For the BA352 course, I believe that I should receive 44/50 points for my overall professionalism grade. Here is the breakdown of this proposed score:

Punctuality: 8/10

I am marking myself down two points because I arrived to two group meetings no more than 10 minutes. These was because of an ROTC commitment that ran longer than expected (I let the group know beforehand) and the other instance I simply thought that it was at a different time of the day and it was not intentional. I understand that showing up promptly to meetings is very important to the success of the group and I sincerely apologized for my tardiness in those two situations. Other than that, I arrived on time for all other class and group requirements.

Participation: 10/10

I made sure to always participate in some way during class and especially during our group meetings. If the class was not answering, I tried very hard to come up with something to say in order to stimulate the class.

Respect for Others: 10/10

I always treated the professor, group members, and class members respectfully and professionally. Whenever I received feedback from students, the professor, or career services, I always wrote it down so I would not forget it and show that I am not simply brushing off feedback. If the group were to ever get side-barred during a meeting, I would respectfully address that fact and get everybody back on board.

Preparation: 7/10

I am marking myself down three points because I turned in all assignments on time with the exception of my final peer evaluations. I made sure to read any assigned articles and I came to group  meetings prepared with any tasks that I had to get done for our research project.

I did not get to take advantage of Professor Bramhall’s office hours unfortunately because I had class that overlapped them. However, I did utilize the career services frequently (especially the website) and I reviewed the aspects of leadership development many time throughout the term. I always gave my 100% effort when it came to the research proposal and I went into every situation with a prospective attitude. For example, we conducted surveys with random students on campus and I was not comfortable with that initially, but I embraced it as an opportunity to develop myself.

As this term of BA352 comes to an end, I spend some time looking back and reflecting on how things have changed for me; both in terms of my opinion of the class and how I conducted myself as a person. I reviewed my Leadership Development Plan and the areas of Emotional Intelligence in which I planned on improving:

LDP- Work on Enabling Others to Act and Challenge the Process

Emotional Intelligence- Improve my use of empathy and increase my social awareness

Goals

I can honestly say that I have improved upon every one of these objectives. Initially I went into every class with these goals in the back of my head and throughout the term, I didn’t have to think about them as much. It almost became second nature. Throughout my life I have always had a hard time telling people to do things and that’s why Enabling Others to Act was my main focus. I realized I was a bit more of a spectator rather than a proponent of action. The actions I took to accomplish this were:

• Engaged quiet group members in discussion
• Led by example- if something had to be done, I took action to help show the rest of the group that they should do the same.
• When ideas were dwindling, I tried very hard to come up with something that the group could work on and improve our research, rather than simply sit back and have somebody else say what to do.
• If a group member did something particularly well, I let them know. By doing this I also encouraged the heart, but my main thought around doing this was so that the group member could continually use their skills for the betterment of our group.

Challenging the process was no easy task. I think people generally lean toward initially agreeing with something rather than analyzing it to truly question if it should be agreed with. I have personally done this. In the beginning of the course I found myself simply disagreeing with ideas on purpose, but that’s not what challenging the process is about. It’s about introducing new ideas to the group, it’s about stimulating the thought processes of every person in discussion. So I changed my approach by offering alternatives to a certain idea that I didn’t agree with rather than simply shutting them down.

I tried to increase my empathy throughout this term which also helped out my social awareness. By thinking more about what others were saying, I began to think more about myself and how I came to certain conclusions.

The Process

I thought that one aspect of the process was so critical to my development and that was the midterm peer evaluations. It is rare to have people come out and openly explain how they feel about a certain individual. I never had anything like this happen and that is why I found it so useful. Some of the feedback that I received really made me think about how I was acting because it had never occurred to me before. One thing in particular that my group members said about me was that I sometimes fell silent and did not contribute as much as they knew I could. After the evaluations I would always ask myself, “Am I contributing to this group discussion to the best of my abilities?” and I found that it helped out my empathy and social awareness as well.

Another aspect of the process that I really enjoyed were the videos of the leaders and what they did to help countless numbers of people. Here are some videos of Alice Coles and Dr.Farmer in which I am referring to. It was very useful to see what drove those individuals to go to the lengths that they did in order to accomplish something for the greater good. This was great motivation for me to go out and do great things for the project and other areas of my life (I began to put more effort into ROTC).

One thing that did not work for me as much were the weekly blog posts. I think if each week had a different structural requirement instead of the same guidance every week, I along with other students would have gotten more out of them.

What to Work On

I still have to work on speaking up during group discussion. A group member of ours, Chad, would always seem to take control of the group discussions and research efforts. This was not a bad thing, but I would always seem to wonder how he did that. What was he doing that I was not? I know that I have the leadership attributes to do so, but it just wasn’t happening with me. I then discovered after the midterm peer evaluations that I was just not speaking up when we were in a group. Many group members said that even if I had a small idea in my head, I should say it because they find that my input is very useful.

What I Learned

After taking in all the videos, the articles, the group discussions and learning from my peers, there is one thing that I found was not explicitly covered about leadership, and that is perception is reality. An individual can have all the drive and passion for something inside of them, but if they fail to project that to others and apply it, then nobody will follow them. They will be found alone in their efforts. I knew that I could have been a better leader when it came to group discussion, but I failed to act and then someone else filled that role. Alternatively, an individual may step up to the plate with some great ideas but act timid, scared, or lacking passion. People will view this individual as such and will most likely not be taken seriously.

Along with the above finding, I also realized that leadership is inside of everyone. There were members of my group that I initially doubted due to their shyness but it was amazing to see them develop into outstanding leaders. Sometimes all it takes is a little passion and drive to get someone to break out of their norm and do great things. Alice Coles was not as educated as other leaders around the world, but her passion to keep her community thriving and out of poverty is what turned her into the leader that so many people looked up to. Dr. Farmer was extremely educated and could have pursued an easier job here in the United States with possibly more income. Instead he found that he could make a huge impact on the lives of the people of Haiti.

This week was very stressful in that we had to turn in our final proposal for a grade. Because of this, we had to meet frequently and work on the project as a whole. Right before every meeting, I found myself with a bad attitude and not wanting to go. But then I did a quick re-evaluation of my attitude. Rather than feel pessimistic and stressed about the situation, I flipped it around and told myself to think positively. Being required to attend meetings and go to classes signifies that I have a purpose and I am an asset to a team. This sort of “epiphany” came from the development of my self-motivation and self-awareness competencies of Emotional Intelligence.

We are now beginning to work on our presentation. Two members of the team and myself have already spoken in front of the class for our initial presentation, and now the other half of our group will join us. When assigning what group members should say what, I recommended that one of the group members who is somewhat shy but intelligent should read our situational analysis, a very important part of our research. I didn’t realize it at the time but I enabled this person to act and I gave the power away to someone else in the group who I believed in.

I also challenged the process this week by proposing an alternative introduction to our presentation. I think that the change will benefit the group in many ways and it reminded our group members not to just accept something just because it was the first option proposed.

There are a lot of tests, quizzes, and deadlines this week but whenever I get stressed out I think of the title of this blog post: Pressure makes diamonds. It may be hard to see and it may be a slow process, but hard work right now will pay off immensely in the end.

This past week has been really great for our group. We are now meeting multiple times per week in order to work on our research and this shows me that we are all putting our 100% effort into this project. Many members of the team, Chad especially, are very good at delegating tasks and making sure everything is getting done. After seeing this sort of leadership, I have found another thing that I need to improve! Overall I think I just need to be more vocal and possibly start getting more involved with the actual creation of our work, rather than simply getting a task and completing it.

Our team is doing a great job with collaboration and integrative thinking. The in-class prototype really helped us work out some kinks in our plan that we had not seen before. These changes shows that we are very adaptive and willing to change aspects of our plan quickly if we feel we need to.

We have been receiving some grades for our submitted work and we seem to be very confident with our abilities to submit quality work. I ensure to Encourage the Heart by celebrating with others whenever we get small wins such as getting a good grade on something. This helps morale and keeps things moving in a positive direction.

I thought I was doing a good job with empathy but I caught myself multiple times forgetting to be empathetic. A group member proposed an idea and in my head I immediately rejected it without even thinking out it or the thought process behind it.

Overall I think this class is really helping me think about how I conduct myself in a group environment and this will help in many ways in the future, in both a professional and personal sense!

This week we had our midterm peer evaluations. I received an overall grade of 100.40/100 which makes me very happy!
As of right now, this has been the most eye-opening exercise that we have done all term. It is very useful to see what others have observed of me because it is sometimes difficult to evaluate yourself.

A few of my initial strengths that are stated in these peer evaluations are that I have good presentation skills and that I contribute a lot of ideas to the group.

A few of my initial weaknesses are that I can sometimes become disengaged from the conversation of the group, that I can become a bit quiet at times.

With these peer evaluations, I will help others improve their presentation skills and I will make sure that I am participating in group discussion instead of falling silent. Helping others adheres to my goal of Enabling Others to Act because they will be more likely to volunteer for presentations. These peer evaluations also help with my goal of improving my empathy because I am understanding the thought processes and perceptions of the other group members.

This week was very interesting for me in terms of personal development. When deciding who should present our research to the class, I was initially not picked. A part of me was happy that I wasn’t chosen, but I also felt that I could present effectively had I been chosen. A few days later as we were preparing our presentation, I offered to share a personal story relating to our research to the class. Because of this, I became a new presenter for our group. I went from having only to prepare the presentation to preparing it and presenting. Admittedly I am not the best when it comes to public speaking, but I realized that I am only as good as I think I am. Once I realized that all I had to do was go up there and own it, I became completely comfortable with this new role. I learned that I am more comfortable when I speak from the heart rather than trying to memorize something word for word. I think the reasoning behind this is that if I try to memorize something and I forget just the slightest bit of info, I get distracted and nervous. After the presentation I felt great and happy that I found this new familiarity in an area that I was not very comfortable in.

The two leadership abilities that I am most trying to work on are Challenge the Process and Inspire a Shared Vision. With Challenge the Process, I realized that our group was accepting ideas and proposals very quickly without talking about them. This week I made sure that our ideas were best for the group and asked why the group members were thinking in the way they were. With Inspire a Shared Vision, I asked group members what their desired outcomes for this project would be. Once I had this info, I commended the members for their input and vision, and then I relayed the info to the rest of the group so everyone was on the same page. I also made sure that my praise for each group member was not made of flattery.

My emotional intelligence piece from this week is closely related to empathy. I was a bit irritated with one of our group members because he was not performing his part of the presentation well. I realized that my irritation was completely ridiculous and unnecessary because I failed to remember that English was not his primary language. Instead of projecting my irritation, I made sure to thank him for his bravery in speaking in front of the class. I have done presentations in other languages and it is very nerve racking. He ended up doing a great job presenting in the end.

We are now moving into writing our initial proposals and I am very excited for finally being able to present some solutions to our problem!

Emotional Intelligence

This week we had to do a few things in order to get things rolling with our group project, and one of those things was talking to people in person and getting some responses. I went out and got ten responses with the question of “Have you ever been a victim of property theft? If so, did you report it?”

I personally don’t enjoy asking strangers questions for research because I don’t like others to ask me questions when I’m simply trying to walk on the sidewalk. But this goes back to emotional intelligence; not everybody thinks the way that I do and this interaction is essential for my social skills. After I got that thought through my head, I was completely okay with it. This improved my confidence in the Emotional Intelligence aspect of Self-Awareness.

Our group was having a bit of a hard time with getting some actual results and group members were blurting out ideas left and right. Chad mentioned an idea that I was most definitely not in agreement with, but I made sure not to simply shut him down with one of my ideas. I made sure to ask him why he thought that was a good idea, and then I tried to incorporate my idea so that both of us would be happy with the outcome.

Development Plan/Leadership

When we were assigning presentation speakers in class on Thursday, I was very impressed with how our teammate Kelli immediately volunteered because she knew that public speaking was not exactly her strong suit. I commended her on her bravery and ensured her that she would do a great job. This relates to my development plan of Encouraging the Heart by making sure that Kelli’s act of volunteering was celebrated.

Our group is definitely becoming more comfortable with everybody. We are developing the trust and confidence in each other that is necessary for an effective group and for enabling others to act.

We’re all starting to share an end vision of this project as we do more work and research toward it. In the beginning it seemed like it would be an immense amount of work but once we all applied ourselves, we saw that things were almost falling into place on their own.

Week Three has ended for BA352 and I believe I have made some progress in my leadership abilities and emotional intelligence! One of my goals was to make sure that everyone in the group is heard when we are collaborating, and I acted upon this by asking the more quiet individuals for their input.

In order to improve my skills with empathy, I also began to ask more in depth questions about what other group members had to say about our project. If I didn’t understand or agree with something that was said, I simply asked for their thought process so I could see where they were coming from.

I believe that my group is becoming more and more comfortable with everyone, and this is great because we are talking more and bouncing more ideas off of each other. I am finding it easier for us to come up with more ideas because of this.

I am very prospective of the weeks to come in this class and I look forward to learning more about myself in the process!

I have had a lot of fun in this class and I find myself analyzing and interpreting things more than I do in any class. The thing that I like most about this class is how it teaches that leadership is not simply something that applies to business; it applies to nearly everything. After learning of the stories of Dr.Farmer in Haiti and Alice Coles in Virginia, leaders come from and help others in all parts of the world. These stories of perseverance and dedication also show that you don’t have to be a genius in order to get people on board with what you’re doing. You just need a vision with a passion.

I admittedly am not extremely outgoing when I am in a new environment with new people, and Professor Bramhall helped me get over that feeling with his exercises of getting up and talking to people in order to accomplish the task at hand. This is extremely important in the world of leadership because you can’t change the world on your own.

I can already tell that I am improving my leadership abilities and I am very prospective with the remainder of the year as we dive into our group projects!

This a test post, intended for Week 1, making sure that this blog post goes through!