The document outlines the leadership experiences of an individual including serving as student body president in middle school, earning the Eagle Scout award, and holding various positions within fraternities in high school and college. It discusses taking on roles such as Philanthropy Chair and Consul, and challenges with adapting leadership styles to different situations and balancing authority with building resentment.
2. My first official leadership position came when I was
in 8th grade. I served as my elementary/middle school
student body president at St. Thomas Aquinas
Catholic School in Dallas, TX. Fall 2005- Spring 2006
3. I completed the Camino
de Santiago (an ancient
Catholic pilgrimage
across Northern Spain
ending in Santiago de
Compostela).
4. In high school, I was inducted into the Order of the
Arrow and earned the Eagle Scout Award.
5.
6. I graduated from Bishop Lynch High School and went
on to study at Loyola University Chicago
7.
8. I feel that my time spent as Philanthropy Chair for IFC
could have been handled better. I had one general
event the first semester of my term that went well. 3-4
members of every IFC chapter came to help refurbish
the Loyola Preschool playground. It went very well,
however the next semester I took a more hands-off
approach.
I facilitated a roundtable to get a handle on when
people were planning on having their fall events.
9. Unfortunately, after the roundtable I assumed that the
chapters would be able to handle their own events
without guidance.
However, a couple of groups tried bigger events than
they had ever done before. One of the did very well,
while the other by-and-large flopped at their first
attempt.
When I handed over the position at the end of the fall
I was sure to tell the incoming chair that at least
observation is required to make sure that groups have
ironed out all the details before the week of the event.
10.
11.
12. In a Sigma Chi chapter, the Consul’s (my position)
responsibility is to be an outward face of the fraternity.
My job is to deal with headquarters, alums, and the
administration. Whereas the Pro-Consul’s (VP)
responsibility is to run junior and executive board
meetings and oversee the chapter’s internal
organization.
In trying to be like the leader-artist, I have been trying
to adapt to my members’ mentality. My Pro-Consul, on
the other hand, insists on taking an authoritative
approach.
13. The authoritative style works on the younger members, but
has begun to build resentment in the classes which helped
found our chapter.
For awhile, I had been having trouble telling him to tone
down this style of leadership because that revelation is his
to discover for himself; not to mention the fact that his job
requires a firmer hand than mine does.
We spoke about it privately, and since then, he has taken
more care to not seem as authoritarian with the
disgruntled members.
Occasionally, there is an instance where one member feels
slighted, but when that happens the three of us sit down
and discuss the problem so that we can avoid it in the
future.
14. I am trying to be the artist-leader- finding the perfect
masterpiece to fit my chapter. However, like our
reading said, this is a process. In the mean time, I have
been very reactionary in my leadership style.
When people were wanting to go on inactive status for
the semester, I spoke to headquarters and found out
the logistics of that practice before I brought it to the
chapter. When meetings began to run too late in the
evening regularly and people were complaining, I
spoke to everyone and had them moved up.
15. However temporary this system is, it has had its moments
of success when issues were acted quickly upon. Earlier this
semester, the administration wanted to charge us over
$1,000 just for the venue for a regional meeting of Sigma
Chi chapters that we were going to host.
I immediately contacted other branches of the
administration and with the help of student
representatives, we were able to get the venue for almost
entirely free. The event was near-flawless and our chapter
came off smelling like roses. The reactionary leadership
style can work, but only if you act quickly and coordinate
your members through delegation.
