LEADERSHIPdeveloping leadership skills

My name is Jessica.My plan is to attend Ivy Tech Community College. I want to make a difference in the lives of others and give back to my community.

Digging In

Leadership is a quality that nearly everyone seeks in a potential employee or perspective student, but it’s also a quality that nearly everyone defines differently. While this might seem like a difficult obstacle to overcome, it is possible to use this to your advantage in sharing your leadership experience with others. When you share your personal story, it should be a reflection of who you are. Naturally, your own, personal definition of leadership is a critical component of you.

Think for a moment about a person whom you believe to be a great leader. What are some of the qualities that define them? Intelligence? Determination? Which of these qualities are most important? These are the qualities that you value. These all contribute to your own, personal definition of leadership. On the line below, write a few sentences that outline your definition of what makes a leader.

my personal definition of “leadership”:

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Write your personal definition of leadership on the lines beloW:

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LEADERSHIPdeveloping leadership skills

AS YOU WORK TO DEFINE LEADERSHIP AS IT PERTAINS TO YOUR OWN LIFE, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOLS THAT YOU HAVE AT YOUR DISPOSAL WILL BE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES. Connect your personal definition of leadership to an experience from your own life. Think of a time you were called upon to be a leader, and share feelings you had at the time.

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ConnectionsUse the lines below to outline personal experiences that you have had that are directly tied to your own definition of leadership. Explain the situation and how you reacted.

a time when I was called upon to be a leader:

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The Big PictureSometimes it is difficult to identify experiences in your life that have helped you develop leadership skills. In fact, you likely engage in activities every day that help develop these skills.

A Leadership Skills Summary is a powerful tool that can help you tap into your personal experiences and understand the skills that you are developing every day. A Leadership Skills Summary worksheet is available for download from the link below. The worksheet will ask you to rate your leadership skills on a scale from 1-5. Skills you feel are proficient will score higher, while skills that you feel you need to work on will score lower. Also, you will share the areas in your life where you have been called upon to use these skills the most.

Once you have completed your Leadership Skills Summary, take a look at how you rated yourself. The skills that you feel the most proficient in are the skills that matter most to you right now. These are the skills that you are most familiar with and have placed a priority on.

LEADERSHIP

developing leadership skills

Collaborating 1 2 3 4 5Communication 1 2 3 4 5Courage 1 2 3 4 5Creativity 1 2 3 4 5Honesty 1 2 3 4 5Management 1 2 3 4 5Passion 1 2 3 4 5Problem Solving 1 2 3 4 5Resourceful 1 2 3 4 5Vision 1 2 3 4 5

LEADERSHIP SKILLS SUMMARY

Complete the Leadership Skills Summary above.>> QUICK TASK

LEADERSHIPdeveloping leadership skills

Into ActionYou have put the work into understanding how you are developing leadership skills in your own life and you have developed your personal definition of leadership. The next step is pulling all of these thoughts together in a form that others can understand and that can help you tell your own story.

Within the College and Career Ready Toolkit you will see a number of activities that are labeled with the Project Portfolio logo. These activities will help you develop a portfolio that can help you share your story, your skills and your goals in a variety of settings. Whether you’re meeting for a job, scholarship or college admissions interview, this portfolio is a succinct but powerful way to illustrate your ability to set goals for yourself and commit to achieving them.

Use the links to the right to download the instruction and sample pages as well as templates to help you as you begin your portfolio.

Make It YoursYour Project Leadership Portfolio is intended to be a living document. While you are working on adding new pages to yours, it is also a good time to review the pages that you have already created for the Portfolio. Take a moment to review your Portfolio. Look for pages with information that needs to be updated or writing that you would like to improve on.

Update these and replace the older versions.

>> Revisit your Project Portfolio Leadership page and make any changes necessary based upon your exploration of college degrees.

LEADERSHIP PAGEPROJECTPORTFOLIO

Use the Leadership page tempLate to compLete the project portfoLio Leadership page:

projectleadership.org/projectportfolio

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