1

Christian Bormann

Emma Morin

HONR 201-02

28 November 2022

Leadership Exploration
Leadership as a competency area is a skill that focuses on working with groups of people

(or a single person) to achieve some kind of outcome. The skills related to leadership can be

broken down into subcategories such as democratic leadership, authoritarian leadership, laissez-

faire leadership, and transformational leadership. All of these leadership styles share the basic

components of leadership which are values (what motivates people) and teams (the groups of

people working together). It is important to understand the various leadership styles as well as

what motivates teams of people. It is important to understand because various leadership styles

may be needed under different circumstances or may play into motivating groups of people

better, since not every team or team member will have the same values.

Since leadership is seen as a skill which can be developed overtime, I believe that anyone

can develop their leading skills if they gain experience. One such example of a recent experience

for me was when I started working part-time in a kitchen at a gas station. Working in an

environment with strict deadlines for completing orders gave me an insight into values and how

they impact a team. I learned that my team members would be more upset if we fell behind

schedule versus me asking them for help to avoid falling behind. I quickly learned to vocalize

everything I needed so that the team could work together as a unit motivated by a common goal

rather than as a collection of individuals with separate tasks. This insight into how teams operate
 2

together and the value of communication will definitely serve me in the future as I work with

more people.

In the future I would like to build on my leadership by experiencing a more business

related internship, so that I can work in an environment that applies to my major directly. It

would go a long way to my growth as a business/finance student because it would put me in a

setting that I would someday experience in the workplace. An internship would allow me to get a

better understanding of leadership styles in the business world and how teams work together to

set and achieve goals. Learning fundamental principles of leadership is one thing, but putting it

in a specific context would help take my leadership competency to the next level.

Developing my leadership skills in the Honors Program will help me gather more

valuable experiences that are tailor made for me. During Introduction to Honors I have been able

to learn foundational concepts for leadership, which will help my future goals of applying this

knowledge to a specific scenario successfully.