I Attended a Leadership Workshop – Here Are My Biggest Takeaways

Written by Kaitlyn de Boda

---

A key mission of the UN’s GirlUp initiative is to foster female leadership, especially among girls. This fascination with leadership is what initially drew me to join my local coalition of GirlUp. If you, like me, have a general sense of what leadership is but want to strengthen your understanding to put it into practice, this is the read for you. 

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." —Margaret Fuller

The University of Alberta offers multiple pathways to pursue leadership studies. Students can join the Peter Lougheed Leadership College, or participate in the Student Union’s Leadership Education and Development Centre. This article focuses on the latter where I completed their 3-day Emerging Leaders Program to hone my leadership skills. Here are 5 key main points that I learned about leadership: 

1. Be Self-Aware 

Before going about interacting with others, it’s important to be self-aware. Self-awareness allows you to understand your beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, and goals to form a holistic and accurate picture of oneself. Being self-aware can also help guide you through challenging circumstances to tell you how you react to certain situations and why. 

It’s equally important to be self-aware to understand how others interpret you. As a leader your actions have consequences on others and it's worthwhile to step outside of your own shoes to evaluate yourself from an outside perspective.* Be mindful, consider feedback, and reflect on yourself!  

*But avoid being caught up constantly thinking about how others see you! This is prone for failure. 

2. Approach Hard Choices by Prioritizing Values 

Life isn’t all smooth sailing; you're destined to be blown off course or to hit waves here or there. A way to steer yourself out of these hard times is to use your moral compass to assess your values in a situation. 

Values = a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life. 

Yet we have many values that can sometimes conflict! For example, you value both rigor and integrity: what should you do if you’re time-pressed on an approaching deadline that you won’t be able to finish unless you cut corners? Choosing what to do is a matter of prioritizing your values. In this case it would be whether you value high levels of achievement or following your principles. 

Remember it's okay to re-rank your priorities so long as you still recognize yourself and it isn’t creating disruptions. 

3. Use the SOLAR Acronym in Direct Communication 

Body language can communicate as much as words. When it comes to honing your non-verbal skills, try the SOLAR acronym (also called SOLER) when talking to show that you’re listening and to gain trust from your conversational partner. 

S-houlders down

O-pen arms 

L-ean in slightly 

A-ppropriate eye contact! (If you’re not comfortable looking people in the eyes, look between their eyebrows) 

R-elax – Relaxation can be contagious. If you’re relaxed, your partner will likely mimic you 

4. Coaching is Not Giving Advice 

This was a big ‘ah-ha’ moment for me. Coaching is a part of leadership where an individual helps guide someone else. That said, coaches should refrain from giving advice. Instead, coaches should trust that their conversational partner has the answer to their problem but needs guidance to find it. Asking certain questions like “What do you hope to accomplish?”  “What are the options?” and “What do you think you need?” are some of many questions for a coach to ask. 

5. Stages of Group Development 

Lastly, the Stages of Group Development model highlights the common patterns seen during group development. These stages aren’t always linear, and sometimes you don’t experience all stages. Nonetheless, the Stages of Group Development is important to normalize conflict or negative emotions experienced in group projects. If you experience problems it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s game over; rather it can be a normal part of the process. 

1. Forming: The first step where members are uncertain and cautious. Goals and purpose aren't clear but there can still be a sense of excitement for what is to come.

2. Storming: Ideas have been flowing but there is disagreement and conflict about the process, goals, or purpose. The most frustrating stage of group development. 

3. Norming: A common purpose has been settled on and there is a general understanding between group members. There is good communication and increased comfort between the members as the task is reestablished. 

4. Performing: At this point there is collaboration and congruence within the group. Members trust one another and are confident. Goals are being met. 

5. Transforming/Adapting: The dénouement of the group development process. There may be a celebratory feeling but also a sense of sadness, loss, or regret about the process. A moment of reflection after all is said and done. 

I hope you learned some new skills to add to your leadership tool belt. I encourage you to continue researching leadership by finding community groups or searching online for reputable groups or courses.

---

© Copyright 2024 Girl Up Edmonton | Developed by Tila Tran by Wix