This past year has taught me a lot about leadership and about myself. I took this job because I believe that leadership is a universal need that exists in every career field, profession, nation, and culture. This need will exist as long as there are people who work together, and leadership cannot be automated for or replaced by technology. This is because I believe that leadership is what brings people together to achieve more than what is possible if everyone acted as individuals. Because of this closely held belief, my career vision is to be a professional leadership consultant, eventually owning and operating my own multi-disciplinary leadership consulting firm. With my background in leading and developing leadership training courses, the opportunity to be a Leadership Consultant for LEAD appeared to be the perfect fit to continue pursuing my life’s purpose.
My work with LEAD helped me to contribute my personal skillset to growing the leaders for Mason and for the world. Over the course of this past year, I facilitated approximately 40 workshops or facilitations with audiences ranging from 15 to over 100 participants, helping me to share leadership values and principals with students from all backgrounds and majors. I led the Emerging Leaders cohort, a program for undergraduate and graduate students in which individuals were challenged to learn more about themselves and about leadership so that they could become stronger leaders. Lastly, for the Leadership Mason Conference, I developed what has turned out to me my signature workshop, “Discovering Your Purpose and Bringing it to Life.” What started as a presentation for a conference turned into a facilitation that was presented three additional times over the course of the year, and a workshop that I hope to continue to use professionally. In this workshop, I help participants to uncover their purpose so that they can form a personal vision and goals. The workshop also makes participants aware of the tools they have to achieve their goals and the value of resetting their goals.
The work I did over the past year went beyond teaching and facilitations. Reflecting on the broad need for leadership skills, I took on three projects focused on helping LEAD to broaden its reach, helping to build Mason students into leaders for tomorrow. I worked to drafting a proposal as to how LEAD can increase its online presence. Given the changing ways in which students access education and the on-demand nature of today, developing new ways to engage students will be pivotal for LEAD to expand its reach and achieve its vision. Seeing the potential of the LEAD Office, knowing the need of leadership skills across all majors, and using the knowledge of my own educational experience, I leveraged my connections and position as a Student Ambassador for the School of Business to initiate a strategic partnership between LEAD and the Management Program. This partnership has the potential to reach the 900 Management students at Mason, and possibly many additional students in the School of Business. With the knowledge and experience from working to build a partnership with the School of Business, I created a tool for the office and future Leadership Consultants to be able to reach out to professors, faculty, department heads, and student organizations to share what LEAD has to offer. This packet included a white paper outlining LEAD’s operations, an overview of LEAD programs, a FAQ document answering common questions about LEAD, a template for drafting a partnership proposal with an academic unit, and recommendations for next steps to broaden LEAD’s reach and impact on Mason students. Many elements of this packet will be available on LEAD’s new website.
After this past year of working as a Leadership Consultant, I hope that I am remembered for my hard work and the different perspective on leadership that I brought to the position. I hope that my strategic mindset and approach to developing programs helps LEAD to further develop programs that are in alignment with its vision, mission, and purpose. I worked to clarify LEAD’s purpose, showing that greater awareness of our programs can help us to influence more Mason students. With the tools I helped to develop and partnerships I helped to initiate, I can see LEAD growing and becoming the driving force that makes Mason into the premier school in Virginia when it comes to building leaders across all fields or study.
