Leading Others, Together

 Leadership Goes Beyond Job Title

I wish I could say I was a born leader. Unfortunately, my parents never recalled stories of me resolving conflicts with my siblings or peers. Leading others was a characteristic that I had to learn. My education on the qualities it takes to lead others started with my experiences in college with my peers. My first year as an undergraduate was a tough year. I struggled with group projects and was a very shy and reserved individual. I felt like I had great ideas, but struggled with communication. I was wonderful with writing essays, researching topics, and presenting arguments on paper, but I was not as skilled with communicating effectively with others. I knew this was a problem, so I joined clubs, I took extra classes that would require a speaking project or presentation, I manned tables at on-campus events, I did anything and everything that I thought would help, and you know what? It did.

After developing more robust confidence and translating some of my written skills to verbal prowess, I started to unknowingly develop leadership skills. It wasn’t until much later that I realized what I was doing was leading others. I can remember peers starting to look to me for guidance, becoming more of a contributor and guide for group projects, and professors starting to remark on my ability to skillfully engage my peers during presentation or clinical demonstrations. I was proud, and this pride carried on into my professional career.

During my professional career, I have had the opportunity to lead others through formal and informal leadership, and look forward to what I am now able to incorporate into my leadership style following my completion of the SystemLEAD program.

All the hard work and effort I've put into consciously making myself an effective leader, and guidance from those in my life personally and professionally have led me to be the leader I am today.

While I am not currently in a supervisory role at this time, I can easily anticipate what my most challenging area in team management may be.

When managing others, I may have difficulty in attempting to solve all the problems, and in turn robbing my staff the opportunity to learn from doing their own research into resolution of a presenting problem. I am grateful to have experience with different programs, staff, and research, and fear I may feel compelled to simply solve a problem, as opposed to talking staff through it, and providing a learning opportunity.

Over the past three and a half years I have been able to gauge a great deal of experience that has facilitated growth. I have had the opportunity through my work with state hospitals, to provide education to staff from multiple programs, including PACT, Crisis Stabilization, and community case management on what an individual experiences at a state hospital, as well as provide education on needs of individuals returning to the community after a time in the hospital. Being able to lead by example in reducing the misconception of state hospitalizations has been very rewarding.

During my time with Rappahannock Area Community Services Board, I have also been able to facilitate meetings between individuals, their families, and providers, in order to develop a greater understanding of treatment options, available programs, and expectations during treatment. This has allowed me to act as both an ambassador for the agency, and an advocate for the client.

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