Leadership Synthesizing Essay
What are the most important qualities that a leader should possess? There are an infinite number of possible answers. Individually, everyone has certain qualities/strengths that empower them to be the best leader that they can be. Leadership has always played a significant role in my personality and life experiences. I strive to serve others with charisma, while also having a thirst for knowledge and learning. I learned in my Honors First Year Experience course that to become an effective leader a person needs to be able to take charge of a group, but also provide valuable insight in the process. I also learned that in order to be an effective leader a person must be aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses. The opportunity to complete the Strengths Finder assessment tool revealed that my strengths included “harmony” and “developer”. As a leader, I strive to include my peers, while simultaneously developing the leader within myself and others.
Through my experience in the Developing Your Mentor Philosophy course, I served as a mentor to a new Honors student. The mentor/mentee relationship fostered throughout this course allowed me to put my strengths and values as a leader to the test. This setting permitted advice and knowledge was shared equally. I discovered the value and importance of listening within this relationship setting. It was necessary to accurately and intently listen to my mentee in order to determine the content and advice that they were seeking. The importance placed on actively listening within this relationship allowed me to develop listening skills that benefited my overall leadership capabilities. The conversations were two-sided and this allowed my leadership strength of harmony to come to light throughout the semester. As a leader, I look to foster a relationship that is harmonious and comfortable. This is important because that type of setting is most likely to foster creativity, innovation, and development. Mentorship has the ability to facilitate excellence in ourselves and those around us on a daily basis.
Working in a call center, I learned that in order to effectively complete the job at hand a sense of group unity needs to be established. As a call center team, we collectively work towards the goal of building rapport and acquiring pledges from alumni and friends of the university. My superiors and I place a high degree of importance on facilitating and building relationships among the students employed within the facility. Cohesive relationships are important because we are working together throughout the entire semester towards achieving our individual and group goals as employees. As a manager, I establish relationships with the other employees where trust is mutually shared. My experience as an Honors mentor also helped my leadership abilities in the call center because I am continuously listening to conversations among the employees and the prospects. It is my duty as a leader to provide constructive criticism and to assist the employees in handling a difficult phone call. The call center functions according to a team dynamic. We are working together in order to improve our interpersonal skills, while also looking to improve the university as a whole.
As the Vice President of the Pre-Physical/Occupational Therapy Club, I have discovered how a variety of leadership styles and values can come together within a team to accomplish a goal. As a team, it is important that a sense of community is established and within the club the sense of community is vital. One of my strengths as a leader is harmony, I strive to lead harmoniously among the other board members. The board members and I are leading the other students towards developing and enhancing their resumes with a variety of experiences. I quickly learned that my leadership role within the club fluctuated throughout the semester according to the needs of the other board members and the students themselves. This club has taught me that leadership styles and values are not set in stone and that people are able to develop their leadership abilities over time. Overall, my undergraduate experience has allowed me to grow as a leader in a variety of settings. I have strengthened my leadership abilities within a team setting and I have established concrete leadership values. Moving on from my undergraduate career, I intend to continue developing my leadership skills through the ever-changing and dynamic academic world.
First Year Experience Course
Mentor Philosophy Course
Throughout my Honors First Year Experience class, I learned about what it means to be an effective leader. I found that being a leader means that you not only have to take charge of a group of people, but you also have to provide valuable insight. Individually, everyone has certain qualities that empower them to be the best leader that they can be.During the leadership unit, we were provided with the opportunity to take a strengths finder assessment which revealed our top 5 strengths as a leader. My strengths included: harmony, discipline, restorative, developer, and includer. In this course, we participated in group activities where we were provided with opportunities to test out our leadership strengths and skills. These activities helped me identify what leadership role is most comfortable and will allow me to succeed. This course helped me identify my personal leadership values and allowed me to reflect upon my strengths and weaknesses through a culminating essay, which accomplished level one and two leadership values. I also accomplished level one of leadership teams.
The supplemental essay provided me with the opportunity to share my knowledge of leadership, and shows how I intend to use my leadership skills on campus and in the community.
In the HON 401-Developing Your Mentor Philosophy course, I was provided with the opportunity to serve as a mentor for an honors student who was new to the program. I discovered the roles, qualities, characteristics, and techniques of an effective mentor. This course facilitated the use of a variety of well-known philosophical figures who helped me form my own definition of knowledge. I was able to use this personal definition of knowledge and other experiences to build my own individual mentorship philosophy. My philosophy consisted of the culmination of a wide variety of experiences, emotions and new learning all utilized to help facilitate a successful relationship. The mentorship experience in this course has helped me understand how to act and react in similar mentorship situations in the future. Overall, mentorship has the ability to facilitate excellence in ourselves and those around us on a daily basis and it is crucial that we are all aware of our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to forming these types of relationships. I accomplished level 2 and 3 for values because I was able to further reflect on my strengths and weaknesses and we formulated a presentation where we each critiqued one another’s leadership/mentorship philosophy. I accomplished level 2 for teams because I was able to reflect upon my role in the team setting of a mentee/mentor relationship.
The mentor philosophy essay is a combination of my past experiences, newfound learning, and reflection of the use of my strengths and weaknesses as a leader. I emphasize my goal and ability to facilitate excellence in mentorship relationships through the use of my leadership values.
Student Manager at Annual Fund
I started working at the Minnesota State University, Mankato Annual Fund first semester sophomore year. This was September 2016 and I am still presently employed here. This leadership experience consisted of establishing myself initially as a student fundraising assistant, while progressively working my way towards a management role. This allowed me the opportunity to observe and understand the leadership styles and roles took place in the Annual Fund, as I was able to experience from both roles. This helped me achieve levels 1 and 2 of teams. I oversee fundraising assistants while they obtain pledges, gather prospect information, and build rapport with our alumni and friends. This role has allowed me to achieve level 3 of teams by practicing my leadership skills by taking control of situations, assessing problems, making decisions, and effectively guiding team members through a task. I tend to excel when I am given the opportunity to lead and take charge of a situation or group of people. I have also been able to take suggestions and guidance from those higher up in my division to advance my leadership capabilities within the Annual Fund. The group dynamics in the call center consist of a group of student managers overseeing a group of student fundraising assistants. The student management team serve as leaders to the callers through encouragement, training, guidance, and advice. As a student manager, I serve as a resource for the student fundraising assistants to utilize in a situation that requires my assistance. During the 2017-2018 academic year, I was the training coordinator for the new hires. I was the initial contact between a new hire and the content that is discussed and utilized within the call center. I provided the new hires with the training that they required in order to be a successful and well-rounded student fundraising assistant. I have learned that without the proper guidance and leadership initially in the career of a student fundraising assistant that their likelihood to find success is greatly diminished. Through this knowledge, I took on the role of training to ensure that the students were being provided the guidance they needed to be successful. I do feel that I have accomplished level 3 and 4 of values and teams in this experience. I critique my coworkers and my own leadership within our call center group, as well as utilizing my own personal values within the campus community within the call center. I have been able to practice call center practices within our group towards the common goal of raising more money for the university and establish a leadership philosophy for the annual fund for the future trainee’s/ hires.
The attached document is a letter of reference provided by my superior in regards to a graduate school application. The letter of reference addresses the leadership tasks of my job and my ability to perform these tasks at a sophisticated level.
Pre-Physical Therapy/ Occupational Therapy Club
I recently accepted a position on the Executive Board of the Pre-Physical Therapy/ Occupational Therapy Club for the 2018-2019 academic year. I was named the Vice President of the club. The duties of the Vice President include posting up meeting and recruiting signs and posters, as well as keeping a record of all current club members. The Vice President is also in charge of planning club social events. I joined this club as a freshman and was an active member. As an active member, I participated in planned club events such as meetings, volunteer opportunities, and social events. I have had the opportunity to experience the club from the role of a member and now as a member of the executive board. As a member, I passively led within my cohort by attending events and providing advice or guidance to my peers if needed. As a member of the executive board, I am actively leading the cohort of students by attending to my roles as a vice president. I am also serving as a resource to the younger students in the club, as I recently completed my applications for graduate school to receive my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. I am a resource in the sense that they are able to ask me questions regarding my undergraduate experience. I lead them through one of my key strengths as a leader which is being a developer. I assist the undergraduate students in developing their undergraduate resume and experiences in order to better prepare them to complete their own graduate school applications. I also lead by utilizing my strength of harmony among the group and ensuring that our club is a safe space where students feel comfortable and able to ask any questions they may need answered. I have learned that students need this additional source of guidance, as often times they are not receiving what they need from their academic settings. I have also learned that providing students with these resources early on in their academic experience is likely to increase their chances of completing a well-rounded and successful graduate school application. I have learned that my role as a leader is key to aiding students through their questions and concerns of becoming successful as a undergraduate student and in their future career endeavors. I have been able to serve as a life line to the younger students, similarly I utilized this life line when I was also in their position as a young undergraduate student. We work in a group to accomplish the common goal of increasing membership, establishing a community presence through volunteer work, and assisting the students of our campus in readiness prep for graduate school. This experience has helped me achieve level 4 for both values and teams as an undergraduate student. I have used my own leadership values and practices within a campus organization to achieve level 4 of values. I achieved level 4 within teams because I foster a leadership philosophy within the campus organization that was fostered throughout the semester and in the future continuation of the organization.
The attached artifact is an example of a task that is included in my position description as a Vice President. I was tasked with constructing and distributing a club poster for the Fall 2018 semester.