Daley Scott |
List your top 5 strengths from the StrengthsFinder assessment report and comment on your reaction to this assessment tool. Then, describe how you can apply your strengths in your pursuit of leadership. Identify an example of how you applied each of your five strengths within the past month.
My top five strengths on StrengthsFinder were 1. Competition 2. Achiever 3. Consistency 4. Restorative 5. Harmony. I thought my top five strengths were fairly accurate; however, sometimes I have other strengths depending on certain situations. Competition and achiever definitely belong in the top two of my strengths because I almost identify with the entire theme for both of them. Overall, these are definitely some of my top strengths on a day to day basis. As far as the actual StrengthsFinder test goes, I did not enjoy most of the questions. I could see myself doing both activities that I was supposed to choose between, so most of the time I was forced to pick neutral. I believe that competition and achiever go hand in hand because as I leader I would size up the competition and set goals based on what we needed to do to win. This encompasses both my competition and achiever strengths. Consistency also makes me a good leader because this means I can give everybody a fair shot; I always want people to be compared by their abilities and how hard their work instead of their backgrounds. The restorative strength is another good strength in a leader because a leader needs to be able to have situations thrown at them and be able to respond in a quick way that fixes the problem. Lastly, harmony is the strength that applies to me the least because I am not afraid on conflict, but I would rather have everything in agreement. This can be both a good and bad quality in a leader because sometimes a leader needs to embrace conflict in order to get over a problem, but other times a leader needs to bring a group of people to harmony. I think I have applied all of these strengths in the last month in one situation. Before school started we had “Sisterhood Week” where my entire sorority spent almost all day at our house practicing for recruitment and doing sister bonding activities. One of the activities was to make a human pyramid with people that we do not normally talk to. I somehow became the leader of my group and had to size up our competition and decided who needs to be where on the pyramid so we could beat them (competition and achiever). After we won the first round, I decided to switch up the positions on the pyramid to make it fair for everybody because it really hurt to be the bottom row (restorative and consistency). Not many girls liked this idea, but we ended up coming to a resolution that everybody enjoyed and thought was fair (harmony). Although this is a trivial example of leadership, all of my strengths were applied in this situation and shows how my strengths can be applied in another leadership position latter on in life.
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During class on August 31, we reviewed the evolution of leadership theories. In your own words, what is the value of understanding leadership theories? Which 2-3 leadership theories resonated most with you and why? How will your understanding of leadership theories influence the way in which you lead?
I think it is important to understand and really know leadership theories because great leaders can study the pros and cons of all the different theories. Leaders would be able to shape their style of leadership based on which ideas and theories they liked and which ones have worked in the past. This means they could also stay away from the parts of the leadership theories that have not worked in the past or parts that they do not like. Studying great past leaders and leadership theories would only make a current leader better at their job. Although there are so many great leadership theories, three that really resonate with me the most are trait leadership, situational contingency leadership, and authentic leadership approach. The book explains that trait leadership is categorized as, “certain individuals possess a natural ability to lead.” I believe this to be true because some people are born with certain traits that make them better leaders than others. I also believe in situational contingency leadership because certain situations call for different types of leaders or leadership. Sometimes the situation needs a very harsh and strict leader who will take change and make things happen, but other times a group of people might need a caring leader who is more of a friend than authoritative figure. Leaders can accomplish this by changing their style of leadership for a certain time or there is a new leader that emerges that possess the certain characteristics. Most of all, I believe in authentic leadership. I believe that a leader has to do what they believe is the best and be authentically themselves in order to let their “followers” to want to follow them. It is way easier to want to follow somebody that is genuinely authentic rather than closed, guarded, and superficial. I think that by combining all these theories would make somebody a great leader. I hope that all of these theories will come together when I lead something and influence the way in which I lead. In your blog post, explain your unique definition of leadership and describe the purpose of leadership. Then, describe your best personal leadership experience – an experience in which you were effective and authentic. What do you attribute to your effectiveness and authenticity?
My unique definition of leadership is leading either silently or out loud and being a role model for a certain group of people. There are many different types of leadership styles among all leaders around the world, but one common theme that I find in most successful leaders is that they always keep the best interest of the people they are leading in mind. When leaders become too egocentric, that is when the people being led become angry and feel like they are not being heard and their needs are not being met. I feel like I kept the people I was leading my first priority when I was on student council for two years in high school. I was a homeroom representative for my junior and senior year of high school, and during my time as a homeroom representative I was in charge of relaying concerns from my class during the student council meetings to the student council board and the faculty advisors. We actually were able to change a lot of things at school because I was able to relay the ideas of my class to the student council board. For example, some of my classmates were upset because we could not drink water in the hallways of school unless we had a “water pass.” The only way to get a water pass from the office was to get a note from your doctor saying that you needed to drink water throughout the school day. At a student council meeting I was able to bring this issue up, and then the rule ended up being changed. The rule was changed so we could drink water all day in class and in the halls as long as it was clearly water in a clear water bottle. However, sometimes rules were not able to be changed, but I could relay the information about why a rule could not be changed to my classmates. This was a great communication system as well because the administration and students were able to communicate questions, concerns, and explanations without their being any miscommunication, misconceptions, etc. |
AuthorThis is my working blog that has posts being submitted for the Exploring Leadership Honors Seminar I am taking during the Fall 2015 Semester at the University of Cincinnati. Archives
November 2015
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