HDF 190:

FIRST YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE

LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO
James Zaccaro
SPRING 2016
james_Zaccaro@my.uri.edu

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Strengths
Opening Statement
Section 1: Self Leadership
Section 2: Leadership Theories
Section 3: Inclusive Leadership
Section 4: Critical Thinking
Section 5: Interpersonal/Organizational Leadership

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*If you do not have one outcome from each area of the Inventory completed,
you may opt to choose 2 from one of the sections.

Signature Strengths
Individualization
Relator
Ideation
Woo
Empathy

Values in Action Strengths

Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence
Curiosity
Love
Humor
Social Intelligence

OPENING STATEMENT
I have always been driven to become the best leader that I can be.
I started my Scouting career when I was young. Over the years while
making my path to Eagle Scout, I matured and learned that I am a leader. I
am extremely thrilled to be able to continue my journey of leadership with
the Leadership minor at URI. I am pursuing the program because I want to
continue to grow as a leader and learn different leadership techniques. The
quote at the top of the page is a great representation of the ideals of the URI
leadership community; leaders are not born, they are made.

SECTION 1
SELF LEADERSHIP
(#2)

During the course of my life I learned how to properly exhibit self-discipline. In

my EGR class last semester I had my first real college group project. This was
very difficult because the project counted for over 20% of my final grade and took
a substantial amount of time and effort to put together. I had to manage my time
and social life to properly allot time to meet with and work with the rest of my
group. In my personal life I have always used physical fitness to discipline
myself. When I was younger I did karate and played sports, while during high
school I started going to the gym. Recently this past summer, I started to get
serious about rock climbing and am training on the competitive rock climbing
team at URI. This has been a great escape from the hectic school life even if
only for a few hours a week. I learned organizational self-discipline from my time
in Boy Scouts. During my road to Eagle Scout I learned how to be part of an
organization that is bigger than myself, learned the value of community service
and putting others before myself.

SECTION 2
Leadership Theory and Models
(#26)

In HDF 190 I learned about the theory of servant leadership. Servant leadership
was a model created by Robert Greenleaf. In this model Greenleaf says that
there are 10 characteristics of a servant leader. The 10 characteristics are
Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualization,
Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the growth of people, and Building
Community. In this model the characteristics are broken into 3 dimensions,
Servant, Leader, and Both. In the Servant category we have Listening, Empathy
and Healing, while in the Leader category we have Awareness, Persuasion,
Conceptualization, and Foresight. In the both category we see the successful
categories needed to become a successful servant leader. In the middle category
there are Stewardship, Commitment to the growth of people, and building
community. If one can utilize 5-10 of these characteristics then they will be a
successful student leader.

SECTION 3
Inclusive Leadership / Diversity and its application to leadership
(#81)

In HDF 190 I learned what a change agent is while learning about the social
change model. A change agent is a person who has the understanding,
motivation and skills to create change. Now change isnt that simple, a person
needs to understand that change is a process and that there will always be a
group that is opposed to your change. A change agent should have a positive
outlook on change, they should demonstrate self-patience and confidence. In
addition they should be open to trying new things and be able to provide a
smooth transition into change. Lastly a change agent should be able to influence
others to create change. They must have the ability to explain their vision, and be
able to take risks to make a difference. All of these characteristics may sound
simple and easy, however it is sometimes very difficult to be a change agent and
present the idea of change when it isnt wanted. Change agents deserve a ton of
credit.

SECTION 4
Critical Thinking
(#89)

In HDF 190 I participated in an activity called the marshmallow challenge. In this

group activity my small group members and I were given various objects
including 1 ft of string, a handful of spaghetti sticks a yrd of tape and a
marshmallow. In this challenge my team and I were given the task to build the
tallest freestanding structure with the marshmallow on top. In my group once the
time allotment started I instantly began thinking about how and what we should
do to accomplish our task. In my group I started to talk to my subordinates and
we were able to come up with a basic idea and we worked with it. I was able to
use the strategies that I learned to listen to my group members, think creatively
with our very unorthodox task.

SECTION 5
(Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills )
(#99)

In my HDF 190 class I was able to learn about active listening techniques during
the day of discovery experience. In the experience I learned that it is more
important to listen to what someone else has to say rather than coming up with
what you want to say next. This technique allows users to actually pay attention
to what the speaker is saying and this allows the user to process their information
better and make more of a connection. This technique also allows the individual
to use their words more thoughtfully and also allows them to make better
decisions based on what someone else is saying.