Honest Reflection

The assignment of the week was... "Ask someone you know to give you honest leadership style feedback and reflect on how it felt to ask/ receive this information."

When I first heard this I got a little nervous. No one likes to hear their faults even if they are presented in a constructive way. On the other side, people are fearful of hurting others feelings and with that comes a lack of honesty. So my goal was to find someone who first off, would be completely honest, and second, someone who knew me well enough that I could assume that after the conversation things would not change. With the last point I mean, sometimes when faults are brought to the surface they are all that is focused on even in a different context.

I chose to ask a senior mentor in a business organization that I am apart of. I knew he would "tell it like it is" and give me advice on how he would recommend changing things as well as be positive in all aspects. We had our meeting and at first asking him to meet with me on this premise was a little daunting but I got over my fears and asked. So, at the beginning of the meeting he just described what he thought I was doing well at and then he started dissecting my leadership style. By the end of our conversation I was able to confidently know that I had at least three major aspects that needed to be adjusted.

In the time after the meeting I have been making a conscious effort to shift maybe the values and goals that I have as a leader as well as how things will be run between members of the executive boards that I am on as well as the members. I have already started to revise some outlining documents next semester for what I expect in my organizations as well as what I expect out of myself.

In the end, despite the initial fear, I am glad that I was assigned this topic. So far it will have been the most meaningful self reflection tool that I have taken out of this class.