This semester, my teamwork skills and my view on leadership have developed the most.
Teamwork Skills
My class’s team case studies were one of the first things we worked on this semester. Working with others so early on was an intimidating idea! However, Professor Cain gave us the resources we needed to learn how to cooperate as a team. Doing this early on helped us realize that we could get things done with anyone if we put the work in.
My team members were great to work with. I learned that defining what our goals are as individuals and as a group, as well as establishing an understanding and communicative environment, can be what makes or breaks productivity within a team. This is information that I can take with me throughout my college career and in life.
Leadership Understanding
My understanding of leadership has been impacted even more, though. I had the opportunity to think about what leadership really is in numerous moments throughout the semester, and I also got to consider what a leader may look like. By reading about and discussing different leaders throughout the semester, my view of who can and should lead was widened and—more importantly—strengthened.
Before this class, I hadn’t learned much about female leaders at all, let alone female person-of-color leaders. What the world tried to determine for me up to the point before college is that female leads only exist in TV shows—and it’s ten times more likely if they’re attractive in a Eurocentric fashion.
I’ve appreciated this course so much because it reminded me of what it’s like to believe that I can do something that the massive world around me doesn’t truly want me to believe. It was inspiring to see women in history recognize when something needs to change and then (seemingly fearlessly) organize to make those changes! Not only did they choose to push for change, but they also showed others how important it was and got many people to follow their lead.
What I’ve realized about leadership is that no matter their background, what they look like, or how they sound, a leader is someone who makes a way. That description has no physical guidelines or rules of personality. Whether the masses believe they are leading well or not, leaders have to be decisive and their choices must be agreeable to some extent. I realized this by learning about women—of many different backgrounds and beliefs—who have created paths for others to follow.
For example, the woman I chose for my personal case study project: Phyllis Schlafly. Although I didn’t agree with many of her beliefs nor her agenda, she was still a strong leader and had many people taking after her example to fight for something they all believed in. No matter how people may judge her agenda, the fact is she was able to create a following and made decisions that her followers supported.
There were also many subjects from this semester who made a difficult decision to start doing something they believed would make positive change, no matter what others were telling them was the right or wrong thing to do. That is leadership! And whether it be for a cause that’s big or seemingly small, that is something so many of us can do.
