Based on my experiences from this class, I have decided there is no "definition" of leadership. If there was a definition, everyone would feel as though they had to conform to a certain idea. To me, leadership is all about being yourself and finding how to strengthen yourself through experience. I remember Matt saying in class that being a good leader is not about arriving at a destination, but about continuously learning from others and evolving your own leadership skills. Every blog post in the class will have a different take on leadership and what it means to them. I received a comment from Matt on another blog post that really opened my eyes. He said "not every leader comes from the same mold". I wholeheartedly agree with that because most people see a leader as someone who can grab people's attention and gain followers. After experiencing this class, I realized that I can be a good leader as well and use my personal strengths to lead in my own way since I do not fit this general mold. 

To be an effective and successful leader, I think the most important thing to do is to understand your personal strengths and expand them to make them great. The reason I think this idea is so important is because if you understand yourself, you can understand and work with others much more easily. As humans, it is easy to become frustrated with others if they do not think or act in the same way that you do. In this course especially I think everyone learned that we do not all think or act the same way. This is a simple thought, but sometimes it is easy to forget while we are hard at work on an activity or a project in every day life. As individuals, all we can ever do is control ourselves. And I think that if we understand how we as individuals think and act, we can maneuver how we work with others. With experience after experience, we learn more and more about ourselves and others and we can piece together the leadership puzzle. 

I think a great takeaway I had in this class is my argument with Adrian. As the class knows, I get embarrassed whenever I have to talk about it, but the truth is, it really was a lesson learned. I remember last year in high school I had a similar mini argument with another peer. I connected both of those mini arguments in my head and realized just how similar they were and how I had made an exact same mistake by losing my temper and being too sensitive. I absolutely hate conflict and my top Strengths Quest strength is Harmony, so I want to avoid a situation like that in my future. After thinking about it, I now understand that the only thing I can do to avoid one is control myself and my reactions, and control my sensitivity to diffuse the situation. These are lessons learned for me are now a part of my personal definition of leadership.

My philosophy of leadership differs tremendously from my view of leadership at the beginning of the course. I came into the class thinking I would be at the bottom of the totem pole compared to other students and would need a lot of work in order to gain enough confidence to have that "strong voice" that I mentioned once in a discussion. I knew deep down inside that I would never be that person, but I thought that was the "definition" of a good leader. After experiencing the activities and discussions in this class, I understand that I do not have to fit that mold, and to be my own version of a good leader, I need to understand my own strengths and expand them so that I may work well with other people. With this knowledge under my belt, I am much more confident in my own abilities to be a leader and I hope that everyone else in the class had similar eye-opening experiences.

Inspiration from Ethan :)

Thinking about this week’s blog prompt proved to be difficult to pick from. We have had a lot of conversations throughout this class and it was hard to pinpoint one single comment, thought, or action that changed my view of leadership enough to write 500 words about. That would have to be one really strong comment, thought, or action to stick with me that much. So to find my perfect example, I decided to think about the class that we did the pipe and golf ball activity in. This class changed my view of leadership in such a strong way. It really affected me personally and I feel like I learned a tremendous amount about myself and others in regard to leadership. In this class I was personally complimented by both Stephanie Reddaway and Sandeep Sehbi in the group discussion. I would like to thank both of them for their offerings of such kind words to me. Those will definitely stick in my mind moving forward in my life.

Moving backwards to the beginning of the activity, however, I was personally amazed by Ethan Rhodus. His ability to grasp the leadership position in the group activity was impressive. What I thought to be a hard task was made so simple right before my eyes. I don't think he was really trying to become the group leader, so I don't believe he went into the activity with a strategy. If he was to use a strategy, however, it would have been to be genuinely nice to people. He also used the technique of positive reinforcement to inspire and encourage people to work together. His kind words, patience, and helpful instructions really brought everyone together and he had everyone on both teams listening to him and treating him as the natural leader. Ethan really showed what a great leader should resemble.

I really think that people take such acts of kindness and patience for granted. It is so easy to forget to treat people with this outward kindness. It is even more difficult to show patience in situations that are on a time limit. Ethan showed me and many others that to remember to use these courtesies is key in creating great leadership.

I personally struggle with my patience sometimes, especially in timed, large group situations. I will definitely remember this lesson learned throughout future circumstances. I now think that holding patience and kindness are the most important qualities of a leader. Without these, a leader cannot stand and gain the respect of their followers. They cannot gain the trust and quality hard work of their followers either. This simple positive reinforcement makes followers happy and willing to put forth their best effort.

The most important part of this technique is to be sincere. I hope that anyone trying to obtain this leadership quality will not think of it as a technique. Ethan’s sincerity really made people unite. I hope everyone in the class learned this lesson from Ethan as well, and I would like to congratulate him on his success.