Statement of Leadership Development Goals
Leadership is best learned through practice. For an individual to become a great leader they must learn from their mistakes and move forward towards the brighter future. After pointing conceptualized styles of leadership, my strengths and my beliefs, it is now time to point out my weaknesses or areas of improvement.
When I look at the six traits of leadership, there seems to be one that just stares back at me. It has the effect like it has become bolded upon the rest. This trait to me is my weakness, it is sociability. I am able to have pleasant social conversations, but I am more reserved and choose not to speak if I don’t have too. Speaking to new people definitely does not come easy to me and I will try to avoid it at all cost. If I am able to ‘slide under the radar’ without speaking I will choose to do that instead. For some reason, I am not very vocal or like to voice my opinions. I think this is because I am a shy person in general. This is one area in my leadership where I need to develop. A strategy that can help me with this is my current living situation. I am living away from home, from my family, and my true friends. I am here on a hockey experience and everything I do here is helping my sociability. Talking to fans, meeting the community as a ‘Rocket Player’, doing school visits is helping me over come my shyness and helping my sociability trait.
Another area where I can improve is dealing with my core leadership skills. I scored relatively well but I don’t think it was truly accurate. I think I can improve in my interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills demands having emotional intelligence, socially perceptive, and managing conflict. I think this skill has a lot to due with sociability, they have a close relation. This skill focuses on the relationship between the leader and understanding his or her followers. I think with improvement on my sociability trait will also lead to an improvement in my interpersonal skills. I am able to manage a conflict, I’m just weaker with emotional intelligence and socially perceptive. A strategy I can use to feel for my followers and relate to them is sometimes taking a breath or a few minutes, and look at things from a different perspective. Having a different view on things can always change the way you think or feel.
The experience that I will seek to improve these area’s are forever ongoing. I am always trying to improve my leadership skills and am learning new things each day. Being part of a hockey team at this level is a great experience, especially in such a small town like Charlottetown. To me, this is my greatest opportunity to develop. It’s a small town where everybody knows everyone and word travels fast. It is vital for me to be respectful towards the community because I am setting an example for the youth who look up to me. I am representing my team and organization wherever I go, people know who we are and we have to be courteous. Since my time here on the island, I have noticed a big difference in my leadership skills. Living in Quebec for two years was very difficult, everyone spoke French and I was English. This left me to be shy and quiet and never spoke in public. This may be a factor as to why my social skills never were developed. But now I believe I have a chance to develop and nurture these skills. I am given a great opportunity in life and am very thankful for it.
When I look at the six traits of leadership, there seems to be one that just stares back at me. It has the effect like it has become bolded upon the rest. This trait to me is my weakness, it is sociability. I am able to have pleasant social conversations, but I am more reserved and choose not to speak if I don’t have too. Speaking to new people definitely does not come easy to me and I will try to avoid it at all cost. If I am able to ‘slide under the radar’ without speaking I will choose to do that instead. For some reason, I am not very vocal or like to voice my opinions. I think this is because I am a shy person in general. This is one area in my leadership where I need to develop. A strategy that can help me with this is my current living situation. I am living away from home, from my family, and my true friends. I am here on a hockey experience and everything I do here is helping my sociability. Talking to fans, meeting the community as a ‘Rocket Player’, doing school visits is helping me over come my shyness and helping my sociability trait.
Another area where I can improve is dealing with my core leadership skills. I scored relatively well but I don’t think it was truly accurate. I think I can improve in my interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills demands having emotional intelligence, socially perceptive, and managing conflict. I think this skill has a lot to due with sociability, they have a close relation. This skill focuses on the relationship between the leader and understanding his or her followers. I think with improvement on my sociability trait will also lead to an improvement in my interpersonal skills. I am able to manage a conflict, I’m just weaker with emotional intelligence and socially perceptive. A strategy I can use to feel for my followers and relate to them is sometimes taking a breath or a few minutes, and look at things from a different perspective. Having a different view on things can always change the way you think or feel.
The experience that I will seek to improve these area’s are forever ongoing. I am always trying to improve my leadership skills and am learning new things each day. Being part of a hockey team at this level is a great experience, especially in such a small town like Charlottetown. To me, this is my greatest opportunity to develop. It’s a small town where everybody knows everyone and word travels fast. It is vital for me to be respectful towards the community because I am setting an example for the youth who look up to me. I am representing my team and organization wherever I go, people know who we are and we have to be courteous. Since my time here on the island, I have noticed a big difference in my leadership skills. Living in Quebec for two years was very difficult, everyone spoke French and I was English. This left me to be shy and quiet and never spoke in public. This may be a factor as to why my social skills never were developed. But now I believe I have a chance to develop and nurture these skills. I am given a great opportunity in life and am very thankful for it.