Maintaining Leadership

Major Improvement Goal 2

During my tenure in the Leadership Certificate Program, I have been fortunate (or unfortunate) to observe and be a part of situations where emergent leaders lacked. I have also been part of outstanding organizations that could not have asked for better leaders. I have actually been able to grow and learn more from the challenges than from the successes. Culture and environment are huge variables that can cause emergent leaders to rise up or to stay mum. By being an observer of these negative variables, I now know what conditions to avoid and what kind of culture to promote for a positive, thriving team.

Remaining as a follower in some situations has very much helped me to improve my leadership. Actually it has provided me with the perspective as to why someone would resist getting involved or being an active part of the group. Knowing this is essential to being an effective leader, as you cannot recognize how to change something unless you know it is an issue.

The Leadership Certificate Program has been essential in providing me the toolkit to identify and work through the challenging situations. Now that I am more prepared and aware of the challenges that groups can face, I will be able to step in as an emergent leader when there is a void and I see an opportunity to make a positive impact. Listening is a key skill in compensating when there is a lack of leader. Typically when no one is effective stepping up, it is due to the fact that everyone’s thoughts and concerns are not being recognized. Through the experiences of this program and outside of this program since the beginning, I feel much more prepared to fulfill my goal.

Certainly, only time will tell if my leadership methods will enable me to step in to help a group, but until that moment of truth I feel very much prepared.