Honing Leadership Competencies that Propel me Towards my Goals

Leadership is a multifaceted concept that is unique to each individual. Personally, leadership is being purpose-driven, achievement-oriented, having grit, being participative, motivational, being able to coach others, being able to make informed decisions based on uncertain situations, and more importantly, being emotionally intelligent. Leadership is a skill that requires continual practice. It must be honed and sharpened. A leader finds strength in others and leverages those strengths to achieve more as a whole. In other words, a leader aids in finding others’ potential, much like finding a diamond in the rough and polishing them to accentuate their true beauty. A critical aspect of leadership is also measuring one’s performance against specific targets or goals and determining what went well and what could be improved. It is constant improvement and being adaptable and agile in one’s approaches in ambiguous situations.

As I progress both academically and professionally, I have developed a solid set of core values that guide me as I establish and work towards my goals. These values include accountability, adaptability, agility, and perseverance. Accountability is core to everything I do, whether it be committing to helping a friend out or developing deliverables to the best of my ability given time constraints. Accountability is vital for building and sustaining trust, and shows one’s professionalism. Adaptability is a core value that is compulsory for both my personal and professional development. Change is inevitable and I must adjust myself or risk being changed by someone else or by a situation, which would stray me from my goals. Agility is increasingly important as the speed of innovation and technology adoption has increased exponentially. Not being able to at least fond of best practices means the knowledge I currently know is obsolete. Lastly, perseverance is a foundational value. Without perseverance, I would not be where I am today, and being agile, adaptable, and accountable would hold less meaning. Perseverance is what gives me energy to reach my goals despite potential hardships; it’s what makes the journey towards my goals interesting, fulfilling, and for that, I will be forever grateful.

That being said, my short-term life goals are to transition from organizational and people-related consulting to a digital transformation and/or marketing-analytics-related consulting role in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York, first as a Senior/Lead Analyst, or Associate, and in one or two years, become a project manager and lead a small team of analysts, while offering freelance consulting services on the side. My long-term life goals are to mentor others whom are interested in consulting or other fields, so they do not have to go through the hardships I have experienced, much like my mentors giving me advice and tips, make a difference in other people's lives, no matter big or small, be able to create positive change, and influence and persuade others to create positive change as well.

Being a candidate in the Leadership Certificate Program will enable me to both hone and exercise my leadership skills independently and in a diverse team. I aspire to learn how to effectively and efficiently communicate and collaborate with others who have different working and communication styles, how to persuade and influence others, how to mitigate and handle difficult situations and abrupt change, as well as how to lead a team. I would also like to learn how to deal with decision-anxiety and being confident in my decision-making abilities. By developing these skills, I will emerge as a more seasoned leader ready to apply my newly minted skills to achieve both my short- and long-term life goals using the concepts learnt in this program, and from the various activities, events, and people I have met along this journey. The only way to progress is moving forward and to put these skills into practice.