Portfolio Reflection Essay

A leader to me is someone who inspires, motivates, and builds

people up. Someone who creates a vision, shares it, and encourages
people to support that vision while working to achieve their own vision
in the process. This course has taught me an array of knowledge when
it comes to leadership. There are multiple concepts that I have learned
including: becoming self-aware, socially aware, displaying emotional
and behavioral intelligence, how to lead others and work as a team,
how to communicate effectively, how to build and maintain
professional relationships, value diversity of the community, build
consensus and influence others, and lastly identifying and using
strategies to effect change.
The first learning topic I became knowledgeable about through
this course is self-awareness. Self-awareness includes understanding
your own feelings and emotions and being able to acknowledge and
accept your own behavior towards others. Prior to being in this course,
I had never even heard about emotional intelligence nor had I realized
how important it really is in order to be an effective leader. I became
more self-aware through the self-assessments taken in this class. In
the Myers Briggs assessment I learned I am an ESFP. I am an
extrovert, I learn through sensing, I make decisions through feelings,
and I use my perceiving function to be more flexible and spontaneous
in life. Being an extrovert means I am energetic, a people person,

and I like to talk out loud about things for better understanding.
Through sensing I pay more attention to what I hear, touch, see, taste
and smell. I am realistic and pay attention to what is actual and
present. I am factual and detail oriented. I have a pretty good
memory and can usually remember snapshots of an event that
happened pertaining to my five senses. Through making decisions
through feelings, I like to acknowledge the views of other people
involved and I believe that is how the best decision can be made. I
believe this goes along with being a people person, I am concerned
about others and like to maintain harmony. I see the best in people
and am very compassionate. Lastly, I am a perceiver. I am
spontaneous and flexible. I like to be open-minded to whatever
happens and roll with the punches. I am encouraged with energy when
a deadline is approaching. It is important to know what kind of
personality I have in order to learn my strengths and weaknesses.
Through learning I have an ESFP personality and looking at the results
of my strengths and talents inquiry I have learned more about my
strengths and weaknesses. Some of my strengths include being
energetic, practical, people oriented, compassionate, hardworking,
organized, and kind. My weaknesses include being assertive, bold,
public speaking, and time management. Both of these assessments
helped me to learn how I am perceived by others and helped me to
assess my potential as a healthcare leader. They also helped to guide

my personal leadership model. Self-awareness is just the first

component of emotional intelligence and perhaps the most important.
I learned a lot about myself and feel my self-awareness improved in
this class through watching videos, Brenda Freshmans article, the
lectures, the textbook and the self-assessments.
The second learning outcome was becoming socially aware,
another emotional intelligence concept. This is an understanding of
the behavioral characteristics and needs of people and putting others
before yourself. As I stated in my Emotional Intelligence Reflection
Essay, social awareness reminds me of the commandment in the Bible
that says to love your neighbor as yourself. This includes considering
other peoples feelings before you take action. As a future healthcare
executive, I think I will learn to be an effective leader by always looking
at how my leadership decisions affect those around me. Being socially
aware will help me to work in teams and improve my communication.
This will also help me in determining my leadership style based on the
people I am leading. I strive to be a transformational and situational
leader. I know that one style does not always work for all situations
and I believe that by learning about social awareness, I will be able to
identify with those around me and consider their needs before I make
any decisions. It will also help me to influence and inspire others by
adapting in ways they can recognize and relate to.

The next concept I learned was how to display emotional and

behavioral intelligence. Emotional intelligence includes the previously
mentioned concepts of self-awareness and social awareness, as well as
three other concepts. The three other concepts that make up
emotional intelligence are self-regulation, self-motivation, and social
skills. Self-regulation includes ones ability to adapt to change, knowing
when to say no, and accepting responsibility. I have learned that I am
particularly good at being self-regulated. I stay true to my values and
say no when I have to. I am also good at not saying hurtful or
unintended things in a heated situation. When I get upset about
something I like to step away and allow myself time to gather my
thoughts and calm down a little before just blurting something out and
hurting someones feelings. I think what helps me to be self-regulated
most is my faith. My pastor always says that you choose how you feel,
so if you are angry you are choosing that. When I am angry about
something I always remind myself that its a choice and I like to
question why I allowed something to make me angry. When I look at it
that way, it really helps me to choose to not let little things bother me
and I like to choose to be joyful and happy and be known as a smiley
person. I think self-regulation goes hand in hand with self-awareness,
because once you are aware of your feelings you can learn to regulate
them. This is why all aspects of emotional intelligence of a whole are
so important. Self-motivation is another concept of emotional

intelligence. Self-motivation is when you are driven to achieve, being

passionate over profession, enjoying challenges. (Freshman 2002)
This makes a person look at what motivates them to be successful. Do
you look to others for encouragement and words of affirmation? Do you
compete with yourself in order to achieve things? How are you
motivated? Self-motivation can include being positive in order to build
morale in the work place and inspire others to work hard to achieve
their goals. I learned that finding ways to show appreciation to staff
members is one way to motivate them to continue working hard. I also
learned that I personally am motivated by intrinsically and externally. I
compete with myself and like to set goals and reach them and I am
also a bit of a perfectionist. This motivates me to work hard to be the
best at things, even though I often fail. Those around me also
motivate me. I appreciate words of affirmation, especially when I do
fail at something and need encouragement. My friends and family are
best at this. Even when I do fail at things, I think it is important to stay
positive and set a new more achievable goal. By staying positive and
transparent about your failures you set a good example for others and
allow them to also grow from your mistakes. Lastly, social skills are
another important aspect to emotional intelligence. Social skills
include your ability to motive, encourage, and inspire others to work
toward a common goal. Someone who is a good listener often has
good social skills. They listen so that they know the needs of others

and can find ways to meet those needs. Good social skills also help
you to know those you are working with and can help me when I am
choosing a leadership style. Social skills are essential to be an efficient
leader and communicate well. Along with the five main concepts of
emotional intelligence, in one of the videos we watched by Dr. Adler, I
learned there are four primary emotions. As a leader striving to be
more self-aware it is important to note the four primary emotions are
happy, sad, mad, and scared. This allows me to analyze my emotions
and where they come from. Emotional intelligence has also helped me
to better understand my behavior and actions and why I do certain
things in certain circumstances. Emotional intelligence has been one
of my favorite topics covered in this class, because it is important in
everyday life. It helps me to act differently and be more aware of my
feelings and the feelings of others.
The fourth learning outcome I learned about in this class was
how to lead others and participate as a team member. I learned a lot
about this topic through the lectures as well as through writing the
leadership essay. In my essay I decided to focus on the theories that I
identified with most. I am a firm believer that there is no single best
style of leadership and that you should look at each situation before
choosing a style to lead with. With that being said, one theory I really
enjoyed learning about is the situational leadership theory. This theory
looks at the ability of those you are leading as well as their

commitment/ motivation. Once you assess these things, there are four
different approaches you can take: directing, coaching, supporting, and
delegating. The directing approach is most appropriate when both
their motivation and ability is low and the leader needs to take charge
in order to complete something in a timely manner. Coaching is
beneficial when your followers are willing but have low ability to
complete the task. The supporting approach is when the ability is high
but willingness is low. This is when the leader needs to find ways to
motivate their staff. Lastly, the delegating approach is when your
followers are motivating and able and need little supervision. It is also
important to note that over time you can work your way up from one
approach to another as you work on the ability and motivation of your
staff. Another leadership style I learned a lot about and chose to focus
on was the transformational leadership theory. I like this theory
because a leader who is visionary, value driven, communicates well,
people oriented, and has high popularity characterizes it. A
transformational leader is someone who is concerned about other
people and takes their needs into consideration. Taking care of the
needs of your followers is important in order to be a successful leader.
I also learned a lot about how to lead and be a team member through
our group project where we had some tips for Jeff. We first identified
factors that were contributing to his poor performance. The group
project reiterated the importance of emotional intelligence,

communication, engagement, motivation, and the phases of a team.

Jeff was not very self-aware and did not treat staff members with
respect nor did he try to get to know other staff. In order to work well
with a team and be engaged you have to communicate clear
expectations, share information and be transparent, make others feel
valued and appreciated, provide positive feedback, and display
genuine apprehension about others opinions. In healthcare you are
always working in a team no matter what area you go into, so this unit
will be very beneficial for me in my future career.
Communication is key. This is a learning outcome that is
beneficial no matter what your profession is. As a future leader you
have to be able to communicate efficiently and effectively. You will
have to be able to communicate your mission, vision, values and goals
to your peers. You will also have to communicate daily with other staff
members and maybe patients. Communication can make or break you
as a leader. Communication includes your leading style and how you
lead. It includes being transparent and sharing information with
patients, staff, and even the community. Two-way communication
works best in my opinion. An organization where leaders seek input
from other staff will be more effective than an organization where a
leader is a dictator. We learned about communication through
lectures, role-plays, group projects and reflection essays. The role-play
particularly dealt with how to communicate effectively in the workplace

and what was and was not appropriate. My groups role-play, for
example, included communicating with an employee who showed up
late to a meeting with their boss and their bosses superior. The
tardiness hindered the effectiveness of the meeting by not allowing
time for all topics to be discussed. The boss had to have a discussion
with their employee after the meeting about her frequent tardiness.
He effectively communicated the importance of being on time as well
as taking the time to see what he could do to help his employee. He
asked if they had unrealistic expectations for her at work that was
causing her to be late. The employee expressed she is easily caught
up in other work and loses track of time. There are multiple ways the
leader could have confronted their employee about this issue. By first
asking if he could help in any way he showed concern for his employee
rather than just getting upset. I learned that two-way communication is
important and one-way communication will often times not gain
followers or inspire others. I also learned about verbal and non-verbal
communication skills and how significant gestures, facial expressions,
and body language can be. Active listening is also a component of
your communication skills and shows you are engaged in the
conversation. Active listening can also help prohibit
misunderstandings. This unit taught me how important it is to care for
your employees in order to be a successful leader. I learned to take
note of how I am communicating with others both verbally and non-

verbally. This has already been of value to me in my schoolwork

through presentations as well as with friends. I am now more aware of
how I come across to others and I strive to be open-minded and seek
opinions of other people.
The sixth learning outcome I became more knowledgeable about
through this course is how to build and maintain professional
relationships. We learned how to be professional through certain tasks
such as punctuality/attendance, communication, listening and
responding to input, personal issues at work, using the proper
channels, and ethical behavior and conflicts of interest. By knowing
what behaviors are and are not appropriate at the work place will help
aid you in how to network and build these professional relationships
that are key to success. It is important to know how to build these
relationships because it is reported by Mintzberg that leaders spend
close to 44% of their time dealing with people in external agencies and
other stakeholders. Networking includes the trading of information
between people specifically relating to business. Networking with
people to build positive relationships will help me in the future to get a
job. This reminds me of the saying that it is all about who you know.
In the business world, who you know goes a long way. People have
connections to businesses and can help you get a job if you form a
positive relationship with them. I have learned a variety of tips on how
to build these kinds of relationships. One tip is to avoid trying to fix

other people. In the workplace you may have to work with people you
find challenging to work with, rather than trying to fix them you should
focus on yourself and allows others to learn through their own
mistakes. You should also try to avoid difficult people and not allow
yourself to be stressed out by them. You should also try to be an
observer; watch other people and see how they communicate with
others and try to learn from watching them. Never interrupt people
and allow them to finish their thoughts before inserting your own input.
You should also watch your nonverbal actions to see what kind of a
message you are sending as you communicate with people and be sure
to make eye contact, actively listen, and smile. Trust is a key
component of forming a quality relationship. Trust enables the sharing
of information and data and helps to form a strong bond between
people. I have joined FHE and LinkedIn in order to try to build more
professional relationships and network with people. As a student who
is graduating in the Spring I have learned the importance of
maintaining contact and taking initiation in pursing and maintaining
relationships I have built. I have reached out multiple times to people
from my internship from the summer and worked to preserve the
positive relationship I build with them this summer. I am sure to
always be enthusiastic and positive and I exchanged contact
information in order to continue our relationship. I also made an
initiative to set up a lunch with my preceptor and his boss just two

weeks ago in order to talk about future plans. I have high hopes to
continue working at Grifols, because I have learned from this class how
to enhance relationships. I am confident my relationship building skills
will also help me in the future. Wherever I end up next I now know the
importance of building relationships and how to effectively build them.
I know to be conscious of my facial expressions and non-verbal signals.
This was another one of my favorite units in this course.
The seventh learning outcome from this course included the
value of diversity in the community. In the office it is imperative that
you will be surrounded by an assortment of people of different races,
social classes, demographics, etc. It is so important to know how to
work with people of different cultures. In class we watched a video
about a potential employee going through an interview who was
obviously uncomfortable with the diversity that was in the office. We
watched as he interacted with a woman superior, an African-American
man, an Indian woman, and a disabled woman. After watching we
discussed in groups whether or not we would hire the man who came
off very rude to people who were different than him. Our group
decided that despite his high qualifications, we would not hire him
because he would present many challenges and intensify cultural
barriers that already exist. We feared he would discriminate and be
prejudice against those people and would not be able to work
effectively with them. We also read about a situation where an x-ray

technician told an African-American to remove her hair because he

assumed it was not real. She was very offended by this and reported it
to management and did not feel it was handled correctly. This taught
me the importance in having a standardized protocol for every patient
despite his or her background. Both of these situations were very
realistic and it could be easy to offend someone who is different from
you if you do not have cultural competence. This reiterated the
significance of valuing diversity to me. The textbook talks about ways
for leaders to promote cultural competence that were beneficial to me.
It is important to include culturally appropriate services in the
establishments goals and assess these goals frequently to view
progress. It is important to hire people of different cultural
backgrounds who can help to teach you and others about their culture
incase you have a patient who is similar to them. As a leader you need
to consider the needs of people from multiple cultures before making a
decision. All of these tips help to create an organization that truly
values diversity. Valuing diversity goes hand in hand with being
socially aware of the needs of others. This unit helped me to become
more knowledgeable in diversity and expressed its importance.
The eighth learning outcome was building consensus and
influencing others. One way I learned about this was through working
to improve a dysfunctional team. We had a group project that dealt
with a dysfunctional team that we had to identify the dysfunctional

areas and find ways to improve the dysfunction. Some elements that
can cause an ineffective team include: absence of trust, fear of
conflict, lack of commitment, avoiding accountability, and inattention
to results. The absence of trust hinders communication among team
members and teammates often will have a lower morale and dread
meetings. Fear of conflict can lead to a dysfunctional team never
addressing their issues and therefore never improving. In order to be
successful you have to address conflicts and work to fix them. A lack
of commitment can lead to tasks never being accomplished. There
needs to be someone who is committed and works to motivate others
in order to prevent the team from constantly working in circles and
never finishing a project. Lack of commitment can also lead to subpar
results instead of quality work. In healthcare it is so important to be
committed and work hard to establish an organization that provides
quality services. A team that avoids accountability also encourages
mediocrity and is unlikely to get work done in a timely manner. Lastly,
a team that does not pay attention to results lacks growth. This is a
team who lacks motivation and fails to make progress. Teams that are
dysfunctional will often times do work quickly and carelessly in order to
finish the project and not have to work with their team members any
longer. In healthcare I learned the importance of teams and how to
work effectively together. In order to improve a team that contains the
five elements of dysfunction there are some suggestions I learned

about concerning the improvement of this kind of team. There are a

variety of team building exercises that can be done; this can include
anything from playing a fun game to going out to dinner to help try to
get to know one another better in a less stressful setting.
Organizations can also hire external mentors to work with a
dysfunctional team and monitor their work. It is also important to set
ground rules for group meetings such as no cell phones, dont interrupt
others, and raise your hand to talk. Meetings can be more effective if
there is a set agenda prior to starting the meeting. This helps with the
organization of the meeting and will help manage disorganization.
Personal and group evaluations are another way to try to improve a
team. It is always important to evaluate and assess teamwork to make
sure the teams are making progress and are effective. Seeking
suggestions for improvement through evaluations can also be
beneficial. It is also important to design an open and clear
communication system that encourages input from everyone. If teams
lack motivation a reward system can also be created for members who
help improve quality of the team or put in hard work to the group task.
All of these tips and the action plans we have created throughout the
semester have taught me how to assess dysfunction and how to adjust
teams to make improvements. Over the summer I worked with two
other interns on a few minor assignments and although we got along
and finished our work, at times I felt one of the other interns was not

paying attention to the results and was completing mediocre material.

I was not sure how to motivate her to work harder and produce higher
quality work, but from this class I feel I would be able to motivate
someone like her in the future.
The ninth and final learning outcome from this semester included
identifying and using strategies to effect change. I learned most about
this outcome through chapter ten where we talked about
transformational leadership. A transformational leader is a person who
creates a vision and can inspire others to implement change in
alignment with the vision. Transformational leadership has helped to
guide my personal leadership model throughout the semester and I
have appreciated learning about it through many units. The textbook
talks about the CEO of General Electric who is an icon of
transformational leadership. Dobbs is effective in motivating his
workers to feel energized about their work and not just come to work
and punch the clock. I admire Dobbs and his work especially
because my father is employed by GE and loves his job. Throughout
the semester, along with PowerPoints, group projects, and essays I also
researched Dobbs further to provide more insight on transformational
leadership, since that is the theory I strive to follow. Randy has five
skill sets he uses to describe a transformational leader. He says
transformational leadership should: build a culture, improve esprit de
corps, communicate issues and actions, change the financial results,

and leave behind a team of future transformational leaders. (From his

book Transformational Leadership) In order to build a culture a leader
must present a clear and appealing vision. The leader must be
dedicated to the vision in order to set a clear example of its
importance. Improving esprit de corps is essentially improving
morale. Randy works to achieve this by assuring everyone in the
company shares the some vision and is energetic about working to
reach their goals. Set a vision that is attractive and achievable and be
passionate about it in order to receive buy-in. In the workplace you
also need to communicate issues and actions. As I talked about earlier
in my essay, communication is one of the most important factors of
being a leader. Communication can help build trust and commitment
in the organization. Randy also says to never assume what you say is
as clear and understandable to others as it is to you. Strive to be open
with your employees and allow them to get to know you so they are
comfortable to seek guidance and ask questions. Randy has an
AskRandy email message program where he personally replied to
hundreds of messages. This kind of openness is what has made Randy
such a key transformational leader. Changing the financial results
pertains to getting everything else right in the organization in order to
produce the financial results desired. All other elements are important
in order to see these desired outcomes. Lastly a transformational
leader leaves behind a group of future transformational leaders. There

are three things Randy searches for when creating a team: people who
see his vision as an opportunity for the business to grow and as a
personal career development plan, people who believe in themselves
and have visions and goals of their own to bring to the team, and
people who want to be respected in their organization. I decided to
focus on Dobbs a lot through this course as a role model of who I want
to become. The resources provided in this class, along with his tips
have really helped me form my own kind of leadership model.
Transformational leadership is all about effecting change in a positive
light. In the future I hope to become a transformational leader who is
well respected, motivating, and inspirational just as Mr. Dobbs is. I
learned a lot about transformational leadership in the class and I am
thankful for that.
The leadership essay we wrote towards the beginning of the
semester is when I first researched all the different styles and models
of leadership. I personally look up to leaders who are inspirational and
lead by example, as I mentioned Randy Dobbs. That is why I chose to
write about transformational leadership in my essay as well as
situational leadership and the contingency theory. Situational and
contingency theories are kind of similar in the sense that they believe
there is no single best strategy of leadership. I agree with this in the
sense that no two groups of people will be the same, so you will have
to change strategies throughout your career. However, I always chose

transformational leadership because even if I have to change whether I

am directing, coaching, or delegating, I will still keep transformational
leadership concepts in mind and apply those as well. I am interested
in the situational and contingency theories because they helped me to
learn how to assess a group of people I am leading. The situational
leadership theory taught me to look at the groups ability and
commitment to a project, while the contingency theory taught me to
look at the individual differences among employees, the different
features in the health organization, and the different features of the
organizations environment. The contingency theory identifies the
complexity of the health system, while the situational theory identifies
the individuals I am working with. My leadership model includes both
of these theories, because I felt it was important to be able to evaluate
both the organization and the individuals before choosing how
aggressively to lead them. The transformational theory ties in to all of
this, because it takes into account the concern for the individuals.
Whether I am directing people or coaching them through a task, I will
always keep their needs in mind.
The self-assessments taken in this course have helped me
identify my strengths and I know I can use my kindness, compassion,
and patience as I work with different kinds of people in my career. I
believe that in order to inspire people you have to remember to take
care of them first, so that they are committed to putting in hard work

to achieve a goal. If you do not take care of people they will not be
dedicated to their work. I want to be people focused and optimistic so
others see that and are inspired by my positive outlook. In my Myers
Briggs results, as mentioned earlier, I learned I make decisions through
feelings. I always like to consider the emotions and needs of others
and be aware of how my actions can affect them. This assessment
further confirmed the use of transformational leadership in my
personal model.
In the future I plan to enhance my learning by using a variety of
resources. I plan to buy Randy Hobbs book about being a
transformational leader so that I can read about how he became such a
successful leader. I learn best from other people. Scott Roth, the
director I interviewed, also suggested the book The Challenger, which
is about different kinds of sales approaches and how to be a successful
sales representative. I am interested in being a sales representative in
the future, so this is a book I am definitely interested in reading. I love
hearing personal experiences from successful leaders in order to
motivate me. With this in mind, I also plan to ask questions and seek
guidance in my future job, wherever that may be. In my internship I
enjoyed asking questions to directors and managers about where they
started their career and how they made it to where they are today. I
realized that people in the workplace are very open and willing to
share their life stories with you in order to help you grow. At my

internship prior to my last day I set up interviews with a few directors

just to talk with them about their jobs and their pasts. One specific
person I interviewed told me about how he became involved in the
Biotech industry through being a security guard for Bayer. This was
eye opening to me, because he told me how he literally started at the
bottom of the totem pole and is now the Director of Customer Services
for the North American division at Grifols. He told me that his key to
success was through interviewing people, as I did, being a good
communicator, hard worker, and always capitalizing on every
opportunity he was provided. I believe I will continue my learning
through networking and building relationships with others who have
more experience than myself. I would like to join a professional
network such as the ACHE in order to be connected with all kinds of
people in the healthcare field.
Throughout this challenging course, I have learned an array of
information about how to be a successful leader in healthcare. Every
learning outcome was of great value to my future career and I am
confident I will be able to use what I learned in this course in my
future. I will continue to seek evaluations from those around me,
because I enjoy self-assessments that can teach me what areas of
improvement I need to focus on. I also like knowing my strengths and
how I can use those to become the transformational leader I aspire to
be. I am pleased I understand emotional intelligence, the importance

of networking and building professional relationships, the significance

of diversity, and all the other concepts we talked about. Although this
was a difficult course with a lot of work, all of the assignments were
valuable to my learning and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you Dr.
Lane for your assistance in my college career and for helping to shape
me into a better candidate as I enter the healthcare field after
graduation!