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!