How do you plan on exhibiting your leadership and critical thinking skills as you prepare to graduate from the Academy?
As I graduate and move on I want to take the lessons PLA has given me to move forward, but to also leave something better behind. PLA has changed how I view being a leader and the leader I hope to one day become. It has opened my eye’s to the “gray area” and how one needs to see all sides of a situation to be a leader. Working with my own personality and varying people as a leader are important to putting teams together and making things run smoothly. Through PLA I have learned the benefit of being a great follower as well as a great leader. As I prepare to graduate, I have been through 3 years of learning, adapting and growing that has made me realize I want make sure the path I lead is cleared for everyone else.
Thinking in the “gray area” has now become a habit for me because that is the way I have been conditioned as a leader to think. This has been really helpful in so many situation as I grow as a leader. I realize that being at the top of the pecking order as a senior in college is very different from moving forward into the job market/”real world”. Yet my experiences now and these lessons of thinking from every angle and every perspective will stick with me. Nothing will ever be just pure black and white and opening my leadership abilities to that has made me twice a leader already. There have been many situations just this year that getting a handle on the perspectives of other people and the all around grayness of the world we live in, lay the ground work for the rest of my leadership path.
Through PLA, from the Pittsburgh trip to taking the Myers Briggs in class, we have discussed varying personalities and how to work with them. I think moving forward in my career, learning how to handle many different personalities is critical to working in teams or even just communicating with people in general. One thing that really helped me begin rounding out my leadership path was learning my Myers Briggs is an ESTP. The thing that clicked about an ESTP is how they work in the workplace as a subordinate, colleague and manager. ESTP’s aren’t the greatest subordinates. ESTPs are known for their quick thinking and need for experimentation – if I’m not allowed to use these qualities and have to check in with a supervisor for every little thing, I will be bored and frustrated (http://www.16personalities.com/estps-at-work).
Seeing as when I enter the rest of my life, the last thing I’m going to be is a leader right away, half the battle is becoming a better follower. It has always been incredibly difficult for me to follow something if my heart isn’t 100% in the fight. Part of life is just learning to work around that and find motivation still. PLA has helped me become a better follower by putting me in a room full of leaders. How you adapt to work with others and not step on toes is all that maneuvering a workplace is about. On the PLA Pittsburgh trip, Rishi talked about adapting his personality to making a group project go smoother, that is similar to where I see my leadership ability going when I leave school. Adapting to the people around me and making sure even if I’m not the leader, things still go smooth.
All that I have learned in leadership has made me realize the positions I will need to be in later in my life so that I am happy. I am happiest as a leader. This has led me to only look at jobs within firms that have manager positions and the ability to move up the ladder even if I start as a subordinate. This isn’t always possible in small design firms, so it has clarified one path I am looking down to look at large corporate firms. Another thing it has made me realize is how one day I would like to be a professor. I would like to take these qualities of a leader and a designer and help teach that to others.
Bottom line, what I have realized my ultimate leadership goal/thing I will carry with me is I will always strive to make things better for others. Situations I have been through that might not have been perfect, I want to try and leave a legacy of making them better. Through all my experiences I just want to make all the struggles I went through, not occur for those after me. Always giving feedback and wanting to make progress is what I want to bring to the table. As a senior right now these opportunities are abundant. So on a small level, I think the most prominent thing I want to graduate with is what I leave behind.
As I move forward I definitely know the academy has shaped who I will be as a person from here on out. I am grateful for the opportunity for growth. I sometimes think I don’t deserve to be in PLA, but after going through all of PLA, I know I will keep growing to be someone who will be deserving of that. I will take all my lessons and keep adding to them to become the leader and person I need to be. Thank you PLA for aiding me on this journey!
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