Journal Summary, Application Essay Example

We have learned many things about being a good leader in this course. First, we learned that it is common for people to rate their own skills as being higher than they really are in life. This was a good start for learning about the ways that we need to change our thinking if we want to be good leaders. In order to avoid the problems that can happen due to these judgement errors, a good leader needs to be very aware of the effects on their own decisions, so that they do not believe their own skills to be greater than in reality and so that they do not expect too much from the people they are leading. Plus, it is not possible to improve our weaknesses if we do not know about them.

Another important tool we learned about is how to influence people by using their values. This does not mean that it is right to use these against people, but instead means that people are more likely to understand an idea when they can link it with something they find meaningful. It can be hard to find out what people value without seeming nosy or suspicious. So it takes skill to be able to do this without causing any problems. But once the values are learned then they can be used to help get points across easier.

Having a guest speaker was a great way to learn how others can help to improve your leadership skills. In this case, watching a leader in action with a prepared plan was helpful to see how they used the topics that they were talking about while explaining them. The workbook gave us hands-on information too, which made me think about the importance of using written research along with the ideas of others to make my leadership abilities stronger through my whole career. But harmony might be the topic that I could relate to the most, just because I try to keep it a part of my own life. Conflict can waste time and cause needless suffering for the people who it effects, and a good leader needs to stop or prevent these problems.