We had a Personal Leadership Development Paper due in Perspectives on Leadership today. In 5-6 pages we were tasked with performing a self-assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, identifying our ideal authentic leadership self, and making a realistic action plan to become this leader in 6-12 months. Easy enough. The way I saw it, there were two ways to approach this assignment: as I approach a boring biology class (and just get by) or or as I approach running track (actually wanting to better myself agains the odds). For a change, I chose the latter.
Over the past week, I created the most genuine self-assessment of my life to date. I identified my strengths and got to the core wounds of my weaknesses, not just how they symptomize in reality. From a deep reflection on my assessment, I came up with my ideal authentic leadership self, which I describe in the following statement:
I want to be an Aware Leader Discovering Myself and How I Serve.
In awareness I aim to improve my weaknesses of being controlling, being impatient, and not listening to others. In Discovering Myself I will maintain my current strengths of being authentic, having a desire to learn, and being a man of commitment. Through Discovering How I Serve, I will reflect in such a way so as to craft a path for my life after college.
My action plan is exciting. I’ll be sharing more about it in the coming weeks. It won’t be easy, but I’ve structured it in a feasible way. In the remainder of this semester and next, I’ll blend meditation and reading with weekly reflections and vision book entries. I will become a better leader by being more aware of my daily actions and habitual trends. I will learn the true value of committing to self betterment by holding myself accountable.
Let’s begin the journey, one step at a time.