MSLD 641_March 2019

Given my background, I am going to approach this exercise a little differently. I have an undergraduate degree in counseling and since learning more about people, interpersonal interactions, emotional intelligence, etc., I have been a fan of the “soft stuff”. In other words, inspiring others, being in touch with my emotions and others, and leading with compassion, are skills that I’ve been sharpening for years. To be clear, I am not where I want to be and I still have so much more to learn; however, I can see a lot of my personality in resonant leader traits. Still, I feel more detached from the term leadership than I do resonance. I feel that I am a resonant person, but I am not quite confident leading others. I believe I inspire others based on feedback I have received; however, I am not sure how I would inspire those I am leading. When I think of leader-inspiration, I think of one of my supervisor friends. My friend teaches his employees new ways to think and problem-solve; wit...

When completing the "What is Great Leadership?" exercise, I found it easy to write my positive and negative experiences because I've been greatly impacted by both. For example, when I listed the way I felt in the presence of my effective leader, I noted the following: I felt taken care of I felt wise confident safe trusted protected I felt like an experienced person was leading me When I listed the way I felt in the presence of my ineffective leader, I listed the following: I felt unsafe I  felt paranoid I felt like I was always wrong I felt frustrated afraid negative atmosphere As I listened to Dr. Boyatzis' presentation and considered the results of my exercise, I am further convinced of what I want (and do not want) from a leader. When I say that my effective leader made me feel taken care of, I am not speaking in a child-like way; I felt as though my best interest was considered. Also, I was treated as though I mattered. I felt wise around m...