Leadership+Statement

=Leadership Statement =

Beginning of Masters program Since starting at Berlin, I have coached mock trial, been a prom adviser, and a member of the student success committee. Based on the roles talked about in class, I have been a conference attendee and a technology leader for my department. As time goes by, I will experiment with taking on other leadership roles. In terms of leadership style I tend to be more democratic and instrumental. I allow people a little bit of a say in how they accomplish their tasks, but I am very goal-oriented and do not tolerate people who do not accomplish what they are suppose to do. In terms of leadership qualities my strengths are in the areas of honesty and ethic, organizations, resourcefulness, and intelligences. I need to work on being more perceptive and empathetic. These two areas are my weakest because I tend to focus so much on the goal that I do not always pick up on people’s emotional cues and I do not always accept people’s reasons for not having accomplished their portion of the work. I need to work on striking a balance between high expectations and people’s emotions. To me a leader is someone who can organize people and get the entire task accomplished without there being a lot of drama. A leader should be someone people can respect because the leader respects the people they work with and possess an understanding that leadership always requires improvement and reflection. They should be able to demonstrate empathy and still be able to handle discipline when it is needed. A leader should be confident enough in himself or herself that he or she can accept the feedback of others and delegate work to others.

End of Masters Program As I finish my masters program, I have begun to notice changes in my ability as a leader and a follower. Some ways in which I have changed as a leader include: increasing the number of leadership positions I have and becoming more empathic to followers and other leaders. One of the committees I am now a part of is the staff development committee, as a member I help create staff development opportunities and field issues that other staff members might have. Another committee I am now a part of is the RtI committee and this committee will be responsible for developing and implementing RtI at the high school. Within my department, I have begun the process of creating common assessments and I have also taken on more of an administrative role without gaining the title of head of the department. I have also become the prom adviser and have helped to found a young teachers groups.

My leadership style has not changed much since the beginning of the program, but I have become more empathic to needs of my followers. I am a very goal-oriented leader and person, so for me the emotional side of things do not always get taken into account. Since starting the masters program I have become more aware of my followers needs for emotional support. For example, when taking care of business for prom I would run into tension when trying to make changes to how prom is done. To save myself from headaches, I now stop and allow people more time to air their concerns about changes and then take the time to address those concerns. By doing this, the process has become incredibly smooth and there is less resistance from others involved.

As a follower being goal-oriented without being empathic to the leader's emotional needs would get me into trouble and would cause frustration for me. I like to be told what needs to be done and then let me go and do it as I see fit and then I am a happy person. Not everyone's leadership styles allows them to feel comfortable allowing their followers that much control and some leaders do not focus so heavily on the overall goal. My lack of empathy for people's emotions would lead me to be tactless and that would get me into trouble as a student. I have since learned that a little bit of tact can go a long way, but it is still a conscious effort for me.

My curriculum director tends to focus more on the emotional side of leadership and less on the overall goal. She is the leader of the staff development committee, so I was very frustrated when I started as a member of this committee. I felt like we never accomplished anything at these meeting and I never knew what to work on in between meetings. In the past I would have bared my frustration silently, but now that I understand that this is her leadership style I can address the issues I have with her and not cause her to see it as an attack on her authority.

In reality, I have found that I need to be a well rounded leader in order for things to happen effectively. It was the goal-oriented side of my leadership skills that lead to the young teachers group being founded. A few other young teachers and myself would talk about how great it would be for the young teachers together, but the talk would never develop beyond talk. It was not until I finally got them to settle on a date and place and then took the initiative to contact the other young teachers that these gathers finally started to happen. Being goal oriented is not a bad leadership skill to have as long as I remember to temper it with empathy.