How has your understanding of leadership changed?
As I mentioned in my "about me" page, I have got many opportunities to be a mentor, a leader and a tutor. I got the chance to influence, inspire and guide many individuals throughout my high school and university years. Since I had a significant amount of leadership experience before starting this course, I believed I had a good understanding and knowledge about leadership. I thought I knew what it takes to be a good leader and maintain that role. However, throughout this course, I understood that there were many things I still did not know how to address as a leader. There was still a lot to learn when it came to being a good leader.
Initially, when I was asked what good leadership meant to me, I described it as "an individual who motivates a person or group of people to achieve a goal. A good leader is someone who knows what it takes to be successful and guides individuals in that direction." In my mind, a good leader was someone who always had everything figured out and was able to communicate their ideas effectively. They are an extrovert and have a voice that is heard by everyone. I believed leaders mainly made the decisions for the team. I imagined them as superheroes who had the power to influence and lead a team. I thought it took special skills to be a leader
HUMAN 3LM3 is a course that has provided each student with a variety of opportunities to push themselves past their current boundaries. Throughout this course, students were asked to think critically about their sense of self, their values, their emotions, their goals, their motivations and how they impacted others as they pursue these goals. We have used many resources to learn about and dive deep into leadership. Here I present to you what I have learned throughout this course.
Although my understanding of leadership at the beginning of this course was not completely wrong, it was incomplete. I had a few pieces of the puzzles put together, but the image was still incomplete. This course has helped me complete that administration image.
After taking this course, I have understood that leadership is a role that one chooses to take throughout their life. You can be a leader regardless of your age, ethnicity, religion, etc. Leaders are individuals who inspire people to do things differently, to transform values into actions, to convert visions into realities, to face the challenges and find innovative opportunities, to work towards a common goal/ better future; it’s a role to make extraordinary things happen regularly. As mentioned in the Student Leadership Challenge, "leadership development is fundamentally self-development." Although you are inspiring individuals to grow, adapt, change, and prosper, you on a personal level are also growing. This is because to be a leader, you do not need to be perfect; you simply need to be passionate, innovative and have the desire to make a difference. The role of leadership forces you to bring out the best in you and helps you grow as a person. Since leadership is not about being perfect, it's about improving and working on the essential behaviours that allow a person to get extraordinary things done.
What have you learned about yourself?
This course has been a learning experience for me. It has shaped me as a person and as a leader. By the end of this course, I learned a few key qualities about myself.
1. Working with people and achieving successful goals together brings me joy and satisfaction.
Throughout my undergrad, I had many group activities/projects that were successful. However, I always thought I was not so much of a group person. I was comfortable working individually and achieving my personal goals. Nonetheless, this course helped me recognize how working in groups can be fun and successful. During lectures, when we had group discussions, I enjoyed interacting with my group members. I noticed that I accomplished a lot more in a shorter time when presented the opportunity to be around people. For example, when we worked on the Communication Style Continua handout, I learned that as a team we completed the task much quicker. We were able to list two advantages and two disadvantages for each communication activity by sharing our own experiences. Since we all had different experiences, we got to learn from one another and share meaningful advice. During this time, I found strength in the comfort of others and tried to solidify relationships that helped me grow. Overall, I learned that working with people allows helped me to learn new things, enjoy the process with others and be happy with the product at the end.
2. I aim to learn, grow and better myself every day.
In my previous courses, I noticed myself completing the tasks because they had to be done. I did not see myself gaining much out of it. I found it easy to complete the tasks and move on. However, throughout this course, I witnessed a shift in my approach to each task. I noticed, learning and improving myself from each task and activities. During every lecture, we covered content that helped us understand the role of leadership. We also had many activities and group discussions revolving around the course content. Through those activities and group discussions, I discovered my strengths, weaknesses and personality. For instance, through the Student Leadership Practices Inventory Assessment, I discovered my weaknesses in two practices; model the way and inspired a share vision. To better myself in these practices, I decided to implement the behaviours associated with those practices during my mentorship sessions. So at the beginning of the meetings, I ensured we were on the same page and wanted to accomplish the same tasks. The lectures helped me understand the content and the mentorship sessions helped me grow and better myself. Through this journey, I discovered I like to improve myself every day with the knowledge I gain. This allowed me to figure out what I am passionate about, how my actions can reflect my intentions and how my mindset can impact my ability to grow and overcome challenges. I try to apply what I have learned in lectures into my real-life experiences to improve and grow as a person.
3. I can be a great leader.
The Student Leadership Challenge helped me believe that I can be a great leader. Throughout this course, when I was discovering areas where I lack leadership roles, the book was teaching me how to improve them. Before this course, I thought I was a great leader. But this course gave me a reality check. It cleared my misunderstandings about leadership and taught me the true definition of leadership. It was a perfect book to tell me where I lack leadership qualities and how I can improve. For instance, out of all the five practices, I underestimated the power of modelling the way and inspiring a shared vision. I never gave much importance to it and always failed to notice their impacts. After reading the book and discussing it in the lecture, I knew I had to change a few behaviours to improve and become a better leader. For instance, I did not try to affirm shared values. As a leader, I did not try to align the values of the group members so they did not feel more committed and did not give people a reason to care. This could also be why sometimes I have team members who are not fully focused and attached to the project. For example, during the first year in Bio 1M03 class, a few of my group members did not care about the projects as much. They did very little work and showed no interest in group discussions. Now that look back, I think it was because we all wanted to achieve our personal groups. Everyone had their own reasons but it was not a team goal. This lead to no team unity and a lack of participation from a few group members. Nonetheless, if I work on my weaknesses and improve these behaviours, I can also be a great leader.
How did the course materials contribute to your learning?
As previously mentioned, this course was a learning experience for me. Even though I have played the role of a leader at various times, I never formally got the opportunity to learn about leadership skills. Throughout this semester, I have not only gained knowledge through studying about leadership but also gained skills through the experiences. At first, it was quite surprising to me to realize how little I knew about leadership, despite having previous and present experiences. The course content helped me learn how leadership challenge never goes away. As a leader, you need to constantly face challenges and overcome them to make extraordinary things happen.
The Student Leadership Challenge was a great resource that was very informative as a textbook but was presented in a matter that was easy to read and understand. It also broke down all the steps with examples to make it easier for the readers. I appreciated how it was divided up into five main concepts that summarized the overarching themes of leadership easily. It also developed avenues within those bigger ideas to explore its multiple different angles. What made this book impactful were the personal stories it had to share. It made it easier for the readers to understand how the factual information presented could be put into practice. It provided ideas on what can be done to overcome leadership challenges. The resource provides an overview of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership by summarizing what leaders do when they are at their best and shows how these actions make a difference. It provides the principles that support each of the Five Practices and how those commitments are an ongoing practice.
The Students Guide to Peer Mentoring was also a great source that provided an overview of the role of mentors. It was informative in listing all the skills and characteristics that are needed to be an effective peer mentor. It outlined how good characteristics like communication skills, supportiveness, trustworthiness, empathy, enthusiasm, flexibility and so on can be learnt. It helped me understand the importance of each characteristic and what impact it can make on a mentor and mentee relationship. For example, in the lecture, we discussed the cultural difference that could be present between you and the mentee. However, appropriate communication in this situation becomes very important to build trust and respect. The book by Frith et al., mentions about learning how to connect with your mentees from different cultures and backgrounds requires an accepting and broad-minded individual. It discusses how this can be developed through informal non-judgemental information exchange about different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs. The manual provides guidelines that can be followed to facilitate great mentorship sessions and truly understand the core of mentoring. Overall, this book was great in providing the necessary tools needed for peer mentoring, how they can be applied and in teaching the importance of each tool.
Finally, the lectures were a great medium to put everything together. I enjoyed how we summarized the key points mentioned in the Student Leadership Challenge and the Student's Guide to Peer Mentoring. It helped me understand the overall impact and its importance. The activities done in the class were also a great way to put our learning into practice. One activity I truly enjoyed was the Mentor-Mentee scenario play. It was a great way to use everything we had learned so far in the course and apply it to a practical scenario. Although I was the mentee in that situation, I got to learn different ways the mentors can approach the situation. Even though I would have approached the situation differently, I got to discover other ways the situation could have been tackled. Furthermore, I truly enjoyed watching Simon Sinek's Ted Talk. It was very interesting because it approached leadership in a very quantitative form. I found it very fascinating to see how he explored the importance of starting with 'why.' He discusses how vital it is to know why you are doing what you are doing. Being aware of the motivations behind all your actions. Without knowing the 'why', you are at risk of having everything crumble around you because the foundation will not be strong enough. He also uses real-life examples like Apple to explain why some organizations and some leaders can inspire others while others are not. Further expanding on this idea in class together gave me a good understanding of how great leaders are able to inspire others and why are they successful.
Model the way helped me understand that you must clarify values by finding your voice. Once you know who you are and what your values are, then you can give voice to those values. Once the values have a voice, you can encourage others to do the same. However, the book also mentions how other values also matter. Hence, it is important to identify and affirm the shared values of the group. As a leader, it is also important to walk the talk. You much set the example by aligning actions with shared values. This is how you are taken seriously as a leader. Furthermore, inspire a shared vision illustrates how leaders must envision the future by imagining exciting and enabling possibilities. It's critical to have a sense of the past and a clear vision of the future to make something happen and create something new. In this process, you as a leader need to enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations. This helps ignite a similar passion in others. I have also learned that as a leader you face many challenges. However, as a leader, you must be willing to step out into the unknown and challenge the process. You must search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve. Since this requires taking a risk, as a leader you must encourage experimentation and idea generation, to support the best ideas and be willing to face the challenges. To keep up the motivation you must generate small wins and learn from the experience. You need to show that by learning we all will improve. This leads to the understanding that "together we achieve more;" enable others to act. As a leader, you need to foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships. You must strengthen the members by increasing their self-determination and developing competence, so they give it their all and exceed their own expectations. Finally, you must encourage the heart by recognizing contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence and celebrating the values and victories by creating a spirit of community. This essentially helps with providing the group with a strong sense of identity and team spirit that can carry them through tough times. Therefore, this resource helped me learned and understand that leadership is about behaviour. It's about seizing the moment and making a difference by practicing the behaviours mentioned throughout the Five Practices.
How did the regular reflections contribute to your learning?
Writing reflections is a phenomenon that was alien to me to a certain extent. Throughout my university, I have never come across a course where I had to reflect on my actions and what I was learning in the course. Due to this reason, initially, I struggled with writing the reflections because I had a hard time gathering my thoughts. Usually, I am comfortable sharing my thoughts with my friends by just speaking my mind and receiving their inputs. I did not have to put my thoughts on paper and reflect upon them. However, these reflections allowed me to improve my ability to create a coherent structure in my writing pieces, they helped me untangle my thoughts and share them more clearly. I was able to reflect upon myself and uncover things I did not realize. For example, in the first mentorship reflection, I stated, "due to my personality, I feel responsible for all the students I teach. Hence, it is very difficult for me to let the responsibility rest with the mentee because I like to ensure that the guidance and feedback I have provided is effective and useful." I knew I liked to see the change I am making, however; I did not realize to what extent. I underestimated the importance of results in my life. Nonetheless, I was glad that through the reflection I was also able to think of the steps I can take to make sure I make a difference and inspire my mentees. In my second mentorship reflection, I also mentioned how "I don’t shy away from sharing my experiences and opinions. I have always loved sharing my experiences and opinions with my friends, but I thought I was not as comfortable sharing it with others. However, this experience has made me realized that I do not just like to share knowledge but also my personal experiences and opinions with other individuals. I never realized that even though I love to be alone, I also really enjoy being an extrovert person. I love talking to people and getting to know them. I really enjoy listening to their experiences, stories and point of view." This was something I did not notice about myself until I was asked to reflect upon it. The reflections also allowed me to reflect on my previous experiences and recognize the mistakes I made. It also helped me think of a plan of action to better myself. It helped me see what I was doing right and where I was lacking. I found myself truly digging deeper than I would have been able to without these reflections. It allowed me to document my thoughts and spend time on each question, so I am true to myself. Overall the reflections helped me recognize my personal growth and witness how my understanding of leadership has evolved.
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