Reflection on Leadership Narratives

Nikkolo Paulo E. Atabelo

Leadership is found not just at work but all around us. In any situation, leaders take a step forward
and take charge of the situation. It can be at home, at work or at any other place. Leaders are never
born, they become leaders because they have the credibility and people would love to follow them.

These were great realizations and reflections that I had during our workshop.

What struck me the most is that the most important quality that differentiates a leader from other
people is the ability to think strategically. Vision is the most important aspect that drives a leader’s
strategy. It is all about where you want to be. Other qualities include decision making, problem
solving, time management, self-motivation, emotional intelligence and many more. Once we know
the type of leadership, it is easy to find what leadership skills we have and which we need to
develop.

After the workshop, I feel more confident about my qualities and how I need to deal with people
with different personality having very differently thinking and how we can come to a common
solution of any problem.

The sharing we had led to me more doors of opportunities and discoveries. I learned that
effective management and leadership begins with being self-aware. This simply means
that you need to work hard to intimately understand your strengths and weaknesses,
model ways in which your values are congruent with your behavior, and develop a culture
of respect for yourself and for others on your team. Recently, a newly hired employee
said to me: “Although I already had a strong sense of my core values before joining this
institution, working here has pushed me to practice a higher level of professionalism. Our
organization’s culture doesn’t just teach leadership to our students, but expects faculty
and staff to model what leadership actually looks like on a daily basis. We are responsible
for an array of excellent courses, effective programs, and skill-building events, but the
most personally rewarding aspect of my work is participating in an internal culture that is
congruent with our external message.” Explicit and implicit in this employee’s
observation is the way in which our team practices shared management and leadership
with awareness and authenticity.
Having said these, I hereby commit to value integrity and self-care as a leader. Integrity has
been defined and described in many ways, but there is one idea that has stuck with me: A
person’s integrity is a matter of the value of his or her word, nothing more and nothing
less. If you keep your word for every task, large or small, people will naturally trust you
with more complex responsibilities. Responsibility and trust create credibility, which then
makes the conditions ripe for leading people towards achieving common goals. This is
how your organization and your role within it can grow. So consider developing a habit
of keeping your word — to yourself and to others. I know from personal experience that
this is not an easy thing to do all the time. If you break your word — to yourself or to
another person — apologize and figure out a way to fix the problem you might have
created by breaking your word.

Finally, as a leader, I need to pay attention to self-care. Taking care of my team starts
with taking care of myself. Understand my limits and what I can reasonably accomplish
in a finite period of time. Identify tasks only I can accomplish and delegate other tasks in
ways that will engage my team members and encourage their development.