Photo from my Eagle Scout Project. I lead a team that helped to respond to the needs 
of a local school and remove debris of a fence that was falling apart after a storm, 
and helped prepare the grounds for new installation.

From my previous leadership experiences, one of my most significant focuses and attributes in leadership is connection with and inclusion of others. This coincides well with my personal leadership philosophy, which is servant leadership. The main thing that I focus on as a servant leader is the service and advancement of those being served and being served alongside. One way that I do this is through regular communication with members of the team. As an extrovert, I enjoy often being around and in conversation with people. However, over time I have switched from a position of actively speaking to actively listening and making sure that people are heard, and if they voice any concerns, I do what I can to help respond to them. I also enjoy this conversational style because it allows me to easily receive feedback from others, which I do my best to quickly take into account and incorporate into action. I feel that it is important for a leader to exemplify both accountability and willingness to change when something doesn’t work, and though I may not act on every piece of feedback someone offers, I do my best to at least reflect on everything said. By doing this, it not only models effective communication among a team, but helps to inspire trust among team members that they are being heard.

My personal style and philosophy in leadership influences a great deal of my choices in life. My goal of going into physical therapy and the service and shadowing opportunities I have taken through that are reflective of my desire and value to help build others up. Being a field that is focused not only on restoring but also helping someone become better, building new habits and new focuses, is a big part of why it appeals to me over other health care fields, as it doesn’t just address one need, but can help address the root problem of the issue, such as lifestyle choices. It also focuses on team collaboration, as this important job can’t just be completed by one care provider, but through the collaboration of a whole health care team and the patient. Though these focuses drew me to physical therapy, they are core values in many of the areas of my life. In many of my hobbies, interests, and passions, such as music, my faith community, my job, or any of the places where I regularly spend my time, these objectives of people and needs focus, as well as relying on the strengths of others, drive many of my interactions.

In addition to commitment to others, I am greatly focused on a commitment to the end goal, which matches well with my Working Genius of Tenacity, or pushing a project through to completion to ensure the best result. In whatever is asked of me, I strive to accomplish the task and accomplish it well, and this drive for quality in completion influences the standards that I set for myself. However, it has been important for me to acknowledge my specific shortcomings and that through working with others the quality can be even greater as others have strengths where I don’t or their own experiences they can offer. This is where listening to others comes into play as I can help identify both others’ strengths and where they can best apply their interests and abilities on a team. I am also able to keep everyone focused on one common goal and redirect everyone towards the specific task and requirements at hand if things are spread too thin or moved off topic.

This commitment to excellence and to the end goal is very important in the jobs that I have had in the past and will only be a greater focus in physical therapy. In jobs and leadership positions that I have previously held or am in, I strive for consistency in attitude and behavior and a congruence between what I say I will do and how I act on it. This consistently looks like not only doing the things that are expected of me quickly and with a high quality to them, but also looking for new ways that I can offer to help those around me and take on new tasks. However, I also know what my limitations are and when to ask for support and help in the things I am doing. Through this I am able to offer the same aid and support in return. More importantly, this allows me to focus on commitment to others too, as in supporting others by helping them I can also better help to build them up so they can do the same task better in the future, and they can do the same for me, fostering a greater environment of collaboration in the workplace.