Leadership development
Reflect on experiences you have had, related to one or more of the previous chapters in this book, that you think have most contributed to your own leadership development.
The one experience that has most contributed to my own leadership development would be my service in the US Peace Corps. This relates to the previous chapter that discusses globalization and leadership. My experience in Cameroon gave me perspective on the world around me and helped me to re-prioritize the things in my life. Where I would have been super excited for the new iPhone, I now find myself with that same excitement when it comes to a new book. The way in which I viewed my possessions was pulled towards the bottom of my values. Having seen a country full of people with smiles on their faces and nothing to their name was incredibly eye opening. This paired with a couple near death experiences really forced me to wake up and find a purpose real fast.
In terms of leadership, I had always believed that the best way to lead people was to interact with them. To understand people on their most basic level and see how they live and what is important to them. Through this understanding we are better able to create opportunities for success. This can also apply to culture as it was important for me to understand the culture of the community before I tried to institute programming. Community assessment took up the majority of my time and was still needed well after a program was in place. The culture in Africa is very different from what I was used to in America and because of that I had to exercise patience and the power of observation on a daily basis.
What are elements of effective leadership learning?
I believe that two elements of effective leadership learning are: a willingness to step outside of your comfort zone and the ability to think critically about the implications of leadership. I think that it is important to open yourself up to new leadership concepts and avoid complacency in your opinions. People often fear change and to change one’s beliefs about their leadership philosophy is no easy task. Similar to coaching, we see a number of coaches who get tunnel vision and resort to one leadership approach. I think that it is important to recognize the value in each different leadership approach because they can be applied at different times to increase efficacy. When learning about leadership, we must first come to grips with the probably fact that we don’t know much about leadership. We may feel confident in our own leadership philosophy but we don’t necessarily know it all. Keeping an open mind allows us to immerse ourselves in new concepts and absorb the information provided through leadership learning.
Secondly, the ability to think critically about leadership will enable students to not only know the concepts but to see the implications of different approaches. Instead of being able to spit out a definition, it is important to think about leadership from a strategic position where we can effect change through a series of specific actions and decisions. This takes leadership learning out of the classroom and into the real world. Like most things we learn in class, the application in the real world is what creates opportunities for experiential learning. The successes and failures we experience in real world scenarios will shape our leadership philosophy with evidence as opposed to concepts alone.
What is your current knowledge of self-directed leadership development, 360-degree feedback, mentoring, action learning, and leadership succession planning?
My current knowledge of these concepts if fairly limited. With regard to self-directed leadership development, I would guess that this refers to one’s ability to seek out additional opportunities to build upon their leadership characteristics. 360 feedback may refer to an exercise where you receive feedback from all angles. This feedback is direct and specific as it applies to all elements of leadership. I have some experience with mentoring both as a mentor and a mentee. Mentoring is teaching through regular interaction and guiding a mentee through a development thought process so that they can achieve similar goals. Action learning might be similar to experiential learning where you reflect on experiences to extract key elements that shape the way you think in the future. Leadership succession planning is a strategic planning exercise with the purpose of creating an easy transition when a leader is leaving the organization and another one is coming in to take over.
If you are not currently in a top leadership role, how prepared do you feel to assume that role and what leadership development opportunities do you think would be helpful in preparation for that role?
I am not currently in a top leadership role at the moment but have been in the past. I feel prepared to take on a key leadership role and feel strongly that there are things that I can do that will be helpful as I prepare for future leadership roles. I think that at this point of my career that putting myself out in the open and sharing my thoughts about leadership. I feel confident in my beliefs about leadership but don’t know how these ideas will be received by my peers in some situations. In my experience, my capacity for leadership has been effective when it comes to community building and encouraging positivity in youth sports. I think that I can take on additional leadership tasks in an effort to develop my leadership abilities and continue to look for ways to lead in the local community.
Three takeaways:
Learning to lead: I have always been fascinated by leadership. I welcome the opportunity to lead and also find myself skeptical of the motives of people who do lead. Now that I am in the Sport Leadership program, I get excited about concepts tied to leadership development and am motivated by my classmates who also want to learn to lead both in a professional capacity and in their everyday lives.
360-Degree Feedback: I was interested to learn more about this approach to feedback and feel that it should be applied on a daily basis. Not nearly to the same extent, but a leader should be evaluating themselves and receiving feedback from the people they lead on a daily basis. I can see how this approach can be incredibly effective for both the leader and the followers.
Authentic Leadership: This concept continues to intrigue me as I view this as the most important quality of leadership. My thoughts on this concept continue to evolve as now I identify micro aggressions as an area that is overlooked when thinking about leadership. I have been surrounded by people in the workplace who talk about how stupid a customer is or how someone is a bad person. These things may be laughed at amongst co-workers but I believe that these statements carry over into our micro aggressions whether we mean for them to or not. This goes back to authentic leadership because authenticity is when we lead from our strengths and experiences while imparting ideas upon our followers.
