Taking the Strengthsfinder assessment helped me to understand my natural tendencies when it comes to leadership and problem-solving. While reflecting, I noticed that if someone were to ask me to describe myself, the strengths the assessment suggested would probably not be my first instinct to choose. However, the ones chosen for me are far more accurate to actual reality. The qualities I possess help to clarify my actions and leadership style.

The characteristics that the StrengthsFinder Assessment assigned me included: restorative, relator, context, ideation, and connectedness. Many of these characteristics share the same behaviors or qualities. The one I most relate to the actually the first one, restorative. Restorative is described as a person that constantly tries to solve problems, often independently. Gallup, also adds restorative people tend to be very honest and realistic about the problems they encounter. I find that this description describes me on a day-to-day basis, especially when I am trying to solve a problem. This also clarifies the type of leadership style I am most drawn to. In a leadership position, I tend to want to solve one problem at a type and ensure that it is being done in the most efficient way. I also usually want to make sure everyone is comfortable and make a personal connection with everyone, this relates to the characteristics of relator and connectedness. Ensuring that I am not the only one reaching or wanting the goal is very important to me, and knowing everyone’s personality is also important in order to understand how to work with everyone.

A specific time in which I demonstrated this leadership in a real life situation would be at a camp during high school. The camp encourage girls in middle school to develop an interest in math and engineering during their middle school years. I was a camp counselor and was supposed to guide the kids in multiple activities throughout the day. While leading these groups I made sure to understand the personalities of all the kids, and was always the one to help with the campers that did not want to participate. I would use my realtor and connectedness traits all throughout camp to ensure everyone had a great time. I would then use my restorative trait at the end of the day to fix any of the problems that we had encountered throughout the day and find a solution so it would not happen again on the next day.

In the textbook the chapter relating to Authentic leadership most applies. “Researchers have found that authentic leadership is influenced by a leader’s positive psychological capacities, moral reasoning, and critical life events” (Northouse). This quote confirms that a leader’s traits affect their leadership style and the way they naturally approach problems. Doing this activity helped me to better understand my leadership style and how I relate to others. It also made me wonder whether people’s top five qualities change over time.

This leadership timeline displays the many events in my life that have led me to be the leader I am today. My first leadership role was being treasurer for my National Junior Honor Society. During this time I learned the importance of having a responsibility and experienced what it is like to have others depend on me. To finally my role as a student ambassador, that allowed to lead and interact with others in a more formal setting. The leadership theories that have introduced through the book have caused me to look back on my leadership actions. I think using the skilled approach would have been very useful for when I was working in groups. “It reminds leaders that their impact on others occurs through the tasks they perform as well as in the relationship they create” (Northouse). This reminds me to notice how my actions can affect those I am leading.  This causes me to question how my actions and leadership techniques will affect the leadership qualities of my members.

Reflection #1

Leadership has been a concept presented to me all throughout my life. Constantly being introduced to new ideas of leadership and mentors, my opinions of leadership took form in the early stages of my life. After attending an IB school, I was introduced to the concept of leadership and the characteristics it usually entails. Many events helped shaped my thoughts on leadership. Most notably, my definition of leadership changed when I was actually able to become a leader myself. During my high school career, I was given the opportunity to become a student ambassador. By doing this I was leading incoming high school freshman or any other visitors on the campus. Through giving various tours and working events I learned that leadership is done best when relating to a group and establishing the common interest or goal.

While reading the text my understanding of leadership was then reconfirmed. In the text Leadership: Theory and Practice this definition of leadership is provided, “Leadership is a process where an individual influence another group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 5).  Through both my experiences and this information I can confidently say that I think leadership is leading a group of people to achieve a common goal that has each person’s best interest at heart. The leader should lead honestly, with a passion for the subject in which they are leading.

Although I have my belief of what leadership entails, I am curious to see how my opinion will be challenged or altered during this course. Since leadership is a forever changing topic that can always be researched and explored further,  I am interested to see how this year will alter my view on leadership.