Developing Leadership Skills Through Personal Feedback

  10 Leadership Principles Assignment 1) Being Dependable 2) Showing Trustworthiness 3) Being Motivational 4) Being Communicative 5) Being a Problem Solver 6) Being Encouraging 7) Being Empathetic 8) Being Positive 9) Being Organized 10) Showing Decisiveness STEP 1: Identify at least 3 respondents from different aspects of your life (for example, one family member, one friend, and one co-worker). Then ask for feedback about your leadership • Find people who know you well and are willing to be interviewed by you. Possible categories that these people might fall into include: o Family members/partner/significant other o Friends o Sports teammates o Club members o Neighbors o Boss/Supervisor o Co-workers o Classmates o Professors/Teachers • Ask each of these individuals to tell you how they believe your personality traits influence your leadership style(s), and ask them for EXAMPLES of specific moments when you demonstrated this. You can do the interviews in person, over the phone/video conference, or through email (this option is convenient for keeping track of their responses, but not as fun!). If you are interviewing face-to-face or by phone/video, make sure to write down your interviewees’ responses as thoroughly as possible. • You are free to go about interviewing in any manner you choose but some sample topics to cover are: o What they believe your leadership traits are. o What they believe your leadership style is. o How they believe you can best develop yourself to reach your fullest potential as a leader. STEP 2: Recognize Themes & Supporting Behaviors • Review the feedback from your respondents and identify some common themes (approx. 3-5) regarding your leadership. When doing this, take note of any that relate to the 10 Leadership Principles or MBTI assignments. • Develop a chart or table to organize the major themes, the specific situations/behavioral examples that show how you demonstrated these, and your interpretation of this information: how do you make sense of this? (Please see the example chart below.) STEP 3: Plan How to Develop Your Leadership Ability • Plan how you can use this new information to make changes - now or in the future - by incorporating this information into various areas of your life in which leadership is necessary (i.e. work, school, sport, volunteer activity, home life, personal relationships, etc.). • Provide examples of how you will develop or use this information by relating it the Beginning to Develop You assignment. Does it match what you had here, does it suggest you need additional development/training? Be as specific and concrete as possible! Written Paper (contains three parts): • BACKGROUND. Please provide a brief background based on Step 1 above. This might include details about your interviewees, your relationships to them, how they reacted to the request, where/how the interviews took place, and/or any other information to help set the context for the exercise. (about 2-3 pages, 1 inch margins, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font) (make up, for names use sister lauryn, friend lorena and coworker Jocelyn) • STRENGTHS TABLE. Produce a table/chart based on Steps 2 & 3 that organizes the common themes of what your interviewees reported to you. You should have at least three themes in your chart. Ensure you include the examples they provided, as well as your own interpretation. Make sure to utilize terms and concepts from our class materials where appropriate. Most importantly, provide specific action steps that describe how you might incorporate or develop your leadership abilities or styles, now or in the future. Refer to the example chart below for additional guidance. (see example) • PERSONAL REFLECTION. Please reflect upon the exercise, and write about what you learned; it might include leadership traits or styles you did not know you had, how different people see you, how you plan to develop your leadership based on this new evidence, or even the process of asking someone about yourself. (about 2-3 pages, 1 inch margins, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font)