Reflection on Social Action Project and Leadership Experience
Part I. Reflection on Social Action Project
Through my leadership project, I had the opportunity to interact with many key leaders within the corporate world. I was able to read diverse scholarship and perspectives on the issues of corporate social responsibility and the role of business in society. In particular, many industry leaders adhered majoritively to the transformational approach to leadership. Functionally, this meant that these were leaders who, through their work, transformed their employees and society for the better. I was able to identify transformation leaders in the business world, as well as the academic and political world, who have worked tirelessly to make sustainability the core of their company culture and thus invoke meaningful change in the world. Names that come to mind based on my research are Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, Mr. Bill Wollrab of AllPeople Marketplace, and Professor John Sterman of the MIT Sloan School of Management. Though these leaders have vastly different experiences, professions, and impacts, they all work to transform the very fabric of our society and to leave it better than they found it. To elaborate on the example of Bill Wollrab, he has used his capital and experience as an entrepreneur to found a new Amazon-esque online marketplace that specializes in the sale of sustainable goods and exemplified corporate social responsibility through donating 5% of every sale to a cause that the consumer chooses (e.g. World Wildlife Fund, etc.).
Beyond my leadership project, I had the opportunity to work with many distinguished colleagues this semester who exemplified many leadership approaches. In particular, I left nearly every single conversation with a fellow leadership student knowing more than I did when I arrived. I was greatly impressed by the work of my peers in various sectors and fields of unique value and interest to each member of the program. I was also fortunate to have a Teaching Assistant this year, Emily Larsen, who was extremely helpful and added great value to my own leadership project as well as my experience in the program more generally. On an individual level, I felt as though I experienced a great deal of adaptive and situational leadership this semester. While I have generally believed that all leadership should be situational in the sense that leaders should adapt to their team rather than forcing the team to adapt to them, I found that situational leadership has other benefits including comfort in new social situations such as interviews or when working on various components of a project like research as compared to essay writing. Further, my project forced me to demonstrate adaptive leadership as external sources fell through and I was required to pivot my focus and goals in order to produce a strong final product. Without practicing adaptive leadership, I would have suffered from Sunk Cost bias by sinking more time into a project that would not have the desired outcome. My project greatly informed my leadership journey and was an excellent opportunity to refine both the hard and soft skills of leadership as defined in our course and program content.
Part II. Reflection on Leadership
Leadership is a uniquely complex subject in that it is best studied through real world experiences and through interactions with leaders in various fields. Reading leadership theory as I have done throughout my first two years in the program has been relevant, but I have always felt there to be a disconnect between theory and practice. Much like ethics, it is one thing to read about various theories but another to apply them in a specific context and fully understand the implications of choosing a certain approach over another. As I have frequently mentioned in the course, my view is that specific situations require various approaches, fused together seamlessly, depending on the specific context and needs of the team, group, organization, or culture. With this in mind, the first person testimonials and case studies through our reading spoke strongly to leadership in the public affairs world, and beyond. Indeed, these real world studies of leadership was extremely informative and heavily influenced my own personal socialization as a leader. Beyond this, interacting with leaders in the workforce was personally and professionally rewarding and formative.
In particular, I was impressed during our session with Dr. Ruth Zaplin. Her journey from KPMG to present as well as integrating wellness and self-care into the every day was fundamental to my understanding of the role of a leader. Prior to Dr. Zaplin’s session, I had been under the genuine impression that leaders should be willing to suppress their own individuality and individual needs in order to further the agenda of the team. I appreciated that Dr. Zaplin was willing to share her experiences and tips for self care with our program. I left the session understanding more fully that leaders are best when they bring their whole selves into their role and pay close attention to their individual needs. While leaders should still reserve their own point of view and preferences in group settings as it is important to share responsibility and autonomy with group members, it is still incredibly important that leaders care for themselves as they would others. This is absolutely essential and a skill I have yet to reform and cultivate within myself. Dr. Zaplin’s lesson was one that will remain with me for a lifetime in and outside the context of leadership.
Finally, I was impressed with the vastness of leadership approaches that leaders, both present and past, have taken. Through our work this semester and through observing the work of my colleagues in the program, I have noted that there is not one proper approach to leadership and, rather, leaders are those individuals who are able to appraise a situation and act appropriately. To revisit one of the key questions of our program, “are leaders born or made,” I draw the conclusion that leaders are made by the development of skills such as context appraisal, interpersonal and time management skills, intuition, and overall comfort among others. While many of these skills are innate, I do believe that anyone can take them on and, importantly, that anyone can lead. I conclude my second year in the program more confident in my abilities as a leader than I had previously imagined possible.
Reflection on Leadership in Action
My spring social action project focusing on corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability has contributed a great deal to my own leadership experience. Indeed, the opportunity to engage in a field that I am passionate about is unparalleled and the ability to craft my own narrative is truly rewarding. As a leader, though, this project has given me a great deal of experience and opportunity to grow my own hard and soft skills of leadership as well as abilities. The first skill that this project has reformed within me is the ability to be adaptable. As I have been met with failure at every turn of this project, I have had to make adjustments and alter the course of my project. Further, I have learned technical planning and delivery skills through the composition of a draft letter and research. In a similar light, my leadership project has forced me to make comprehensive goals while setting and managing my own expectations. This transferable skill is imperative for leaders to grasp as goals and expectations are the very thing that keeps a team on task.
Finally, through this spring action project, I have constantly been forced to be resilient and act with grit. Of all skills I mentioned previously in this reflection, I find these to be the most pertinent to leadership. Without the ability to act with grit and resilience, it is impossible to lead in any situation. Nothing will go exactly as planned, and it may be necessary to push on in the face of adversity. When leading high performance teams, it is necessary to act as a role model and take failure in stride and make adjustments to come at the problem again. I am certain that learning this lesson as a young student through my leadership project, my personal and professional development as an individual and as a leader will greatly benefit.
Reflection on Growth as a Leader
Through our educational lectures and readings in SPA-361 and my work as a member of the Religion and Politics Issue Group, I developed and grew significanly as an individual, a student, and as a leader. I was particularly influenced by the work we studied under the guidance of Professors Paul Manuel, Calvin Haney, and Ayana Wilson. As a leader, I have become progressively more comfortable as one that is more quiet and distant than boisterous and overpowering. That being said, I have learned how to effectively influence and lead in a group setting in a way that is comfortable for both me and those who are in the team with me. I am certain that the hard and soft skills of leadership that I have garnered through our work this semester will continue to inform the way in which I lead in the future. Moreover, I will be able to leverage my experiences working with my contemporaries in the Religion and Politics Issue Group long into the future as I continue to lead within teams of other leaders simply as a member of the group rather than a designated leader amongst others. Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned over the course of the semester, however, is that you do not need an official title or position of superiority to act as a leader to others or to lead within a group. Having been a member of a group where all of the members are designated leaders, I learned the importance of knowing when to speak and knowing when to act. I also learned that listening and showing through action is of even greater importance than offering directives and delegating responsibilities to others.
At the risk of being cliché, I find it pertinent and explanatory of my growth as a leader to include a quotation from an ancient Chinese proverb which perfectly sums up the leadership style which I hope to emanate and have grown to better understand through the concrete and experiential learning that I completed as part of this course. “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”
Summary of Completed Social Action Project
Over the course of the Spring 2021 semester at American University, the Religion and Politics Issue Group worked to implement their social action project. Having reached consensus and sharing a personal investment in the equitable access to reproductive healthcare for women, the group decided to focus their social action project on raising awareness of selected topics related to women’s access to reproductive healthcare as well as fundraise for an organization that is a stakeholder in the field.
The final product of the social action project is threefold. First, the team created a social media page through which they posted educational content researched by members (topics such as the pink tax, abortion, menstrual product insecurity, etc.), their final status update video, and fundraising ventures. This is the largest portion of the project as it served as the launching point for the two other initiatives. When an agreement could not be reached with a potential guest speaker, the team was forced to pivot to creating another relevant alternative to fill its place in their list of deliverables. They decided to provide a status update which contained information about their progress and the scope of their project. It was recorded through Zoom and posted to the social media page. Finally, the team created a fundraiser for the organization Helping Women Period, “a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization, committed to supplying menstrual health products to people that menstruate who are either homeless or low-income.” Through two rounds of fundraising capitalizing on a social media presence of more than 100 followers and the ease of Venmo, the team raised more than three hundred and thirty dollars for the organization. The money will supply nine women menstrual products for one year.
We are extremely satisfied with the scope and impact of the project and consider every aspect of it to be a success.
Reflection of Team Dynamics During Implementation
The dynamics of the team during the implementation phase of our social action project over the course of the Spring semester were overwhelmingly positive and cohesive despite some animosity from one member of the group at one point midway through implementation. From the outset, the members of the Religion and Politics Issue Group shared a bond and a great deal of respect and trust for each other. More than just contemporaries forced into working together, the group became friends and engaged outside of the contents of the project. This added an extra degree of trust and engagement with the project. Individual failures would not just let the team down, it would let friends down. In general, this led to a successful project implementation as conflicts were resolved quickly and easily and trust was shared amongst members.
Despite the positive work of the team, there was animosity at one point carried by one member individually towards other members of the group. This group member attempted to create more work for other members of the team while not attempting to have a conversation. There was simply delegation without the possibility of dialogue. When this was brought forth and frustrations with this were aired, the member of the team felt the attacks against them were personal in nature and did not deal with this feeling in a way that was productive to the group or to resolve the conflict. That being said, we were able to work past these feeling and this lack of cohesion amongst members of the group and deliver a successful final product with vastly influential outreach. As we end the semester, I, not speaking for any other members of our issue group, am able to say that I leave this year not just with professional relationships but with genuine friendships shared with the other members of the team as well as our teaching assistant who was supportive of us throughout the process. Conflict is present in every setting and thus I say without hesitation that our team dynamic this semester could not have been better.