Leadership Philosophy

             To me, leadership is about working with a team of people to reach a common goal and along the way, grow and develop as a person. I add the last part about growing in developing because something that I have learned just in the 7 weeks that our class had known each other, we have all grown and developed more than I thought was possible. Because of that, I think we are all stronger leaders, therefore, leadership doesn’t start and end with reaching goals, it involves self-reflection and striving to be better.

My personal philosophy on leadership for my life is to be a positive influence on those around me by encouragement, an optimistic attitude, and staying grounded in my faith. Everyone has a different philosophy for how they perceive leadership in their life; this is what I love about leadership, everyone views it differently.

After taking the StregthsQuest assessment in the fall and even throughout my experiences in this class, it was no surprise to me that my number one strength is belief. Having strong beliefs has defined who I am my whole life and it is, essentially, the way I view and approach life every day. My belief system and faith is relevant to how I see my life’s role and purpose. I started to notice that there was something different about me in junior high and high school when the people I was surrounded by said I was extremely positive, happy, “smiley”, and had concrete values. I embraced these strengths at a young age and use them to make those around me feel good about themselves in hopes that my positivity will become contagious and a way of life for others. I even realized throughout this class that faith is something that is a huge part of my life. Throughout certain exercises, I often thought of how my faith experience has impacted me and how I view leadership.  

            My closely held values of staying concrete in my faith and what I believe in, trust, and attitude shape how I make everyday decisions in my life. My faith is a way of life for me and my decisions revolve around my views. I believe trust is the foundation and most important aspect of every relationship. I also believe attitude is everything; a positive attitude on life can make each day better just by noticing all the good in life.

            I believe that leadership is a continuous-learning process, as we have seen in this class, for example. For every organization that I will work with, I will consistently form individual relationships with my team before I try to lead them. I will strive to engage and inspire my team by modeling behaviors and actions that I believe are crucial to the success of the organization.

            My philosophy differs now then from the beginning of the class by realizing I need to thrive on my strengths and what I am passionate about to be the more effective leader I can. This directly relates to my leadership philosophy as it is composed of my strengths and what I find passion in. In the beginning of this class, I was too focused on my weaknesses and how that makes me a less effective leader. I am thankful that this class has taught me to leverage my weaknesses by continuously developing my strengths. The takeaways that I learned from this class were very impactful and will stick with me for the rest of my life!