Be
fore attending the Leonard Kaplan Leadership Institute at CCL, I was feeling a bit nervous and unsure about how I would perform at my designated internship. Even though I had taken several leadership trainings before, due to my uncertainty and fears, I had lost sight of how I have demonstrated leadership throughout my college career and what it truly meant to lead. Thanks to the past two days with CCL, I was able to recall my past leadership experiences and my time serving as a role model for my peers. The facilitators (Marin, Preston, Susan and Monique) pushed us to dig beneath the surface from the first day’s ice breaker to the challenging small group activities to the final journal reflection that connected everything we learned throughout the Leadership Institute. Throughout these two days, we have been introduced to several concepts that provided each of us opportunities to reflect on our values, our identities, our mental patterns and why we are the way we are. Also, they provided us the tools to understand what effective leadership meant and what it looked like.
The concepts that stood out to me the most were the DAC (Direction-Alignment-Commitment) principle, the 80-20 rule for giving feedback, Fixed vs. Growth Mindset, and the Learning Curve. These actually helped me see leadership in a more practical and result-oriented way, while also building my confidence in facing the challenges that will come ahead.
Hence, I am very grateful for the experience as allowed me to feel more sure about my abilities and ready for any challenges that come my way.
