Leadership Competency
"Upon graduation, honors students will have demonstrated the ability to utilize personal leadership values and guide groups toward a common goal."
When I first started college and the Honors Program, I thought the leadership competency was the one that I wouldn’t have to worry about. In high school, I was involved in many sports and clubs and thought that being a leader wouldn’t be so different from that. However, throughout my time at MNSU, I learned that being a leader is a lot more than just signing up for a position and communicating tasks to group members. Being a leader means understanding how you can continuously improve for the sake of your group members as well as inspiring your team to be self-motivated.
My involvement in the Honors Launch Learning Community (LC) helped me to begin to form my personal values. Being surrounded by various types of people who held very differing values helped to teach me what I valued and how I wanted to express my leadership style to others. I was able to begin practicing my leadership style through my experience as the Honors Student Body (HSB) freshmen representative. Again, I was put in a group situation with various types of people who each were assigned different tasks. Being involved in this group showed me that each person has a responsibility to complete different tasks, in their own way, which is essential to a team’s efficiency. While each person’s tasks varied, such as sending emails, talking to faculty, or organizing events, we all learned to rely on each other’s skill sets and ability to complete their tasks.
I struggled in my experience as a Learning Community Coordinator (LCC) my sophomore year to implement a successful leadership style. I thought that my experiences in leadership had taught me what type of leader I needed to be for this position. However, I had to continuously adjust my leadership style to fit the needs and goals of my group. I further learned more about varying leadership styles in my second year of involvement in the HSB as the secretary. While we were struggling to define roles within the group, I started to appreciate different people’s leadership styles in varying situations. I learned that there isn’t one overall leadership style that is effective in all situations. Each group, task, and situation require a different skill or leader in order to be effective, and there may be more than one solution. As a Community Management Intern (CMI) at Walgreens that following summer, I was further able to evaluate different leadership styles by comparing my manager’s previous leadership style, strict and result-oriented, to his current one, inclusive and team-oriented. I learned that it is important to learn from your mistakes as a leader and also be able to adjust your leadership style to fit the needs of your group.
Turning my learning about leadership into action was easier said than done. During my experience as a CMI, I implemented an employee team project. Although my execution of this project experienced some roadblocks, I was able to put into practice and learn from my mistakes as a leader. I started to better understand how to motivate group members in order to make a team effective. Understanding leadership without first understanding teamwork is impossible. I further learned about teamwork during my HONR 401 class as we worked together on our group project. This class allowed me to practice how to work in a group by putting together everyone’s experiences, thoughts, and leadership skills to create a final project that met our class goals. After learning more about leadership and gaining experience working in teams, I was able to form my leadership philosophy that allowed me to be successful during my time as a public relations intern at Whiskers Media. In progress, will add to later.
I’m very thankful for the eye-opening experiences and learning moments that I’ve had in the past three and a half years at MNSU. I’ve grown into a more confident leader that can better assess group environments in order to effectively lead. Another important aspect that I’ve learned is an appreciation for the many different types of people, leadership styles, and skills that I’ve worked with in the past. As I continue on to my professional career, I know that I have a solid leadership base that I will only deepen further as I gain more experience working in teams.
My involvement in the Honors Launch Learning Community (LC) helped me to begin to form my personal values. Being surrounded by various types of people who held very differing values helped to teach me what I valued and how I wanted to express my leadership style to others. I was able to begin practicing my leadership style through my experience as the Honors Student Body (HSB) freshmen representative. Again, I was put in a group situation with various types of people who each were assigned different tasks. Being involved in this group showed me that each person has a responsibility to complete different tasks, in their own way, which is essential to a team’s efficiency. While each person’s tasks varied, such as sending emails, talking to faculty, or organizing events, we all learned to rely on each other’s skill sets and ability to complete their tasks.
I struggled in my experience as a Learning Community Coordinator (LCC) my sophomore year to implement a successful leadership style. I thought that my experiences in leadership had taught me what type of leader I needed to be for this position. However, I had to continuously adjust my leadership style to fit the needs and goals of my group. I further learned more about varying leadership styles in my second year of involvement in the HSB as the secretary. While we were struggling to define roles within the group, I started to appreciate different people’s leadership styles in varying situations. I learned that there isn’t one overall leadership style that is effective in all situations. Each group, task, and situation require a different skill or leader in order to be effective, and there may be more than one solution. As a Community Management Intern (CMI) at Walgreens that following summer, I was further able to evaluate different leadership styles by comparing my manager’s previous leadership style, strict and result-oriented, to his current one, inclusive and team-oriented. I learned that it is important to learn from your mistakes as a leader and also be able to adjust your leadership style to fit the needs of your group.
Turning my learning about leadership into action was easier said than done. During my experience as a CMI, I implemented an employee team project. Although my execution of this project experienced some roadblocks, I was able to put into practice and learn from my mistakes as a leader. I started to better understand how to motivate group members in order to make a team effective. Understanding leadership without first understanding teamwork is impossible. I further learned about teamwork during my HONR 401 class as we worked together on our group project. This class allowed me to practice how to work in a group by putting together everyone’s experiences, thoughts, and leadership skills to create a final project that met our class goals. After learning more about leadership and gaining experience working in teams, I was able to form my leadership philosophy that allowed me to be successful during my time as a public relations intern at Whiskers Media. In progress, will add to later.
I’m very thankful for the eye-opening experiences and learning moments that I’ve had in the past three and a half years at MNSU. I’ve grown into a more confident leader that can better assess group environments in order to effectively lead. Another important aspect that I’ve learned is an appreciation for the many different types of people, leadership styles, and skills that I’ve worked with in the past. As I continue on to my professional career, I know that I have a solid leadership base that I will only deepen further as I gain more experience working in teams.