Event 1: Leadership in an Intro Level Course
During my freshman year, I was randomly chosen to be a group leader for a Women’s and Gender Studies semester-long project. I was responsible for making sure that my group members all completed their work on time, turning in all of our projects on Canvas, and updating our professor about our progress. At first, I was irritated by the fact that I was selected to do more work than my other group members. I was a freshman and I was nervous about having to take a leadership role in my first semester when some of my group mates were older than me. However, by the end of the semester, I learned how rewarding being a leader can be and gained core leadership skills in a lower-risk environment before taking on leadership roles later in my college experience.
This experience taught me the absolute importance of open communication when leading others. We had a few assignments that were submitted very close to the deadline because of a lack of communication among group members. In concordance with this, I learned how helpful organization can be as a leader. I learned how to utilize team drives on google to facilitate open lines of communication as well as accountability by showing that work was completed on the drive. I gained stronger organizational skills as a direct result of having more responsibility, mostly because I did not want to be the reason our group earned a lower grade if I missed an assignment or update.
Lastly, I learned that I am a leader that thrives on meeting face to face and interacting with group members to discover their challenges and skills. We met once per month to nail down any questions or confusing topics. Even though we met somewhat infrequently, the times that we did meet were productive and helped us build a stronger interpersonal bond. I really enjoyed being able to facilitate this kind of connection with my group members and we are still friends in classes today.
Although I was not excited about the prospect of leading a group of peers early in my college career, I learned the basic foundation of how to communicate effectively and manage a team of peers of varying ages. I learned the basics of organizational platforms that I still use today and will continue to use in the future. In addition, I began to learn about my preferred leadership style, which is one focused on communication and group relationships.
Event 2: President of Service Without Borders
As a junior, I became the President of my service club, Service Without Borders at Virginia Tech. In the previous year, I was a team leader for our Tanzania Project and found the experience of fundraising, planning, and implementing a project in Africa very rewarding. Our organization focuses on engaging in service internationally and locally to foster cultural collaboration in order to foster relationships while completing service that communities deem important to them. Throughout my junior year, I oversaw three project teams and secured funding for a fourth project that is now being implemented.
This particular leadership experience is probably one of the most defining leadership experiences of my college experience. I felt recognized as a leader and respected among my peers. I say that not only because I held the presidential title, but because our leadership team implemented organizational changes that we had strived for in the recent years. During our bi-weekly planning meetings, I felt accepted and responsive to all of our team leaders and advisors. I often brought snacks to these meetings and spent the first few minutes of the meetings catching up about how our lives were going. Our leadership team was strongly bonded, which allowed us to communicate more openly, with less fear of judgement.
Throughout this leadership experience, I learned the importance of delegating tasks and fostering individual autonomy in members of the group. We restructured our organization to allow leaders to do more university and community outreach while overseeing students who would work on fundraising, social media, and other various tasks. I learned that this structure helped members of the group feel ownership over the projects and gave them confidence to even apply to be leaders for the following year. I felt that our organization was a highly motivated and collaborative community. I learned that rewards for individuals can often motivate members as well. We began a monthly “member of the month” award that typically came with a small gift card and recognition at our monthly meeting. This small act helped members feel recognized for their efforts and kept the groups’ spirits up, even during finals week.
Throughout this experience, I learned the importance of continuing to motivate members at all levels. I also learned how to organize and manage funds and activities of several projects. Throughout this management, I came to understand the importance of delegation and fostering strong organizational bonds to help each other through the tough times. I will definitely use all of these skills in my future endeavors as I feel more capable of tackling large tasks that require strong attention to detail.
Event 3: Training an Employee at Work
I have worked at the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech in some capacity since my freshman year here. During my junior year, I became a Research Associate and Clinic Manager, along with one other senior lab member. In the spring, she was planning to graduate and we had to select a new research associate and I was responsible for training her. Although I had trained other research assistants in the past, our current job had many small details and practices that were a challenge to train someone on from scratch.
However, the trainee and I met together to develop a workable plan that we both felt comfortable with to have an outline of everything necessary to cover. This first communication helped make us both feel more open about the prospect of working together. Throughout our completion of training, I continuously referred back to our original plan to track progress and check in with her. I learned that this kind of accountability to learn these skills was helpful for both of us. As a leader, I had to make sure that I was keeping us on target while she had to make sure that she was practicing the tasks in a timely manner.
I also learned how to be patient through this experience. As someone who is very familiar with all of the lab’s operations, I initially found explaining them to someone knew as challenging. However, her questions made me take a step back to understand how things may be overwhelming for someone new on the job. This refocusing helped me see things from her perspective and maintain a more open demeanor so she felt comfortable asking questions. I also had the opportunity to teach her several of my organizational techniques and help her discover what kind of leadership style she enjoyed.
This experience helped me to be more patient and open to people who have questions. I typically expect a high level of work, whether in class or at a job, and I realized that sometimes it is appropriate to take the time to revisit old concepts for clarity and understanding. I will definitely remember to share my organizational techniques and focus on clarity as a result of this leadership experience. In addition, we still work together every single day and have become great friends which is my favorite take away from the training experience.
Event 4: India Trip
This past winter break, I traveled with the Service Without Borders India Team to Bhubaneswar, India to engage in two weeks of cultural collaboration and potential project brainstorming with the Kalinga Institute for Social Sciences. I traveled as a student advisor which entailed more oversight and note-taking than having hands on leadership of the group. The group was evenly split in terms of gender and I was the oldest travelling female leader. This position made me take a backseat in conversations that I was usually highly involved in with leaders from other organizations. Throughout the trip, I acted as a sounding board for the team leaders and took the role of helping other emerging leaders understand their experience and think critically about our experiences and future projects.
This leadership experience made me feel like I had moved past the point of leading by taking charge and delegating tasks to the point of being an advisor, someone other leaders could come to for advice. I enjoyed taking the backseat as our type of service work is often draining and can sometimes become overwhelming. I also felt so proud of the members who stepped up and did very well with their leadership roles on the trip. I was happy to be a voice of reason for other members of the group and to be able to see younger members grow into their own leadership position.
I feel that this key event reflected a culmination of the leadership skills that I have gained over my collegiate years at Virginia Tech. I learned that higher leadership levels are more reflective and take a back seat at times to allow other leaders to emerge. I learned the reward of cultivating other leaders and giving other people chances to take the lead on important projects. From this experience, I learned to stay quiet at times when I wanted to interject and to allow others to share their experiences. This experience really taught me to reflect and enjoy the leadership experience as a whole while helping other growing leaders at the same time. I will definitely carry on my appreciation for leadership and my understanding that years of leadership and hard work can literally take you places that you could never imagine!
Ainsley's LDRS 4044 Blog 