Andrea Madeleine Medina Medina-1

Leadership & Communication

20 March 2014

Mid-Semester Review

The information learned in the classroom can be applied to my life in multiple ways. I
believe that a good deal of reflection, after encountering situations that lend themselves to
opportunities for me to be a leader, can help promote awareness about my own leadership styles,
let me better understand how this course has influenced the way approach taking on leadership,
and can help me notice areas of strength and weakness. After that reflection, I can see where the
theories that I have learned are revealing themselves, and where I can apply them to help me in
my areas of improvement. Aside from just personal reflection, I can also ask classmates and
friends to critique my style and give me feedback that can help me better relate appropriate
theories to my natural tendencies of leadership. Another more simple way of making these
theories real in my daily life is just being more aware of various opportunities that allow me to
test out or implement a certain theory or approach. Being cognizant of the situation and reacting
to it with the intentionality of using a theory can also help me discover what I have learned in
real life situations. I always go back to the topics of transformational and empowering
leadership. If there is anything in particular that I have made relevant to my life from this class, it
is ensuring that if I am in a position of leadership, I will be positively influencing and engaging
those who work with me. I have also made this relevant to the way I public speak, and the way
that I encourage peers to speak and engage with the world. Being able to study these topics
deeper, with more theoretical research to back up my beliefs, has allowed me to better

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understand how to be a more effective leader, and continue applying these topics to my passions
and daily actions.
The group process of our alumni interview project has been quite smooth thus far. Each
of us are very interested in our topic about leadership and liberal arts education backgrounds, and
we were very eager to find out what our alumni had to say. We have breezed through the phases
of group evolution, and have remained in the reinforcement phase with little conflict and tension
early in the game. Having a common goal upfront, which is to do well on this project, build
relationships between each other, and learn something meaningful, has really helped us become a
very solid group. The process has been quite simple and we have communicated through email
for the most part. I know that these kinds of projects are schedule sensitive, so I took it upon
myself to be the emergent leader, start the email chain of communication, and solidify the
meeting time between my group and our alumni interviewee, Erin Roberts. Aside from our brief
planning meetings in class, our email exchanges, and our physical interview, our group has not
really met outside in a separate meeting. This group has had a surprisingly low level of any
interpersonal tension and a high level of social comfort. This makes us feel like we are
conversing with friends as opposed to acquaintances. We also have been fortunate enough to
take our relationships outside of the classroom and into our actual social lives. I would not have
met my fellow group members if it werent for this course, which is something that never ceases
to amaze me. I think a great deal of this initial comfort has to do with the structure of the actual
course, the cooperative climate we immediately and consistently set with each other, and also
because of our participative and generally outgoing personality traits.

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In order to prepare for the presentations next week, we will probably meet outside of
class and continue to work cooperatively for the remainder of the project. It was apparent that we
all enjoyed just getting to know Erin as a person as opposed to just trying to get answers for our
research prompt and rush the interview. The interview lasted an hour and a half, and it was very
interesting to see her professional growth from her time at Trinity to where she is now, and her
resounding life advice of how important it is to learn how to learn.
The course material has given me many new perspectives of leadership that I have not
encountered before. The amount of intellectual stimulation and internal reflection allows me to
really see myself as a leader and dig deeper into the levels of myself I dont normally think
about. I am going to reiterate how important and interesting I find the topics of transformational,
empowering, and charismatic leadership because I believe this type of leadership is what truly
makes a leader revolutionary and effective. Every single environment, even the seemingly
deathly boring and stale, has the ability to be one in which inspiration and empowerment can
occur. It only takes one individual to see and implement opportunities to inspire, encourage, and
create that reality. Efficiency and monetary gain should never be at the expense of human
potential and creativity, and unfortunately most leaders and leadership roles fail to see
empowerment as necessary or even relevant to what they are trying to accomplish. For a better
world, those mindsets need to change.
The course set up and format, to me is quite interactive and enjoyable. Being right after
lunch is a tough time slot, and the insightfulness and participatory climate is mainly dependent
on the synergy between peers and willingness levels of each individual. There are so many
opportunities for people to share and participate in this course, which is really cool. One
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suggestion I have, though, is using the call on method (or basically just calling out people at
random) to own up to the standard of participation and share what they are thinking. Many
people need that extra push because many students just view their classes as an hour and fifteen
minutes I just have to sit through and get over with; no matter how interesting the subject matter
may be. Calling people out allows the class to understand that they are expected to talk and have
an opinion or example even if they are not prepared, making them better off the cuff thinkers
and could open the floor to more diverse opinions and discussions; since we tend to hear the
same voices repetitively. Aside from that, I love the emphasis of multimedia examples of the
theories we are talking about. Many of the videos and articles are so applicable and relevant to
not only our lives, but what is going on around the world. I think we are lucky to have an
instructor who truly cares about the material so much and who can also make it extremely
relevant to the ways in which we as students process and retain information. I also believe that
the way our instructor gives us the floor to serve as teachers allows us to develop in ways most
people are not usually used to. Overall, I believe that we have a great instructor who is highly
knowledge in the study of leadership, in all facets of the term, and I thoroughly enjoy they course
as a whole.