"How leaders make meaning through their environment is truly from active learning, having a deeper understanding of themselves, and through humility. "
I did not expect self-reflection to be such a heavily emphasized aspect of the course, but I have learned that there is so much more that can be gleaned from the world when you dive deep into yourself, and your purpose. At first, reflection came simply in the form of journaling and getting to know the group. With tools like personality inventories and team activities, we were able to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses, our roles, and our tendencies. Global leaders that participate in this gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their role in a team, and how their competencies can best contribute to a group’s goals.
"This [reflection] leads to stronger team dynamics, healthy conflict, and empathy for others. "
Being an effective global leader also requires humility, setting aside your pride to open yourself to more learning. The environment of living together all the time, combined with the activities in class, brought out a different kind of rawness that surprised me. My understanding of how to effectively have humility has shifted to an understanding that humility in a leader is not simply having less pride and being open to other ideas. True humility comes when you trust that certain people around you know you better than you know yourself, and it is up to you to decide whether criticisms have a basis, why you do the things you do, if this is affecting those around you, and how to make improvements.