My journey so far as a leader

I can describe becoming a leader as taking the next step toward success. The reason is because to be a leader you must pass through a lot of stages. There are several ways in which leadership can be described. It can be based on ideas and the support we give to others to follow our ideas in a certain way. To become a leader, you need to be a good listener to others’ ideas and point of view. Being an honors student, I was able to help myself develop professionally by obtaining skills that I need for my future career. One of these skill areas is my leadership skills that I have developed by being involved in several job related and community activities. 

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In my honors 201 class I performed StrengthFinder completing the Clifton StrengthFinder inventory has helped me to develop more in my other competency. This assessment was designed to help me understand and evaluate the strength I have to develop my leadership skill for my other competency. It also helped me see what other potential I had and if I could be able to develop it. In fact, having this competency has helped me to utilize the strength that I developed in one of the sectors to the other. For example, for one of leadership development experiences I worked as an IT Consultant has taught me about customer handling and decision making. There were several challenging moments when issues came in relation to IT problems, but I learnt how to diligently handle tasks. In addition to that I played a role as a  team to bring quality service to customers. This includes dividing tasks into groups so that everyone can work for a common goal. The other thing is that as a leader we give training to new employees with the expectation they are required. The skills that I developed in one of my competency has helped me advance in my other competency specially my position as a lab assistant. During the time I was a lab assistant for Chem 111 class I was able to conduct a laboratory class and assist the instructor in conducting the lab with the students. This role majorly helped me develop my presentation and guiding skills as I was being able to speak in front of a big audience. I used to be very nervous and frightened to speak out loud, but after I started my role as a lab assistant, I was able to practice daily on how to present every day for the lab class session that I had. Practicing has helped me improve and I was able to lead several students in the lab class to guide them in the lab with requirements that they needed. Another example that I developed was when I used to work as a Student Consultant in the IT department I have developed the habit of multi-tasking and also I was able to improve my communication skills. This skill has helped me significantly when I worked as a Lab Assistant as I interacted with students with presentation and also helping the students get acquainted with the materials.

 

In brief I believe that I have developed leadership skills that I can utilize when I join the bigger world of my career and the honors body has played a significant role in this development. In my thoughts leadership is something that is developed through experience and hard work. The more experience that is acquired the more confidence one will get to lead and support other people in their path. My personal theory of leadership style that was effective both in my job career and undergraduate study is the role of taking responsibility for one’s action as well as being open minded to learn and understand everyone’s ideas.  I believe the skills that I developed through my time at MNSU and Honors will guide me in my next step of my career of becoming a Physician Assistant. This is because the career path I chose requires having a strong communication skill and also a role of working as a team and being part of decision-making for the well-being of the community as a whole.