What?
Leadership is defined differently by everyone. Before this class, I was set on the idea of leadership being a situation in which one person leads several others. This class has taught me that leadership can also be defined as as personal leadership. Taking your own passions, thoughts, and goals and turning it into your vision. Leadership can be leading your own live by finding your true north and letting it guide your life. Through this course I have been able to find my own leadership strengths & weaknesses as well as my leadership vision and development plan.
I have learned that my strengths are focus, achiever, communicaton, futuristic, and strategic. I have an esfj personality type according to the MTBI assessment.
So What?
Using what I have learned in this course will help me prepare for the future in my personal life and my future careers. By writing goal statements, I was able to make a specific plan for my future including my personal life and my academic career which will turn into my career. My learning what motivates me, what upsets me, what stresses me, and several other things about myself I am able to apply this to my everyday life and keep my goals in line with the future.
Now What?
Once this course is over, I will continue to learn more about myself through leadership experiences and academic trials. I will continue to strive for my goals which will be ever changing and keep my true north in line with my actions. I will always remember the importance of always remembering that what you do defines your life and the memory that you will leave to others.

Leadership Blog #4: Professionalism

What?
Over the past couple of weeks, I have learned and been exposed to appropriate professional manners & etiquette. Crystal Matthews, an etiquette teacher came to class and went over several useful etiquette practices including introductions, social atmospheres and dining. Although most etiquette practices are common manners and are used every day, there were several things that I learned that will be useful in the future. Following the presentation by Crystal, we were able to practice what we learned at the Professionalism party.
In Crystal's presentation, I learned several things about dining etiquette that will be useful in the future. We were taught to always mirror the host of the dinner and cross your fork and knife when you are done with your meal. Also, if you are being taken out to dinner let the host order first or ask what they recommend to set a price range that is appropriate to order. A helpful hint that Crystal brought up is to remember to always bring a gift to the host when invited over for dinner and never bring a food item without checking with the host first.
At the professionalism party, we were able to demonstrate the things we reviewed about dining and social etiquette including how to dress appropriately. The biggest thing that everyone struggled with was the proper etiquette to eat certain finger foods. Overall, most people did good with the business casual dress although it was challenging because it was raining outside and we all had food to carry to the party.
So What?
As Crystal began her presentation, she announced that Professionalism is one of the most important aspects of advancing in your career path. She told stories of people getting fired or losing a promotion based on improper professional etiquette. Making a good impression on upper level management, clients, and coworkers can have a big influence in your career. Even though you may not think about it, if you do something unprofessional while dining or at a party you will make a lasting impression on those around you.
Now What?
Since the professionalism presentation and the professionalism party I have been paying more attention to my professionalism techniques. At Thanksgiving dinner I made sure to cross by utensils on the plate when I was done and looked around and saw a few people who did the same thing. I have also shared what I have learned with other students who might not learn this etiquette. I will also continue to pay attention to my own etiquette and utilize the different rules that we have learned.

Leadership Blog #3

What?
Openness is a leadership strategy that is defined differently by everyone. Wikipedia defines openness as: "a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience." Being open to different ideas includes letting go of all stereotypes you may have, taking an unbiased view, and allowing yourself to be immersed into situations and experiences that you have never been exposed to. Openness in leadership is allowing yourself to try new things, listen to the ones you lead, and learn from other leaders.
So What?
Being open becomes more and more important as our world becomes more diverse. In class we discussed how there are so many different aspects that we must be open to in today's society. War, health care, same sex marriage, immigration, and poverty are a few issues that we discussed that require us to be open to new ideas to understand and become involved in. To be a leader within society, we must display openness to relate to the world around us.
Now What?
To become more open as a leader, I think it is important to immerse yourself in the differences surrounding you. Often, education about the unknown will completely change your perspective and help you to understand it. To be open, you don't have to agree with everything, just attempt to learn why others feel the way they do. By stepping out of your comfort zone, you can become more open-minded. Below is a link to e-how.com with a few pointers on how to become more open minded.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4605268_become-more-openminded.html

Leadership Blog #2

Ethics In Work
What?
I work as a leasing agent at a student apartment complex in Gainesville. Every day I give tours and work with future residents to sign leases and select where they will be living. This takes a great amount of ethics when working with contracts that cause students to take out loans and use their income or their parents money to live. I have to be sure to thoroughly explain the lease contract with the student and make sure that they know when signing the lease that they are executing a binding contract that locks them in for 12 months at our apartment complex. Even though it is my job to sign as many leases as possible and to keep my companies best interest in mind, I also feel it is my responsibility to keep complete honesty with the tenant and let them know everything that they are agreeing to within the lease. I am sure not to just tell them where to sign and trick them into signing or lie to them about what they are agreeing to.
So What?
In my job as a leasing agent it is so important to remain honest and demonstrate good ethics when dealing with contracts and money. Often, money will lead to greed and the law will be broken. I want students to make sure that they know this contract is over a $7,000 purchase on housing that they are agreeing to, more than several full time students make per year. Being honest is a key trait to a successful leasing agent, because it will pay off!
Now What?
Now that I am able to practice good ethics and honesty at my current part time job, I plan to have strong ethics in my career and life. With several of the recent corporate ethics scandals, it is obvious that bad ethics will shine through if used and that it is important to remain honest and use good judgment and it will pay off. If you lie, people will find out and other people appreciate honesty and good ethics. If my company makes me question my ethics, I am confident that I will have no problem finding another job with a company that I am proud to work with.

My personality type & how it can clash!

To begin, my personality type as classified by the Meyers-Briggs scale is: ESFJ. I am an extraverted, sensing, feeling, & judging individual. As I think back to a time when my personality has conflicted with someone else's I can think of many small daily instances. However, there is one personality conflict that I have struggled with but recently learned that conflict is not always a bad thing.

Having a strong judging trait, I am definitely always the one to plan and organize anything that my friends and I do. However, I am surrounded by many people including my best friend, roommate, and boyfriend that love spontaneous unplanned occurrences or to just follow the plans made for them without contributing. Recently, for spring break my friends and I took a trip to Mexico. I made all of the plans and spent hours researching hotels, flights, and activities for us to do. I was often frustrated at having to complete all of the planning and worried about others input once we arrived in Mexico and if the people who weren't planning would be mad at the choices I had made. I was also upset when the group wouldn't give me feedback on the plans I had made. Once we got to Mexico, everyone turned out to be grateful for my hard work and planning and we had an awesome time.

From this experience, I have learned that conflict and differences in personalities aren't always a bad thing. Although I was sometimes frustrated by everyone's lack of interest in planning the trip, if others were planning I probably would have felt overpowered and left out. I also probably wouldn't have enjoyed the trip as much because I would be thinking of how my plans would have been different and in some cases (and in my eyes) better. I realized that if there are too many people planning something, some events or activities would never occur due to a lack of agreement. In my situation, I was the planner and I needed a group of people to follow my plans with me to fully enjoy the trip.

In retrospect, and since I have learned more about different personality types: some people are planned and organized and some are spontaneous and lead spastic paths. Neither of these options are wrong or right and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. If we were all the same, what a boring life we would lead. Also, as I got to know my own personality type and the traits that contribute to it, I have learned that it is important to understand other peoples needs as well. If somebody else wants to help organize, divide the responsibility and work together to plan!