Social Change Value 1: Collaboration
Collaboration is a relational value that focuses on the interactions between group members and leaders. This social change value centers around individual and group strengths and gives members avenues through which to hone their skills, work for a goal, and take responsibility. I learned this value through my interactions with both positive and negative leaders in my early years at Virginia Tech. I found that leaders who were more open to group work and delegating tasks to all members were the leaders I wanted to emulate. The positive leaders fostered friendships and a friendly environment that I wanted to, and continue to want to provide for group members and leaders alike.
As I have grown to be a leader, I think this value is significant because it drives motivations for meetings and assigning work. I feel that staying focused on wanting the group to succeed as a whole as well as wanting individuals to gain useful skills and friendships motivates me to take chances and fully take on leadership at a personal level. In addition, I have seen that group members who may not be confident in the beginning with research or project involvement end up becoming team leaders in later years. I value seeing leaders develop their skills and confidence and I believe the best way to do that is through group collaboration. The collaboration that my Service Without Borders organization has had has led to a strong alumni network of volunteers who are still involved in SWB in various ways today.
In the future, I hope to become a professor. I believe that collaboration will be a key aspect of that career in several ways. First, I know that research is a collaborative effort and one that can be very rewarding when working with others. I hope to continue to understand that I can help others gain strong research skills while I also learn from leaders around me. In addition, I want to help students develop their skills in whatever area I decide to teach in. I believe gaining exposure to the benefits of collaboration as a central social change value early on will allow me to put that into practice with students and other professors.
Social Change Value 2: Consciousness of Self
This value focuses on self-reflection and awareness throughout the leadership process. Introspection and understanding of motivation and values are central to understanding how and why to lead groups. Throughout Leadership and Social Change minor courses, I have been pushed to challenge myself and my beliefs regarding leadership. In the Exploring Citizen Leadership course, I designed a draft of a personal leadership philosophy. I often find that my leadership values often lie in helping people develop their strengths, collaborating, and viewing leadership as a way to serve others, not to take advantage of power. My favorite part about this assignment was the fact that even our final submission was still considered flexible because many leadership philosophies change over time with more experience.
I think that the notion of the leadership philosophy, and the Consciousness of Self social change value as fluid and workable is of utmost importance. Consciousness of Self has remained a dynamic process for me and one that I try to engage in periodically to make sure that I am staying true to my values and leadership. In my service organization, we start each academic year by making a list of goals and values that we want to strive for in the coming year. Once every month, we reflect on these goals and values to hold ourselves accountable and redirect our actions as necessary to reach these goals and emulate these values.
I will continue to use Consciousness of Self throughout my entire career and life because I feel that having a personal set of beliefs and values is so important when tackling leadership roles. In addition, as I gain more experience in diverse leadership roles, I want to be open to changing some of my leadership values while also staying true to my beliefs. I think this dynamic process allows people to hold themselves accountable, refocus, and stay true to themselves. I hope to continue to engage in this process regularly.
Social Change Value 3: Commitment
The Commitment Social Change Value is the basis of most leadership, in my opinion. By engaging in leadership, individuals are making a promise to their group members to work their hardest for the best outcome of the group. Beyond leadership, commitment is necessary to achieve goals and a leader who is driven and committed to their group and/or cause will be much more successful than one with low levels of commitment. I personally learned about commitment at a young age. My parents would generally not allow me to quit an activity I had signed up for or back out of something I pledged to do. This early introduction to commitment set the stage for my commitment during my time at Virginia Tech.
At Virginia Tech, I have been committed to graduating with a high GPA in order to better my job prospects. Although this is an individual goal, I have looked for leadership roles to hone my skills both inside and outside of the classroom. I came in undecided during my freshman year because I wanted to explore my major options before committing to one set plan. I am now graduating with three majors: psychology, sociology, and criminology, all of which are classes that I took during my first semester freshman year. This commitment to these majors has been challenging as I take heavy course loads and switch writing and learning styles across disciplines. However, I have learned how important staying committed can be both intrinsically and extrinsically. I have helped other students learn study skills and show them that committing to difficult degree tracks is possible and doable. I am proud of the work I have accomplished and I am being recognized by potential employees for my commitment to my studies.
In the future, I will continue to fully evaluate my options before committing to something. I want to make sure that I can lead to the best of my ability and remain passionate about the groups’ objectives and the individuals. I believe commitment is necessary for strong leadership of any form.
Social Change Value 4: Controversy with Civility
This social change value focuses on resolving disputes, creating new solutions, and working appropriately in the face of controversy. This is a necessary skill for leaders to possess in order to create strong group cohesion and maintain group commitment to the goals of the group. I have been exposed to this skill several times over my past four years as group conflict is basically inevitable. The leaders who were more open and respectful about breaching the subject of controversy seem to be more successful in finding solutions that appeal to all or most members of the group.
As a student who works with groups frequently on projects like papers, presentations, and videos, managing conflict is a skill I am well-versed in. In one group project, two of my group members would contradict each other frequently and both wanted our video project to be completed in completely different ways. After a few group meetings of interrupting each other and trying to take over the project, I suggested we all sit down to make a list of the absolutely necessary components of our project. Then, we all took time to write down our own personal list of what we would like to see the project have that was extra. From these four lists, we were able to narrow down what the project would end up looking like in a collaborative way without being confrontational. The project turned out well and we ended up working together much better after explaining our reasoning behind wanting to do certain things with the project.
I find that approaching conflict or controversy with civility is how any mature leader should act. I think that most controversy is the result of miscommunication or misunderstanding, not as a personal fault of people involved in the conflict. In the future, I hope to be able to give each person time to explain their reasoning and work together to create adequate solutions without attacking each other. I believe this style of leadership will lead to stronger collaborations and a more open work environment.
Ainsley's LDRS 4044 Blog 