Self-management

The second competency was self management. I chose this because I know I am one to always take on a lot of work and responsibilities and it is important to learn how to balance it all and manage my priorities and responsibilities. I think through my team experience I was able to work on this skill. When I knew an upcoming week would be extremely busy with academics and dance, I made sure to get ahead on my work for the club so I wouldn’t be as stressed out or letting my teammates down with subpar work. While I did not take PSYC 365 as mentioned in the PDP I still feel I worked to develop this skill. 

Openness

The third competency was openness. I shared in the beginning that I am very strong in my interpersonal skills but sometimes I conceal things that are going on because I don’t want others to feel that my issues are a burden. I really feel like I was able to develop these skills in the leading with empathy and compassion workshop because we learned how to, as leaders, listen and care for those facing issues. This opened my eyes to see that it is okay to be open especially in a setting where I am being led by a compassionate leader. 

Empathy

The last competency was empathy. Originally I was shocked when I scored low on empathy but that meant there was still more room to improve. I felt that I learned a lot about empathy in the leading with empathy and compassion workshop as well as the leading with integrity lab. Both of these experiences really honed in on empathy as a trait and I gained lots of valuable information and skills from both. From there I was able to transfer those skills into my team experience by being more empathetic of the people I oversee in IlliniThon and making sure to always check in on their well-being. 

Overall Reflection

Overall this was an amazing program to complete and I am glad that I did. One barrier that I faced was taking a long time to complete it. I had many conflicting events that occurred during certain times but I overcame that by making this certificate a bigger priority in my life. In doing so I was able to complete over half of the program in one semester. What surprised me was how informative and engaging the workshops were. A ton of the information stuck in my brain after the workshops and I was scared that it might not. As well, they were super engaging and were able to fit a ton of information into a short amount of time while not feeling overwhelming. 

Through this program I believe I have grown as a leader in many ways. One of the most important ways is that I feel more confident when leading. Knowing I have a ton of skills under my belt that I have practiced in leadership labs and workshops made me feel more confident in my team experience when leading. When issues arose I knew I was able to help resolve them with the skills that I have learned. Also as mentioned earlier, I feel like I have really improved in becoming an empathetic leader. While I know there is always still more room to grow I feel much stronger about this skill and have been able to implement it. 

I would say that I still agree with the original definition of leadership that I gave. I really still believe that leadership means having the ability to inspire, guide and support peers towards a shared goal while also creating an environment where everyone feels heard and valued. I also think some words to describe a good leader would be active listener, leading with integrity, being flexible, and seeking growth. I felt that I was able to align those traits with what I was learning in the experiences. I still feel strongly that accountability is a very important skill for a leader to have. For example, I want to be an empathetic leader but I also want to hold those accountable so that we can continue to foster a culture of positivity as well as success.