Reflection Paper

You have considered and written your personal leadership story earlier in the course. Reflect now on how your purpose can be seen throughout your story. Share the answers to the following questions: 

1. Can you see your leadership purpose more clearly when you review your personal leadership journey so far? 

2. What decisions have you made based on the passions in your life? 

3. What decisions will you make about your leadership purpose based on what you understand your life passions to be? 

Your reflection paper must be at least 500 words in length. The use of APA format for in-text citations and a reference listing in all assignments is required if you use quotes or paraphrases of content from your textbook or other source. 

1. Truth: Being truthful in all matters, played a crucial role in my development as a young leader. My friends naturally wanted to believe in each other. It was common to take the words from others as truth. Now occasionally, we would tell a half-truth until it was discovered. Once the truth was revealed, we came correct with everything. Sometimes, I discovered holding on to a lie, was damaging to one’s ability to lead. No leader is successful, if the troops who serve under them, can’t be believed.

2. Fairness: If one didn’t govern themselves with honesty, and played by the rules. It made dealing with others a lot harder than it should have been. As kids, we wanted to play with some type of honest standard. Kids just wanted to have fun. A sense of fairness was all compass we desired. Being a leader, I discovered that unfairness would lose you the confidence and trust of others. Be fair and honest with your dealings with others.

3. Friendship: Treating others bad and being dishonest, can destroy a great many friendships. Leaders are built on the ladder of friends. As kids, those who voted for you were your friends in the beginning. As you grew in grades and age. Your voters and believers were those who watched you grow as a classmate and teammate. Friends are the monuments of time and trust.

4. Respect for others: How you treat others is very important. We all want to be treated a certain way. The way you address someone, your tone and delivery. I had to be mindful of how I interacted with others.

5. Change: Change is all around us. How you incorporate change in your daily life says a lot about you. What’s good today, may not be relevant tomorrow. I had to learn to adapt to the conditions of the time.

1. Resourcefulness: I championed myself with ability to find and use whatever was available. Others would give out too soon. Or, complain of difficulty of the mission. How important is this to you. What is it (we) wanted to accomplish? Lack of funds, or materials, short on time. I was always thinking of how can we, instead of how hard it looked.

2. Teamwork: I never liked working alone, the more hands on the job I felt would benefit our project. Most of us, do not like being left out. If we see our friends involved, we wanted to be involved. Especially if the task looked like fun. Encouraging others to take part was an asset of mine.

3. Positive attitude: Having a strong dislike of negative people. The ones who always complain of failure. Or, something is too hard. I usually distanced myself from those individuals. Over time, you began to know who were up for challenges, and would at least give it a try. My strength was I always looked at everything was possible. If we couldn’t do it, it wasn’t from a lack of trying. “We can do it!”, was my famous battle cry.

4. Creativity: Thinking of ways to do anything. I feel my friends and I were, “thinking outside the box” before the phase became popular. We would be sitting around at the playground, thinking of stuff (as we called it) wondering what if? Just using our thoughts and imagination, we would come up with some far-fetched ideas.

5. Leadership: Growing up with my age group, I usually was bigger and taller than everyone else. I played games at a higher level than most. Being this odd fellow, my peers would normally pick or choose me as the captain or leader. Winning meant a lot to me, I would always encourage others to do their best. Give me the best that was in you, I’ll bring it home. My friends came to know, that they stood a winner’s chance of victory if I was on their team.

One thing I noticed about myself, my personality helped my image a great deal. Starting at a young age, I had more of a “Protector Personality” as a youth. I wasn’t afraid to stand up to anyone, unlike my peers. By stepping in on disputes my friends and classmates were having, I became somewhat of a hero and big brother, even though I was the same age as they were. Being good at sports or board games (checkers, chess, etc.), I stood out from everyone else.

When captains and team leaders were to be picked. My classmates always looked towards me. Understand, early in grade school, I did not want to front and centered. I wanted someone else to take the lead. Even at a young age, I discovered that the leader had to do most of the talking. I was great talking to those my age. I was still learning how to speak around adults. Once that shyness disappeared, my leadership abilities started to soar.

Failure is not an option. Most parents today take that stance with their children. That includes me as well. Most failures come from not attempting to do your best. I’ll just coast the rest of the way. Just getting by. Doing just enough to pass. These were my pitfalls in my early years and are still valid today. I must motivate myself to put maximum effort towards tasks today. Doing my best is an action, not a reaction to accomplishing what needs to be done.

I encourage my grandson and other youths to maximize their time, they must first learn to manage it. There’s a time to play, and a time to uplift their minds. My pitfalls still dwell in my time management. I linger in my decisions to get started. I wait to the last minute to begin what should have been started days ago. Procrastination is my enemy from within. As I read more about successful leaders of today. I one common factor they all share. The sooner you start, the sooner you can learn what you don’t know. Also, the sooner you start, the sooner you will find out what are good at and do well.

Pitfalls that I encountered, as I remembered were taking my popularity too serious. Because I was well known throughout the neighborhood and surrounding communities. I didn’t work as hard as I should have. I allowed my famous status to campaign for me. Status in the eyes of those who really don’t know you can be misleading. What they think they see of you out in public, isn’t the real you behind closed doors. I preyed on this popular image and didn’t work as hard as I should have.

When trying to be a positive example to your staff and workforce. One must look deep within themselves, on what type of leader they wish to be. When sitting in the top chair, friend and foe are watching your every move. My top core value is Honesty. Honesty and truthfulness plays a very important role in your leadership endeavors. Can your team believe in you with what you are telling them?

Leaders must walk the walk with what they are selling. If I am being told to work hard, give that extra effort. I would want to see my boss during the same. I want to see my leader practicing their words. Honesty in your work habits, and how one lives their lives in public. Feeling positive on the inside, helps lead you in your efforts. Never having to worry about known bad practices. I would never have worry about looking over my shoulder.