For the Leadership and Social Change minor, I had to take various classes. Many of which will help me greatly in jobs and help me in my own personal life.
Class 2: Dynamics of Leadership
The Dynamics of Leadership was a class I took in the Fall of 2020. This class was taught by Dr. Walz and Dr. Council. “ This course examines advanced leadership theories and leadership effectiveness in today’s organizations.” (HokieSPA) Although this class was taught virtually, participation was mandatory. This allowed us to learn better and get to know our classmates better. We had knowledge inventories every class to make sure we knew the material, as well as pre-class discussions. We had one big project due at the end of the semester as well, where we had to review an organization. This project was very insightful in figuring out how organizations and businesses worked.
This class has five main objectives. 1. Assess personal leadership values and competencies. 2. Identity, define and develop personal vision, mission, and goals. 3. Identify elements of effective and ineffective leadership behaviors. 4. Integrate main leadership concepts with case study situations. 5. Identify elements of organizational culture. All of these objectives helped me, and other students better understand the best practices of leadership within ourselves, other people, and in organizations. These objectives also correspond to other leadership classes I’ve taken over my time at Virginia Tech.
This class and the professors within the class had a big impact on me. I learned many things about my professors, and they learned much about me. This class gave me the opportunity to be insightful of the organizations around me and to do research about them. This class taught me how to be a good leader and how to avoid bringing a poor leader inside the workplace and outside. I have taken many of these skills already and have applied them to my personal life when it comes to interviews and guiding others. I hope to use these skills more in the future when I get my first job. Understanding how to lead even if you’re not a leader is important to me, this way you can show you are capable already.
In terms of the social change model, this class focuses on all three parts of the model, society values, individual values, and group values. Within society values, the class allows students to broadly look at themselves as citizens and how they interact as leaders, this also correlates with individual values. The class enforces the importance of committing to the people around you. With group values, we had a major group project in which we had to collaborate and have civility when making deciding factors about the project.
Artifacts:
Lou's Blog 