A631.5.4.RB_DiazBrian

Before I started my journey in this leadership program I had a preconceived notion of what leadership was.  Boy was I ever wrong.  I thought that leadership simply meant being able to make decisions, being in charge of others, and that it could be easy.  I was vastly mistaken and thankfully so.  Because I never wanted to be that kind of person, the kind to show up for a job and tell people what to do.  I am passionate, humble, and genuinely care about the feelings of other.  From what I have learned about leadership these attributes will serve me well on my quest to one day becoming a great leader of an organization.  DO I envision myself as a CEO of a corporation?  No, not necessarily however the goals I have now over time will change.  Who's to say that might not be a goal of mine in the future.  I cannot be certain of what the future holds and that to me is exciting.

I recently had the the opportunity to attend ERAU's Leadership Enhancement Program Conference.  One of my team members was graduating from the 1st tier and our entire team attended to show our support for her.  The conference included keynote speeches from various members of our organization, a moderated roundtable panel discussion focusing on leadership, and various break out sessions.  It gave the attendees an opportunity to listen to these individuals talk about their careers and what it was to be a leader.  They used words like humility, acceptance, mistakes, empathy, openness, communication, and ability to inspire to describe what leadership meant.  They explained that leadership is not easy and that difficult decisions will need to be made as a leader.  As an attendee I found this experience to be enriching because I was able to hear real stories from individual within and outside of my organization.  Not only did I come away from this experience having somewhat of a better understanding of what is required to be leader but also thankful to work for an organization that covets leadership and is willing to offer such training (the 1st tier my team member completed was 8 months long).  Here is a link with additional information to the LEP program http://commons.erau.edu/flight-of-leadership/

I can only imagine this early in my career having to implement a system-wide intervention.  Brown (2011) stated that "Organizations inevitably change because they are open systems in constant interaction with their environment.  Although the impetus for change may rise from internal or external forces, the underlying factor is the degree of openness of the organization to the changing demands, technologies, and values that influence the system." (p. 374).  The common denominator is to aim at improving organizational effectiveness.  As a leader I think it is important to always remember just how importance change is and how necessary it is to adapt in today's constantly changing environment.  I haven't personally witnessed a system wide intervention but I am beginning to understand as a leader what is needed to implement one.  I feel that in order for a leader to be successful in today's market they need to be:

• Honest, have high morale character
• Unafraid to make mistakes
• Open to communication and working with others
• Humble
• Empathetic, approachable
• Creative
• Confident, intuitive
• Be positive

I leave you with some powerful words from Vince Lombardi regarding leadership...

Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.