My Personal Best Leadership Experience

I have never faced more challenges or pushed my leadership abilities farther than during my term as President of the Residence Hall Association. During that time I was introduced to the challenge of providing a vision for a group and more importantly selling that vision and getting members to agree with it. It all started after I was elected President. I was informed that I would be leading a team to work on restructuring the group; little did I know at the time the department wanted this done by late July. The restructure encompassed many of the changes I had hoped to make, but on a much larger scale.

The restructuring of the organization took place over the summer in 2010, and I was president until the following April. During that time I combined two separate organizations, Residence Leadership Association which was composed of the Presidents of each Hall Senate, and ProBoard which planned campus-wide activities for on-campus residents. I worked with a team to create a new constitution, meeting outline, a set of clear goals and objectives for the year.

I also helped fill a half-full executive board, supported members in planning and executing programs, but most importantly strived to get the RHA name out there.  There was a variety of little challenges along the way such as program ideas, an unsupportive department, and over-involved advisors. None of these compared to the amount of work and dedication it took to continuously motivate and encourage people to work for the betterment of the group and its members.

This was truly a challenging process. I was continually over-analyzing every statement before saying anything. I wanted to make sure I was coming off as encouraging and being supportive but not letting people run with ideas that didn't fall within the mission and vision of the organization. I spent countless hours just talking with people: people inside the organization, people outside the organization, anyone that would listen. I wanted to gain others insight on what was going on and have a variety of perspectives on the situation. Just working on my behavior and all of the communication was more than a full-time job. I realized that leaders spent most of their time listening to others, yes I was talking to other about the situations, but I spent the majority of the time listening to their responses. Learning to listen to other's ideas is the biggest lesson I gained from this experience. I learned that one person alone cannot make change, but it takes a group and with this group, everyone will have an opinion but it's the leaders’ job to make sure they are all aligned with the goal.

A few other lessons from this experience:

• ·         I think always being prepared is an important part of the leader's responsibilities. Doing research before the meetings and being aware of what was going on throughout the organization helped gain credibility with the members.
• ·         Having objectives at the beginning of what I knew had to be accomplished. These weren’t really goals, but tangible things I knew had to be done in order to survive as a group. I knew that we had to brand our name, create a logo and use it everywhere. It was never a goal, but just something that I always took into consideration throughout the year.
• ·         I focused on building a team. I tried to get to know everyone and start conversations amongst the group. Since everyone was a student, we had lots in common and were in similar situations, there was no reason to not share these experiences. I, along with the rest of my executive team, was required to show up early for the meetings. This time was spent not only talking amongst ourselves, but starting conversations with others in the group. I required people to not go with their friends when getting into programming groups and it helped foster connections within the group. At the end of the year, we were a tight-knit group and it was sad to see everyone leave.
• ·         That sometimes to help others grow and help the group succeed, you need to delegate. As a leader you cannot do everything, but you need to surround yourself with people who are able to. I learned that it isn’t about my accomplishments and what I get done, but what the group accomplishes together.
• ·         Throughout my time as RHA President, as well as my time as NISG Election Commissioner, I learned that you have to be open to ideas. Yes, it may mean staying up all night to study because you spent most of your days talking to other people, but it will be worth it in the end. Sharing your ideas and hearing others are a great way to achieve a better outcome than either party would have gotten to on their own.
• ·         Lastly, I learned to follow my gut. Whenever I was in doubt or unsure about anything, I always relied on my gut instinct. As a leader who was put into this position because people knew my skills. I had lots of different experiences and a good sense of right and wrong, you wouldn’t be put into this role if you hadn’t. Always listening to your gut and what you think is right is a great way to make it through tough situations
• While my time as RHA President was extremely beneficial, it has been shaped largely about leaders that I have worked with. Being involved in Residence Life and other aspects of Student Affairs has allowed me opportunities to work with a variety of professionals. I would not have changed these opportunities for anything.

One that sticks out the most to me was my on-campus advisor when I first began serving on the Regional Board of Directors. Often, I would find that I had my own mindset and she pushed me to see things from different perspectives. She asked questions of why I was doing something and held me accountable for everything that I was doing. Most importantly, she listened to me. Since she is no longer my advisor, this is something I have truly come to value and miss immensely.

While looking at my observations on other leaders in my life, for me, it always comes back to their listening skills. I value my leader’s ability to listen to others. I think it shows humbleness because they may not always have the best ideas or even an idea, but are willing to learn from others. I think the next thing that all of the influential leaders I have come across, is they all have a passion for something. They all do something that makes them happy and they have a vested interest in. This has spilled over to our conversations and their ability to instill a passion within me. They have shown that if I take on a cause or find something I am interested in, I should pursue it. Overall, these people are all caring; they value others and helping others. That helped reaffirm my decision to go onto student affairs, I have seen how caring people are, even after turning down an internship, I get emails saying that if I need anything to contact them; I just don't think that every field has that. The interactions with these leaders have also shown me what I want in a future manager or how I want to be a future manager or leader. They have set the bar extremely high and will continue to push me to succeed.