Taking this class made me realize a lot about different leadership styles as well as my own leadership style. I have gained knowledge throughout the semester that I can use in the future. The topics discussed in class made me realize how much the success of a group is not only dependent on the leader, but as a group as a whole. This made me think back to all of my past group and teamwork experiences and I realized that without the collaboration of the group, the final product would not have been as successful. Throughout the class we also related the different topics discussed to our personal experiences which made the class more relatable to everyone.
During the class we took a lot of surveys that helped us know and understand our leadership strengths as well as how we tend to interact with others. I thought these surveys were interesting. I was a little skeptical at first because I thought to myself, "how can just a survey predict my strengths?" After taking them, though, I realized that they seemed to be pretty accurate. For instance, taking the StrengthsQuest quiz, allowed me to learn and understand my own strengths. After taking the quiz, I noticed that my top five strengths actually did relate to my leadership style and how I interact with others. I think that my top strength, includer, best reflects how I generally work in group projects. For instance, in group projects, I think that everyone should have a part and no one should be left out which relates to my strength of being an includer.
One of the models during class that really stood out to me when it came to leadership as a whole was the relational leadership model. As mentioned from the reading, "relationships are they key to leadership effectiveness." This was one model that I emphasized on in my leadership plan. I think I can use this model throughout my life in almost everything I do. I think I have always done this, but now I will be more aware of it. Multiple minds coming together is better than just one because you have more creative minds coming together. Being an officer of a club here at OSU, I have already started using this model and applying it to how everyone on the board works together, which I believe will allow for the best outcome in the future.
Throughout the class, we also spoke about topics like moral muteness and target identities and how it can effect society and workplace. These topics might have been hard to discuss, but I liked how the class as a whole was open about discussing this and allowed for a open environment to allow others to speak up and share their personal experiences. Topics like these, I think are important when in a leadership position to better relate to others in the group. Overall, I think I learned a lot by taking this class. I learned about different skills and attributes that will best help me succeed in a leadership position. In the future, I will definitely use what I learned in this class in clubs, the workplace, and even in just society as a whole. I feel like, not only did we learn how to be effective leaders, but we also learned about skills that we can use in our normal day-to-day life.
I really like that you brought up all the surveys, that’s something I totally forgot about in my post. Most of them where actually key to understanding are own strengths and weakness like the strengths finder or the different personality tests that we took. They gave us an insight into where we stand right now, and if we don’t know where we are we can’t get to where we want even if we know the end destination.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the two weeks we spent discussing identities, stories and moral muteness will stick with me the most since they hit home with me the most. The survey's, while a little redundant, will be helpful information to call upon later on.
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