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Feb. 20
th
, 2014
Communication & Effective Leadership Thompson
Quiet Places, Quiet Places Reflection
I visited the tree swing outside of Heidi Lounge. I can see the swing from my room, and I walk
past it every day, so I decided to try working there. I visited the swing on Tuesday the 18
th
. It was really
nice to be outside even though it was a little bit cloudy. Although I couldnt stay long because my
battery was quickly dying on my laptop, it was great to swing on the bench and relax while I wrote my
paper. It allowed me to focus more on my work without the distractions of my room, until I knew some
of the people walking by. Even with some mild distractions it was interesting how being in a space that
was outside my usual domain effected my reflections about myself. I felt as if I was much more critical,
like a judge would be rather than a biased personal reflection.
As I began to reflect upon this year I focused on what has interested me the most. I feel as
though I have been drawn to the idea of effectiveness. In this class we have focused on what makes a
leader effective. This has resonated with me because previously I was distracted by other aspects of
leaders, like their outgoing personalities and extraversion (which are qualities that I often feel I lack). It
has been very helpful for me to see that there are so many different ways to be an effective leader. It
has also been interesting to look at how leadership is viewed so differently by theorists and people in
our class. Ive always felt that there was a straight forward definition to leadership, but through talking
with others in the class I have been able to open my eyes to the different aspects of a leader and the
different qualities that others find important. Previously when I thought of leadership, and what it
entailed, I didnt much consider the communication implications of leadership. Communication seemed
to be a side effect of leadership rather than communication being a key to leadership. This encourages
me to develop my communication skills because, as several models suggest it is possible for people to
develop their communication skills and therefore their leadership skills.
Through this class I have been able to critically look at how I handle leadership situations. I have
been able to reflect upon why I was successful in some instances and not others, and why I appear to be
successful to some followers, but not others. I have learned that although I consider myself an introvert I
am comfortable as a leader in most situations because I sometimes feel helpless when I possess no
control over a situation. This has been a contradiction I have struggled with internally for several years,
but until now I have passed this off as an odd contradiction. I am now beginning to understand that
communication is the key to this feeling (which is a wonderful insight since I am majoring in Human
Communication). In most social situations it is uncomfortable for me to constantly be sharing my time
with the people around me, but in more professional situations communication with others is
something that is required. When something is required of me I feel that I need to accomplish it because
of expectations I have of myself, and expectations others have of me. I have come to understand that
where I dont need to succeed in social situations on my own, when the aspect of leadership is added I
feel as though I need to succeed at what Im doing.
My position as a Hall Manager (HM) provides many leadership opportunities. I am asked to
manage and lead my hall. I am also provided opportunities to lead my fellow HMs. I hope to use some of
the information I have learned in this class to more clearly be able to understand how I am leading
others and how others lead. This will help me make better decisions about how to handle different
situations. Knowing how different aspects of a leader affect followers will help me to understand when
to demonstrate different characteristics of myself. For example, with my residents in a policy violation
situation my use of power will be much different than how I use power with my fellow HMs and
Coordinators.
Recently, I had my interview for being on the Residential Life Staff next year. In this interview
they focused heavily on my traits as a leader. They asked me to reflect upon my year and see how I led
my hall. Because of this class I had already begun doing so. This, I believe, gave me an advantage other
interviewees because I had the language to describe what I believed my strengths and weaknesses were
as well as I was able to clearly articulate how I led my hall.
I know that later in the class we will be talking about ethics in leadership. This is something I am
very curious about. But, I often feel that discussing ethics become a class long ethics debate about
personal ethics rather than discussing the topic of ethics. I am also curious about the role of leaders in a
crisis. I feel that much of my job focuses on crisis situations, and although I have the tools to manage
these situations I wonder if my leadership style changes in these situations and if that is a good or bad
characteristic.