Leadership Action Plan

Paper

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”, this is a famous quote from Warren Bennis. I agree with him fully because leadership is more then what it seems to be on TV or how it’s portrayed in history and that’s what being in this class has taught me. I’ve learned that there is no one way to lead and that it is more important to develop a philosophy of leadership to guide yours actions. People tend to look at me as an anti-social person but I just like to keep to myself, in this class I’ve learned how to take action instead of being quiet. I found it in myself to always express how I feel and remain true to myself. This is one of those classes that are more than just a credit; I say that because I feel that I changed as a person and that my views on my work, society or life in general has changed. I would typically run away from problems or even give up but now I feel that the best way to overcome something isn’t to avoid it but to attack it head on.

We define leadership as a relational and ethical process of people together attempting to accomplish positive change. While going over the book I read a passage that said Relationships are the key to leadership effectiveness. I argue with this 100 percent in order to be an effective leader you have to build a certain rapport with your followers. The relational leadership model involves being ethical, empowering and inclusive. My way of being a leader is trying to get people to be influenced by me; I want to lead by example. I realized that being able to connect with people would be a better way to influence them. When people can really see your goals and achievements and get empowered from it; it’s mainly because of a certain connection you have with them.

Working on our last project was like the final test without it really being called a test. Throughout the semester I thought doing this project is just a whole lot of work for nothing but now I see that it was very important to be able to be placed in a leadership role, especially when we were own our own. It was kind of like we were drop in the middle of nowhere and we had to
find our way back home but in the end we did a good job in my opinion. I originally pick to work with the Red Cross Association, mainly because I was familiar with it and I wanted to know more, but then I was placed in a group that was very unconformable for me. I didn’t know anybody in the group and that may not seem like a big deal but I always had trouble working with people I don’t know. I’m not sure what hit me but I just decided that this time I’m going to put forth more of an effort to be social and active in order to get the job. As the days went on I found myself just being more social in general, not just within my group/class. If you were to tell me that during this semester I would have done all the things I did for this one class; I would of told you I’m going to drop it the first chance I get, but now that I have done everything and I’m looking back at it, I’m glad for all of it.

While working in groups I found that my partners and I, were always on the same page to some degree. I found it funny how we all had the same mindset but different personalities. They were more of the initiators and I was more relaxed. I would rather be discreet and when I’m needed I’ll do the work rather then self-volunteering. I feel that everybody in the group had a part to play and we all did it the best we can. As a group we worked more effectively then working by ourselves and sending work through text/email. Meeting up with the group made it easier to break things down and give everybody a portion of the work to do. Personally for me I like to stay in touch just so that everybody knows what’s going, and they’re all on the same page, which prevents problems because I’ve seen in some groups that not communicating can lead to a disaster (work or non-work related). With any group I feel that someone has to take a leadership role, in order to make sure everybody is doing their part in helping and staying on top of the work.

Developing leadership abilities is a lifetime achievement to me. It is something that you will never fully accomplish because there’s always going to be more to learn or even more to do in life. After being involved with the Red Cross Association, although we promoted it and attempted to help out, I still felt that we were limited as a resource being that we couldn’t help out as much as we wanted to. While watching the other group present I
was fascinated with the group that touched on recycling. In the future I want to be able to get involved with something along those lines.

I want to be able to get involved with more programs this campus has to offer. I was also looking in being a Resident Assistance for one of the dorms next year. Being an RA takes a lot of responsibility, hard work, dedication and patience. I am willing to step up and take the opportunity if I can and I feel as if everything is meant to be because if I didn’t take this course I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. I intend on taking all the knowledge I learned from this class and applying it to my everyday agenda. They’re something’s that you learn that are seasonal and there’s things that stays permanent like learning how to count, write or even talk. You’ve become so accustom to being taught something that it just feels like a second nature. I feel that this leadership side of me is just a second nature and it something that I’ll never forget.