What Leadership Means to Me

         My decision to enroll in this course is part of a recent change in direction that I have experienced in my goals for college and my career path.   When I first decided to become part of the business school here at OSU, I really wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go in my career, in fact my main motivation was simply that OSU has a highly regarded business school and I wanted to get a good degree when I graduated.  Then came this semester and my Introduction to Operations Management course, and with that came my newfound passion.  Generally speaking, Operations Management deals with working with teams to constantly innovate and improve company processes to achieve greater success.  That being said, leadership and teamwork abilities are essential to the job.  So when session two came along, I saw this course as an opportunity to further develop my leadership skills and have insightful discussions about the true meaning of leadership.

            I believe that leadership can take many different forms depending on the situation.  As we discussed in class, leadership ranges from the highest-ranking government officials in the world all the way down to leadership within small teams of people.  While leadership does take many different forms, I believe there are a few important necessary traits that every leader must posses.  I think that above all else, it is essential for leaders to have the ability to adapt to different situations.  Adaptation requires leaders to have an open mind at all times, and be able to learn from others as well as their own mistakes.  As we discussed in class, the concept of Moral Conversation is key here.  Leaders must be able to recognize their own faults, be open to other's suggestions, and be able to realize that not every situation has a black and white answer.  The second essential trait is the ability to communicate well with peers.  Communication drives success, and without it, it is impossible for a team to work together and accomplish goals, as was displayed in our hula-hoop activity in class.  Leaders must not only be able to communicate, but be able to recognize the best ways to communicate with peers on a case-by-case basis.

            Coming into this class I feel that I already possess some leadership ability, but not on the level where I'd like it to be.  As of now I feel that my best leadership qualities are my strong work ethic, organization, and communication skills; however, I feel that I can improve on my ability to practice the principles of Moral Conversation.  In no way do I consider myself to be a know-it-all or a perfectionist, but I am aware that I often times dismiss people's opinions that differ from mine.  That being said, I am hopeful that the discussions we have in this class will allow me to practice listening to and accepting other people's opinions, not necessarily as fact, but as valuable contributions that may or may not differ from my own.