HDF 190: FIRST YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO Matt Abraitis

1. HDF 190: FIRST YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO Matt Abraitis SPRING 2014 mabraitis@my.uri.edu mattabraitis.weebly.com

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS Strengths SLIDE # 3 Opening Statement SLIDE # 4 Section 1: Self Leadership SLIDE # 5-6 Section 2: Leadership Theories SLIDE # 7-8 Section 3: Inclusive Leadership SLIDE # 9-10 Section 4: Critical Thinking SLIDE # 11-12 Section 5: Interpersonal/Organizational Leadership SLIDE # 13-14

3. Signature Strengths WOO Communication Positivity Individualization Analytical Values in Action Strengths Honesty Love Social Intelligence Bravery Humor

4. OPENING STATEMENT HDF-190 taught me not only how to lead, but also defined what kind of leader I am. Through the StrengthQuest and Value In Action Assessments I discovered descriptive words that define my style of leading. The StrengthQuest results that define me are WOO, Communication, Positivity, Individualization and Analytical. The Value in Action results that define me are Honesty, Love, Social Intelligence, Bravery and Humor. Additionally, I discovered that through my strengths I primarily subscribe to Relational Leadership.

5. SECTION 1 SELF LEADERSHIP #10 Student will demonstrate the ability to lead a project from start to finish (follow-through) Target Class: HDF-190 Additional Experience: JOR-110H *Description Next Slide

6. As Relational Leadership addresses, projects are not simply about the solution. As explained in HDF-190, the Relational Leadership Component of Process-Oriented is focused on addressing the fact that a goal or mission should be tackled by a team working well together and building as a team throughout the completion of the goal or mission. Furthermore, it asks the members of teams to focus on what they actually get from the process of obtaining the solution or conclusion rather than simply focusing on the solution or conclusion. Though I did not have this leadership theory to apply to my actions at the time, I still fulfilled the Leadership Component of Process-Oriented and encourages my other team members to be Process-Oriented. I am speaking about my group project that I had to fulfill with a team of two other individuals my first semester in college in my Honors Intro to Journalism and the Presidency. We were assigned a president and a journalism topic that we discussed throughout the semester and were asked to research, analyze and present the correlation between them through a lengthy paper and a 25 minute presentation. Though my team, including myself, were not personally interested in the topic we were assigned, we were all hard workers and researched what we had to, to understand the topic. Our team’s goal was not to focus on reaching 25 minutes in our presentation and 10 pages on our paper but rather fully answering the question and addressing the prompt appropriately. Come presentation day, nearly a month after we were assigned our topic, we handed in a paper 2 pages longer than the required length and presented our research for over 35 minutes. We were so intent on the process of the project rather than the solution that we did more than we had to and ended up impressing the teacher. The nearly perfect grade I received for that presentation saved my grade from the C-range. In conclusion, by naturally focusing on being Process-Oriented and being a Relational Leader, myself and my team finished above the expectations asked of us.

7. SECTION 2 Leadership Theory and Models #26 Student will show knowledge of the “Servant Leadership” theory of leadership by Greenleaf Target Class: HDF-190 Additional Experience: N/A *Description Next Slide

8. As taught in HDF-190, Servant Leadership is defined by Greenleaf is, “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.” I personally interpret Servant Leadership as an individual’s natural desire to serve others and help them progress in whichever manner is most appropriate to them. An individual can be a servant leader by being having both servant characteristics and leader characteristics. Servant characteristics are defined as listening, actively listening completely before deciding, empathy, having a desire to walk a mile in someone’s else shoes and understand what they are going personally enduring, and healing, helping your staff become whole and build a future together as a group. Leader characteristics are defined as awareness of both oneself and group/organization, persuasion, opposing authority in order to convince and build consensus efficiently, conceptualization, making time and appropriately applying strategy, and foresight, understanding consequences of present decisions and future outcomes. You do not have to have ALL of these characteristics to be a servant leader but the more characteristics an individual has and uses, the better servant leader that individual will be. It is the focus of combining the servant characteristics and the leader characteristics of an individual to create a servant leader that is important.

9. SECTION 3 Inclusive Leadership / Diversity and its application to leadership #81 Student will show knowledge of effective leadership as it relates to change agency Target Class: HDF-190 Additional Experience: N/A *Description Next Slide

10. A change agent is a person who embodies the 7 C’s of the Social Change Model of Leadership and works to create positive social change more than any other individual on that respective project. Embodying the 7 C’s of the Social Change Model of Leadership means that the change agent must also embody the individual values, group values and societal values. To be specific, the change agent must fit the C’s of consciousness of self, which is knowing one’s own values, congruence, which is sticking to those values, commitment, which is sticking to the project at hand, collaboration, which is working well with others to create that positive social change, common purpose, which is working towards a common goal with the others in your group, controversy with civility, which is challenging those to reach the common purpose while also giving them the support needed to reach that point and citizenship, which is working well with others while creating the positive social change. It is only when the change agent understands and fits these definitions that he/she is truly the 8th C of change agent. A change agent, because they have embodied the 7 C’s above, have a very well defined form of leadership and a brand that is very easily understood and appreciated.

11. SECTION 4 Critical Thinking #88 Student will show knowledge of principles of critical thinking (logic is used in this minor) Target Class: HDF-190 Additional Experience: Wright.edu *Description Next Slide

12. Critical thinking is an important ability a leader must have. A good critical thinker can work well, regardless of group size, on a task, regardless of any bias the leader or other group members may hold. Additionally, critical thinkers are good at avoiding inefficient work. Specifically, critical thinkers are defined as individuals with ability to gather complete information, understand and define all terms, question the methods by which the facts are derived, question the conclusions, look for hidden assumptions and biases, question the source of facts, not expect all of the answers, examine the big picture, examine multiple cause and effects, watch for thought stoppers and understand their own biases and values, according Wright.edu.

13. SECTION 5 (Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills) #112 Student will show knowledge of techniques for working with difficult people Target Class: HDF-190 Additional Experience: COM-100 *Description Next Slide

14. Though not ideal, as pointed out in HDF-190, having to work with circumstances that are not perfect will happen extremely often when a leadership position. Though it can be challenging, a leader should not just give up when dealing with someone difficult. Rather, a leader show understand how to deal with difficult people and deal with them appropriately in order to complete their task most efficiently. In my Communciations-100 class I learned how to deal with difficult people specifically. There are two broad ways to deal with difficult people; the first being a direct style, and the second being an indirect style. Within the direct style there are many possible methods. A few examples are, competitive fighting, compromising and collaborating. Competitive fighting is putting your own interests above that of the difficult individual. Though this may seem like it may only escalate the problem, this method attempts to take a hierarchy approach where the leader asserts their dominance over the difficult individual in order for that individual to see that they have no place in their current group dynamic to be acting the way they are. The compromising method is simply working with the difficult person, where both you and that individual possibly give up something that you wanted in order to reach a natural ground. Lastly, collaboration is a method by which the leader and the difficult individual work together and try to reach a common ground without compromising; This would be done usually through an educated conversation based off of facts and/or evidence. Taking a different approach however, there is also the indirect style of conflict management. Two examples of this style is yielding and avoiding. Yielding is having a low concern for your own beliefs and having a high concern for the beliefs of the difficult individual in order to help them work through whatever is challenging them. The other method, avoiding, is exactly as it sounds; avoiding the difficult person and their motives in order to subtly hint to them that they are no longer going to be addressed if they are going to be difficult. Though some of these styles and methods may seem to work better than others, every style and method have their own situation that they work best for.