What Is Leadership Reflection

This paper is a reflection of my personal leadership development blueprint this quarter. The paper identifies main leadership strengths, weaknesses, and impediments that restrain me from becoming an effective leader. The paper concludes by pinpointing some core values and how they inform me as a leader.

Being a leader is not about possessing the determination to coerce people to do what you want. Essentially, it concerns developing extraordinary moral and ethical convictions and standards, that can guide you and your followers on achieving your goals. During this Fall quarter, I was fascinated by some leadership values and beliefs that have molded my leadership capabilities. These core values are human dignity, justice and fairness, open-mind,

However, it is interesting, therefore, to recognize that Jesuits have remained focused on this notion for over 500 years. The majority of our views towards becoming a better leader are centered on what leaders are, or what they ought to do using the Jesuit motto: for the greater glory of God. The four pillars in Heroic Leadership are the principles that have molded me into becoming a prodigious Jesuit leader. Drawing on Chris Lowney 's unique background as a one-time Jesuit scholastic the "Heroic Leadership" articulates four pillars of great leadership: leaders are self-aware, ingenious, loving, and heroic. In the case of self-awareness, Lowney emphasized that a leader must understand his strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview. In other words, self-awareness connotes looking at the total me. For example, during this quarter, the pillar of self-awareness has ordered my life to become aware of the unhealthy blind spots that can derail me from cultivating the habit of self-reflection and learning. One way that has being the oxygen of this self-awareness is the 30-day intensive process of self-examination called the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Besides the Spiritual

The question now is what are my core values and how do they inform me as a leader? Values are the guiding principles in our lives while leadership occurs within the context of core values. Values inform the application of leadership qualities as the competencies of leadership are activated - learned, developed, and practiced - within the set of core values. As I come to the end of the quarter, my core values are: respecting others regardless of differences; treating others with dignity, empathy and compassion; and the ability to earn the respect of others; making a difference as demonstrated by personal efforts that lead to making a positive impact on individuals, systems, and/or organizations or positively affecting outcomes; integrity as demonstrated by moral courage, ethical strength, and trustworthiness; keeping promises and fulfilling expectations; authenticity as demonstrated by consistency, congruency, and transparency in values, beliefs, and actions; integrating values and principles to create a purposeful life and to contribute to the growth of others; courage as demonstrated by possessing a strength of self to act with intention on behalf of the common good; taking a stand in the face of adversity; acting boldly in the service of inclusion and justice; service as demonstrated by commitment that extends beyond one 's own self-interest; personal humility for the sake of a greater cause; humility as demonstrated by a sense of humbleness, dignity and an