LEADERSHIP

Even though I was still trying to figure out my place on campus and how to lead in a college setting, I was given the opportunity to start my leadership development right at the beginning of my freshman year. Through developing and applying my leadership skills, I discovered how to effectively lead a group and what my specific leadership strengths and weaknesses are. I was able to learn from my mistakes and had the opportunity to make the changes that I needed to further my leadership abilities. These experiences allowed me to develop a leadership philosophy which will guide both my personal and professional future.

Through my leadership development experiences, I began to understand the different approaches to leadership and to formulate my leadership style. In the Honors 201 course, I took the strength finders assessment in which I learned what exactly my leadership qualities were. Becoming aware of my leadership traits allowed me to see where I needed to grow as a leader and what strengths I could play on as I began to look for leadership opportunities. In HONR 401: Leadership and Interpersonal Communication, I was able to look at different leadership styles in group settings and analyze the effectiveness of these techniques. Specifically, I went into the community and found a leader and interviewed them about how they lead in their workplace. From this, I learned how I could be a leader in my future career through hearing their experiences in mistakes and successes. Taking these honors program courses allowed me to find my leadership style and learn how to be a successful leader before I stepped into a leadership role.

For my leadership application experiences, I focused a lot on building my group leadership skills. Most of the leadership in my future career will be in a group setting; thus, I saw it as important to build my group leadership skills here in Mankato. In the Maverick ‘Machine’ Athletic Band Program, I had the opportunity to build my leadership skills in multiple ways. I was able to work my way through the program as a member, section leader, and band manager. This allowed me to practice many different leadership skills and learn how to effectively lead from a small group, such as my section, to a large group, such as the whole band. Further, I was elected captain of the Hockey Cheer Team during my junior and senior years. Being a leader in this setting was a lot different than what I had to do with the band. Since hockey cheer is a smaller program than the band, I feel that I led more by forming personal relationships with every member of the team. Although my roles in the cheer and band programs were similar to one another, there were differences in how I helped each group become successful. For hockey cheer, I had to create a skating program in which everyone on the team could be successful while in the band, I was focused on the success of my group within the organization (i.e., the clarinet section). Having these two different leadership experiences, I was able to improve my ability to be a leader and I was able to learn what strategies work best in different group settings.

My leadership philosophy can be described as developing relationships with members of the group and being a role model to others. I found that sometimes I am not the loudest leader in the group, but people can still look to me to see what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. Additionally, I see learning to be a leader as a two-way street. Even though I may be in a leadership position, I will still be learning how to be the best leader that I can be. So, I will want to take advice and critiques from others around me so I can continue to grow and develop. I want others to be able to learn from me and I want them to be able to be future leaders by learning from my mistakes and success. In this way, they can also continue to develop as leaders and keep the organization/group running and being the best that it could be.

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As I would like my future career to be in research, it is important that as a team leader, I can successfully lead a group of peers/students. I will take what I have learned in these experiences to further my leadership skills and learn from the errors that I make in order to be successful in the workforce.