My Leadership Journey So far
Throughout my primary school and junior secondary school education, our teachers used to tell us that we were the future leaders of this country. We would soon be the ones in charge of running various organization and occupying various positions in our country. Thus, the mention of the word leader back then meant to me as something I could only be in the future. As a result, I never saw myself as leader. I believed I would be a leader only when I had finished school and I had a well-paid job. Moving to senior high school in 2008, my views on leadership begun to take a different turn. This was as a result of 2008 being an election year in Ghana. I developed an interest in the elections and followed all the events
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Coming to Ashesi University completely changed my views on Leadership. I realized I was a leader so far as I could influence people around me intentionally or otherwise. I learnt about the difference between big L’s and small L’s with Big L’s being people in position of authority while small L’s were people not necessarily in any position of authority, but anyone who could cause an influence. This realization shocked me and I realized I had been a leader so far as I caused an influence whether negative or positive in someone’s life. Courses like Leadership 1 taught me differently from what I had always known about leaders. For instance, first introductory lectures of servant leadership got me confused. Quotes like “you are a servant first” threw me away. What! A servant was the last thing on earth I would ever think of becoming. Why am I a servant first? What happened to the benefits I am supposed to enjoy as a Leadership? This was not what my senior high school days exposed me to. I was supposed to enjoy all the benefits that came with my position as a leader. Now I am being told to become a servant first and to serve. Finishing the Leadership 1 course made me understand that the reason why most leaders fail and especially most African leaders failed was because of the similar mindset to mine they had as becoming a leader. Which is to enrich and benefit themselves only. Getting to understand this began to make me think differently as a Leader. This was because I hated how African continent was so poor even though we have enough natural resources to our disposal that could better the lives of everyone in the continent. As I watched my family suffer to make ends meet and the bad roads and services I encounter daily as a citizen of Ghana, I understood fully that there was no way Africa would develop to its full potential if majority had the same mindset
Yi- Feng Yang (2016) and Ganos and Galla (2013) state that to lead others you should know yourself very well and what leadership skill you attain. Change of leadership helps to bring up leadership trust and change commitment. Leadership models and styles are defined as trust, admiration, loyalty, respect and integrity. Originality and value in a leader show different opportunities of styles such as engaging, goal-oriented and involvement. To be precise, these leadership styles demonstrate good characteristics of a leader displaying good leadership skills. Yi- Feng Yang (2016) state that these skills are very important in the workplace environment. Leadership trusts are viewed as a social bond to the employees to have faith
Becoming a leader is never an easy task. It is complex with rational decision making and accepting responsibility for those decisions. Being the leader, does not mean that you always make the best choice, but it does mean you learn and grow from all you experiences. Sometimes becoming a leader is not a choice, but a responsibility that you inherit. Leaders are not born, but are created through trial and error. A true leader cares for his subordinate and will always respect, listen, and mentor them, but a true leader will also discipline correct subordinates when needed. Sometimes a leader needs to depend on his faith and look to a higher power, so that he can make choices with guidance.
I would like to be a part of Day One Leadership because I believe it can help me grow as a leader in my community. There's always room to grow and things to learn. My father and I have helps occasionally with Day One building Habit For Humanity houses in Starkville and the experience was very
In order for a leader to be a leader he/she must begin with the assumption that you are the one who matters most. As a leader you have to possess that level of confidence in yourself that you are capable of leading yourself “before you can lead others”. And when you develop this belief then you are better able of affirmative influence “on others”.
Leadership is being able to direct or guide other people by either your own actions or by actually guiding them into the right direction (Acumen). Inspiration to be a leader might come from many different areas like your family, friends, peers, or even teachers. My inspiration didn’t really occur to me until I started attending college in August 2013. In all actuality I never even thought of how to be a leader until I was in Mrs. Moore’s Perspectives class. I now have a desire to be a great leader, and the inspiration has come from Mrs. Moore, and my family. I am the first to attend college out of my family, so in a away I have already started leading my siblings in the right direction. Being a leader means inspiring others to pursue their dreams, and aspirations and helping throughout the journey to success. Being a leader has nothing with authority or being able to tell other what, and how to do things, it’s about having people who look up to you and want to follow your example.
For many years, I have been told by teachers, family, and friends that I am a good leader. Until fairly recently, I had never truly thought about what it means to be a good leader and just took it as a compliment. Leadership is an intangible concept which cannot be properly outlined in a dictionary, but one which must be formed and explained only through one’s own philosophies and experiences.
The vision of leadership that leaders are born made, and not learn to be leaders is still considered but not popular among researchers (Avolio et al, 2013).
The subject of personal leadership is widely recognised nowadays as it is often believed that successful leaders not only have the ability to lead other, but also know well and able to control oneself. In order to understand more about myself as a leader, I registered for this course. Around two months of this course, I have gained considerable knowledge which will be clearly documented in this Reflective Learning Diary. In addition, a separate section will be dedicated to my reflections after completing some personality tests.
He will be there for you when you have problems with your family and spouse, because he wants employees to be focused when they are working and not thinking about family problems.
My biggest personal leadership failure occurred earlier this year when I worked at Einstein Bros Bagels at Coffman Union. I stayed there from January until April making and serving bagels to customers. However, I had the morning shift, the busiest period of the day. Long lines would form every time I was there, and sometimes I couldn’t catch up. One day in April, my co-worker, a veteran making bagels, was absent, and someone who didn’t have as much experience replaced her. What followed was a mess. My team chemistry with the replacement was dreadful, and a ton of people had to wait a while for their orders. My manager saw the incident, and after my shift was over, he gave me the option of leaving my job. I accepted, but my self-confidence was in a state that was beyond repair. It was one of the first times that I felt I let others down with my work performance. I learned that I shouldn’t expect to be great at everything and that I should analyze my weaknesses before taking on something challenging.
When reflecting on my leadership styles, strengths and weaknesses I am rushed with thoughts, memories, regrets and actions of personal ways that I have handled past situations in the work place and ways that I plan to handle new situations at my new work place. I have had many successes with the way I handle my leadership role but there are also things that I wish that I could go back in time and change. The way some situations are handled, I think to myself, well this could have been done differently or I could have done this instead of what I did to enhance the outcome of the situation. There is always room for improvement in whatever job or task someone takes on and this is just one of those things. During the development of my PLAP, I have had the chance to weigh out my strengths and weaknesses of my leadership and it has been very effective to seeing where improving needs to be met. The plan has also let me evaluate the direction I hope to head in to achieve my leadership goals.
The personal leadership development plan is to capture the self-awareness of an individual. People in general have a difficult time trying to figure out who they are and how they view themselves plus how others may see them. This plan will touch on my personal strengths, areas of improvement, and also identify me as a person more in-depth. The Personal Profile System and the Team Dimensions Profile will be used to provide an understanding.
One of the topics in organizational development today is leadership. Leadership is what individuals do to mobilize other people in organizations and communities. According to Kouzes & Posner, there are five practices and ten commitments of exemplary leadership. The five practices of exemplary leadership include: Model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. In the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner found similar patterns and actions of leadership that created the essentials to achieve success. Utilizing the research conducted by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, I have created a leadership plan that would apply to the Admission Department at Texas Wesleyan University.
Leadership is trait that is extremely important in any society. Leadership is known as the way people attempting to make a difference in a situation. However, I believe that it is better said to be a way of influencing others actions. Leadership is usually connected to a great leader that affected his or her followers in a dynamic way. Throughout the semester for my leadership class, I have expanded the knowledge in numerous ways. I now have fully understanding of the purpose and process of leadership to a society. Being a leader one must maintain an image of being the role model. I believe that this is leader should be who is someone who has the ability to influence, encourage, listen, and nurture. They are able to inspire, stimulate, persuade, shape, and have an effect on others.
Some people were born to be great leaders and some were born to be great learners. I ask myself this question, “How was I created?” Was I born a leader or was I molded to lead. As I explain my philosophy on how I want to lead, I will first dive into my past to recognize and pin point my creator. October 27th 2004 I raise my right hand in order to serve and protect the United State against all enemies, foreign and domestic. At this moment in my young personal leadership journey, I get my first glimpse of a leadership style, “shut up and listen.”