Post #9

Team and Organizational Leadership class has made me come to like self-reflecting quizzes. When I first took the strengths quest quiz my freshman year I did not really think much of it. Honestly thought most of these answer it was giving me were wrong or just skimmed the surface of who I am. This class has changed that perspective for me. After diving deeper into my strengths quest quiz and taking more quizzes I realized that the answers began to not only come up similar but also really reflect who I am as a person. These answers all of a sudden became tools that I could use to further understand my communication skills, my relationship skills and my leadership skills.  One of the standout moments in the class was the love language quiz. I find it so interesting how communication evolves and how it affects people. Taking the quiz I found that I am the kind of person that feels love through quality time with others. Funny, how that hit it nail on the head. Moving from this class and recognizing that is how I feel appreciated I am going to look for opportunities to spend time with the people I care about and recognize when people make time for me. While I received quality time there were other options of love languages and by recognizing that not everyone fits into one category is a huge skill. Making someone feel appreciated in general is a piece of relationships that can go by the wayside. This quiz uncovers why appreciation is not communicated effectively. Understanding how someone feels appreciated gives you a better look into who they are and allows your relationship with that person to grow. This is one of the biggest take aways to me because networking is a huge part of who I am and who I want to be. In the career path I want to be in networking is key. It is all about whom you know and those relationships you build. One of those building blocks of a relationship is appreciation for the other person.  Building upon relationships another point that I took from this class is the importance of an authentic community. Team and Organizational Leadership class took the term for community and put depth to it. A community is created in four stages and those four stages can take time. Realizing how important each step to creating a community has made me realize how grateful I am that I am apart of a few authentic communities. I want to pursue more authentic communities and keep the ones I am currently apart of intact. In these communities I feel comfortable enough to share my ideas but I also have to remember to participate in active listening, two things that leadership skills play into. As a leader I have learned that it is important to actually effectively lead followers and communicate ideas. On the other side of things though being a listener is harder and may be more important. Without listening to others a leader is not as genuine as they can be. Another lesson I want to practice in my life as I grow throughout my life. Overall, I have really enjoyed my time in the Team and Organizational Leadership class.