Leadership
The competency of Leadership is one that I feel I have been actively working towards throughout my two years at Bowling Green State University. Through my personal reading, I aim to learn about new leadership articles and theories. Bringing these theories into my everyday work has allowed me to excel at other aspects of my job. The Leadership competency discusses the development of a definition of leadership, how it can impact one’s work, as well as enhance the work currently being done.
This semester I served as a facilitator for the Leaders in Residence program through the Office of Residence Life. The Leaders in Residence (LiR) program is based on the Student Leadership Challenge and takes place over seven weeks. Each week the facilitators discuss leadership in different ways, helping students develop their personal definition of leadership and how to increase their student experience through their leadership journey.
My work as an LiR facilitator has been impacted by the advanced outcome of “develop and promote a shared vision that drives unit, divisional, and institutional short-term and long-term planning and the ongoing organizing of work” (ACPA & NASPA 2015,p. 29). The first week of LiR was spent creating a working definition of leadership. Throughout the rest of the LiR experience, the class would refer back to the definition, making changes when appropriate. During the last session, I facilitated a dialogue about how each student’s definition of leadership had changed over the seven weeks. Moving forward, I walked the students through creating an action plan that was centered on how each person would implement what they learned about leadership in their daily lives. This action plan showcases the combination of short-term and long-term goals, as students were able to talk about risks they needed to take to continue their leadership journey.
Me with my LiR class from Spring 2016
In an effort for myself to work with different types of students, I served as a facilitator for FLARE: Chapter Presidents Academy, a program that was put on by Fraternity and Sorority Life at Bowling Green State University. FLARE was a program that brought together the chapter presidents for all four councils within the Greek community. As a facilitator, I had a small group made of members of each council. In our small groups, I would facilitate discussions based on issues that the Greek community are facing.
One of the small group facilitations that showcased my commitment to the leadership competency came during a problem solving activity (see below for examples of the facilitation guide used to focus dialogue). The small group debrief was to talk through a specific issue that the group assigned themselves, and create solutions to that problem. This activity was reminiscent of the advanced outcome of “facilitate reflective learning and relationship building across campus, community, and the profession” (ACPA & NASPA 2015, p. 29). During this activity I asked reflective questions of the group to ensure that all voices were being heard. The FLARE facilitator manual serves as an artifact, showcasing the conversations that I was able to conduct with the students within my small group. While the conversation topics were already creating, my ongoing commitment to leadership as a whole allowed me to continue the conversations past what was in the manual, towards a real conversation that the students were able to actively participate in.
One of the advanced outcomes for the Leadership competency is “display congruence between one’s identity as a leader and one’s professional actions” (ACPA & NASPA 2015, p. 29). I believe that over my time in my internship and in the CSP program, I have been able to showcase that commitment for congruence between my identity and my actions. I strive to make sure that my students are being challenged and supported towards constantly working towards furthering their goals and questioning their line of thinking so that all students I come into contact with can become more effective leaders.
