In my Emotional Intelligence blog post, I talked about my experiences with self-awareness, self-management, and relationship management. The following section will discuss my success in social awareness.

Social Awareness 
Socially aware leaders are able to understand and empathize with other people. They practice empathy by putting themselves in other people’s shoes, sensing their emotions and understanding their perspectives. Social awareness is the basis of relationship management. I know this from personal experience, because when I am mindful and attentive to someone else’s feelings, we begin to create a stronger bond. Social awareness can begin as early as the first interactions between kindergardeners, but you can start building better social awareness from any age. When building stronger social awareness, I found these steps to be extremely useful:

• Consider the needs of other individuals and groups
• Examine your role in conflicts
• Step out of your comfort zone
• Practice compassion

Being aware of other people’s needs is one of the best ways to practice this component of emotional intelligence. Once you understand someone’s needs, beliefs, and morals, you will have a better idea of how to help them.  In addition, knowing what they want will help you mediate conflicts that arise between you and that person. When disagreements arise, understanding the situation, emotions, and tolerance of the person you are in conflict with, will help resolve the issue much faster. Compromise happens when both parties are satisfied. Although this process might require you to step out of your comfort zone, do not be discouraged from reaching out to other people. Exposing yourself to diverse cultures and experiences will help you increase your emotional intelligence. This will help you build tolerance and understanding for your friends, coworkers, and especially for strangers. As you work toward building greater social awareness, make sure you practice compassion in your daily life. This is the key toward successful social awareness.

I use these steps in my daily life. Before and while taking the BA 352 course, I found this process to be very useful in maintaining good social awareness. Even though I have been practicing social awareness since I was young, I still remind myself of these factors that help progress my emotional intelligence.