I think if I knew how to be an affective leader, I could likely sell a lot of books, and make a lot of money as a speaker. However, that is one of the greatest parts of the ENGI 316 course, that we are not only teaching but also learning leadership. We all came into the course with the preconceived notion that we were selected for our leadership capabilities, and thus set out to lead the freshman into greatness on their projects. This is a great set up for a lesson in humility. It’s easy to say that my shortcomings as a leader have been because the group isn’t responding to my style of leadership. However, learning to be a capable of multiple styles of leadership will make me a better leader in the future. Therefore, I am finding myself stretched to explore other styles, a position fitting for the mission of RCEL.
Learning how to be an affective leader has come largely from the Shriner’s AL’s interaction with the freshman teams. I can mainly attest to my own interaction; but, I have found that I approach leadership in a lead from behind method. I try to direct the team, through veiled comments such that at the end they feel they have arrived all on their own, when in reality I was guiding all along. However, with one of our groups, it has become evident that this is not affective. For example, the groups were encouraged to designate a facilitator for the day. However, the facilitator for this one group did not adequately insure that everyone’s voice was being heard. So, I stepped in and asked for the opinions of different group members throughout the course of the meeting. The result was that I modeled what a facilitator should do, but the group (and especially the acting facilitator of the group) learned nothing. In discussing the situation with our faculty mentors, I learned that in that situation I needed to explicitly say that I was modeling the position of facilitator. It is difficult for me to approach leadership so explicitly. However, it is also important that we all learn how to lead in different ways and different situations.