Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1

Human Development

Shelly Treleaven

ECC 515: Leadership and Counselling Diverse Cultures in Education

M. Ed. in Leadership

City University of Seattle in Canada

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Alan Cohen said, ‘it takes a lot of courage to release the familiarity and seemingly

secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There

is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change

there is power.’ This quote inspires one to seek change and recognize how strange this may feel,

but how in order to really live one must embrace the adventure. In what ways does one need to

let go and also what change is needed in order to grow skills are what ought to be the focus of all

professional and personal growth plans. Having an appreciation for cultural diversity and seeing

how this impacts how we see the world has inspired significant growth edges for me. My goals

professionally are somewhat different than the goals I have for myself personally. In both

realms, I need to strengthen my ability to control how my cultural upbringing impacts my

reactions to emotional situations. Professionally the other two areas for growth are, increasing

my experience as a leader and planning for change and personally the other two targeted areas

for growth are self-care and balance.

My cultural upbringing has provided for me a great deal of experience with

struggle which enables me to empathize with others more easily. The reason this is an area for

growth is due to the seemingly involuntary physical and emotional reactions I experience when

facing a situation that evokes historically experienced thoughts or emotions. I am not wanting to

eliminate or reduce my ability to empathize, but rather not let situations elicit inappropriate

either physical or emotional reactions. The methods employed to support growth in this area are

reflective journaling and cognitive counselling. I have always been a journaller, but this type of

journaling is different in that every reaction would require exploration into why there was a

physical or emotional response and what was the trigger. Knowledge of what incites these
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reactions will guide whether change is necessary or desired. Having a professional support my

learning in how my upbringing continues to impact my worldview, allows for me to develop a

deeper understanding of my emotional reactions which may provide me the power to restrict

their ability to take over inappropriately.

Becoming a formal leader creates anxiety as culturally I experienced physical

might not knowledge or skill as the criterion for leadership. I now recognize that leadership is

not a physical state, but more of a mindset. Being a leader requires more than simply knowledge

and skill but additionally a way of experiencing, seeing, and understanding the world. I now feel

I have the academic understanding of leadership, what I lack is experience. I will actively seek

informal leadership roles over the next few years with the expectation that these will grow my

ability in the craft of leadership. In order to build on this skill I will need to communicate this

desire with those in leadership roles. As our school will have a new principal next year, I will

have the opportunity to learn from another perspective. I will also apply to join the Aspiring

Leaders cohort with Wolf Creek Central Office. This program has been the training ground for

the Wolf Creek leadership team for the past number of years and thus will likely assist me in

connecting my academic knowledge to professional practices.

The second professional growth area is that of planning for change. I completed

the Cultural Intelligence Survey and was alarmed to see that planning for change was not only

my weakest area, but that I was significantly below worldwide norms as well. Upon reflection I

realized how my reaction to impending change was always with a ‘wait and see’ attitude.

Planning for anything to change was not something I experienced in my upbringing and this has

become my default. Looking on how to affect change in this area, I will need to identify areas of
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my professional practice that change will be happening and work consciously on developing a

positive plan for the change. I realize significant change takes time and identifying this as an

area for growth is the first step to improvement.

My first personal growth target is self-care. I was raised to put everyone else’s needs

before my own. As a mother this practice seemed natural and in my marriage I thought it was

supportive; the results were actually resentment and frustration. Only recently has my family

admitted to their feelings about this behaviour. I always thought I was being supportive;

however, what my family experienced was frustration as they felt they never got true

feedback or opinion from me. They felt that I was cheating them by not being true to myself.

This has been a genuine struggle as putting myself first feels selfish. In order to focus on

self-care, I have needed to truly reflect on what I want for myself. Thankfully my family is

supportive and are willing to persevere while I struggle to understand myself.

The second personal area for growth would be to find balance. I have been told that this

is not entirely achievable, but it is a worthwhile ideal. When I refer to balance I do not mean that

I spend equal amounts of time at home and at school, but rather to find ways to give of myself

and time that does not leave me feeling depleted or exhausted for days (or weeks) on end.

Knowing when I have done enough is difficult as I never want to have someone disappointed in

me. I have always had my self-worth tied to what I have been able to achieve, so more

accomplished meant I had more value. I have started this development process and am

beginning to appreciate that the worth of a person is not measured in how much they do, but the

quality of their character.

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Over the past two years I have changed from someone motivated to learn, to seeing

myself as a leader. Through this masters program I have been made to explore my motivation

both as a person and as an aspiring leader. I was expected to poke into some areas of my history

that I had tried to forget about. These learning experiences have opened me up to seeing how

understanding oneself is how we learn to understand others with the potential to lead. Every

person is the result of their experiences, culture and feelings and having a diverse group of

people allows for multiple perspectives and increased knowledge and understanding. Culturally

competent leadership requires open mindedness and flexibility in order see how diverse groups

of individuals working together is more than just people from different backgrounds. Leaders

need to believe that success is measured by the number of voices that contributed to the vision.

As the opening quote indicated, change is uncomfortable and unfamiliar, but through conscious

and purposeful attention to professional and personal growth is the only way to experience the

adventure of change.
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References

Cohen, A. (1990). Joy is my compass: Taking the risk to follow your bliss. Dolphin

Communications Company.