When I was younger, leadership meant that you were involved in extracurricular activities and everyone liked you, especially teachers. It was drilled into our heads that leadership was a necessary trait to have for applying to colleges, getting a job, etc., but to me, being a leader is so much more than building a strong resume. So then what is a leader? A person who can confidently talk in front of a group of people? Or is it someone who spends their free time volunteering in their community? Maybe it’s a person being a mentor to younger students and their own children? Being a leader can be any of these things, but I believe being a leader means having a vision to help yourself and others succeed in life to build a brighter future. Who I am as a leader can be broken down into three categories, my leadership skill sets, my work in team settings, and my evolving leadership mentality.
Everyone is born with or has learned some of the necessary tools needed to have an impact in the world we live in. It is just a matter of identifying these skills to understand who you are as a leader, meaning acknowledging one strength’s and weakness’ when it comes to assuming a leadership role. Throughout my Broad Leadership experiences, I identified my biggest strength as the ability to lead with empathy and harmony. This means I care deeply about others, wanting to help them reach their goals, and making sure they feel that their voices are heard. I value leading with an open mindset as everyone sees the world through different eyes, and some view points might help a team reach a goal more efficiently. I also value making meaningful connections with others to establish trust and equality in a team setting. Although empathy is one of my best leadership skills, it also comes at a fault as I let myself get too involved in situations, causing my feelings to get hurt. To overcome this, I often look to my peers for advice and counsel on how to move forward. Being able to identify these strengths and weakness’, along with the realization I take a democratic approach in leadership, helped me become a stronger member of a team.
Working with the Residence Hall Association(RHA) gave me great insight into working on several different team settings. I was first a representative for RHA, which meant my role was to act as a liaison between my floor and RHA. The other roles of team members within RHA came from the executive board positions. Each position has specific tasks to uphold the mission of RHA and being elected onto the board presented me with an abundance of different leadership styles to work alongside. It was through this and my work with the organization STLF, Student Today, Leaders Forever, that I was able to critique different management styles to produce my own unique leadership model. I have found that I like to change my method of leadership to fit the current situation and what my role is on the team, meaning that not one style fits all environments and maintaining fluidity through the different styles helps a team grow in a positive direction together. I have found that when I join a team, I have a servant leadership style to show other team members I am willing to give a project my all. Such as I will usually be the first to volunteer for tasks needed to be completed when working with other Community Advisors at our weekly events. As time moves forward in the group, I take a more coaching and democratic approach to begin to share my opinions and let others know I value theirs, such as being an advisor to residents on my floor. I only like to take an authoritarian type of leadership when it is necessary to steer the team away from a destructive path, such as sharing my past experiences with events on campus and their success rate. Being able to observe these different styles has helped evolve my leadership philosophy to one I could apply to future leadership roles.
My philosophy of leadership revolves around “clear communication and accountability within reason, open to discussion on all ideas, working towards a common goal based on our strengths and weakness’. My work as both aCommunity Advisor and taking a credit of HONR 450: Service Learning are what helped tie all my experiences together to form this philosophy. The reasoning behind my specific doctrine is because it mixes my values of a being a leader and team member. I work hard towards my goals and I want to push others to do the same. But as an empathetic leader, I am also understanding of our different abilities to reach a goal, including myself working on an individual project.
Being a leader in the Honors Program helped me understand I wanted to leave my mark at MSU and develop skills to use in a healthcare setting one day. I want to be remembered by others as a passionate leader who took great effort in making all college students feel welcomed and help them grow and achieve their goals. In the future, I hope by having a solid leadership foundation means my dental practice will be thriving with a positive team community and content patients.