Leadership Challenge

Today was day 1 of the Leadership Challenge, a 4 week leadership training program I'm taking for work (we meet 4 hours once a week). When we got there, we chose a name tent with a quote in the back. There were lots of really good ones, but I chose the one pictured above ("A smile is the shortest distance between two people.") because I thought it represented me the best. The other two I really liked and almost chose were:

Be yourself;
everyone else is already taken. 
- Oscar Wilde


I can change me.
I can change how I relate to you.
I cannot change you.

Our first homework assignment before we even got there today was to write about our personal best leadership experience and then share it with the group. That is a tall order. In case you had not noticed, I'm a joiner; I always have been. But I can't just join something; I need to be an active participant and jump in with both feet, which usually means taking on a leadership role. When I was in High School, I belonged to a ton of clubs and was an officer of most of them. In fact, I was an officer in the officer's club. I belonged to the LEAD Scholars program in college, where once again I was an officer. I even helped start a few clubs at UCF. I've been the lead of two different teams at work for over 10 years. But for the exercise, I chose my most recent experience: being a Galloway group leader. It has been so rewarding, and I hope I've helped them as much as they've helped me. 

Maybe during this challenge I can reflect on why I do this so often. Probably has something to do with my OCD tendencies and being a bit of a control-freak ;) I really do enjoy it though because I love motivating others and it feels natural to me. But every good leader knows that we can always improve, so I'm looking forward to this opportunity to identify the areas where I need to improve to become a better leader.