This paper reflects on personal mastery in leadership through four key moments: past experiences, future aspirations, analysis of strengths and obstacles, and a synthesis of these elements. The author discusses their journey from being led in childhood to taking leadership roles in adolescence and adulthood, outlining a vision for future leadership that emphasizes values and transformational approaches. Future goals include mobilizing youth for environmental initiatives and creating platforms for practicing leadership skills.

1. Running head: Personal Mastery 1
Personal Mastery 4
LDRS 310: Personal Mastery Paper
Your Name in Given/Surname Order
Trinity Western University, Langley BC Canada
BA in Leadership
29 May 2020
© Given Name Surname Year [Optional]
Personal Mastery Paper
This paper explores my life-long personal mastery of leadership
experience in four reflective moments: the past, the future, the
analysis, and the synthesis.The Past
In the past, I have experienced leadership by being led and also
by being a leader. The experiences have significantly influenced
my current view on leadership, and they will be of significance
to my future leadership endeavors. As a child at the elementary

2. school level, I was mostly lead than leading myself. My actions
were shaped by the guidance of my parents and the teachers. My
parents were supportive, encouraging, and committed to
developing the best out of me. They encouraged me to be
compassionate and always embrace positive values and
principles. That has gone a long way to determining the person I
am today.
Similarly, my teachers acted as my leaders during that period
since they shaped everything I did. They taught the values of
hard work, as well as the importance of courage. During the
adolescence period, I was in high school. I experienced
leadership by being the chairperson of several clubs and
societies. I learned the importance of leading from the front. As
a young adult, I am experiencing and practicing leadership by
leading groups at the university and leading youth in the
community towards various initiatives.The Future
In the future, my vision is to build myself as a purposeful leader
who is inspired and motivated to lead. I look forward to living
an exemplary and principled life that is governed by values. I
believe in values such as honesty, commitment to a course, and
the need for a leader to lead as an example (George, 2016). I
believe in both the behavioural and trait theories of leadership
since a leader's conduct has a significant influence on the
people he or she leads. I will embrace connectedness by
building relationships at whoever level I meet people.
Besides, I will embrace transformational leadership to influence
the people I will be leading. I will be result-oriented and will
encourage people to deliver the best at the corporate or
individual level (Squires, 2016). I will promote peers in the
community to embrace moral values and ethics. At the corporate
level, I will encourage the teams I lead to be proactive and to
take the initiative on their own. One of my SMART leadership
goals is to lead youths and help them to be champions of
environmental conservation. By 2023, I look forward to
mobilizing 1000 youths to plant 50 each across the State. That
will translate to 50 thousand new trees planted. Such a move

3. will make the youth more responsible towards the environment
and prepare them to take environmental leadership in the
future.The Analysis
Regarding self-development as a leader, I have various
strengths that would help to achieve my leadership goals.
Among my strengths is that I am courageous. I can stand for
what I believe in while respecting divergent views and opinions.
The obstacles likely to threaten my leadership is the lack of
adequate platforms to exercise my leadership. However, in line
with the transformational leader I want to become, I will
become creative and establish platforms to launch my leadership
(Powlus, 2017). According to the Birkman personality report, I
am proactive, resilient, and adaptive to change. The resilience
in me will help me overcome challenges on the way while
proactivity will help me find platforms to practice my
leadership skill. I am also cautious, and that may hinder me
from pursuing uncharted paths. As a young leader, I am creating
enough tension to propel my journey to leadership by setting
high goals and taking initiatives that will push me to become a
better person and leader. The Synthesis
The creative tension in me will be resolved by striving hard to
achieve any goal I set. From my future experiences of being led,
my current experiences of leading small groups are all in sync
with my future dream to lead organizations and communities.
The past and present experiences are building me for this role.
To achieve my future goals, I will practice my skills in every
avenue I get. I will volunteer in organizations and take the lead
in many of their initiatives. Besides, my project to mobilize
youths for the environmental program is a way to test my ability
to inspire people towards a common goal. Succeeding in all
these initiatives will be the yardstick to measure the success of
my leadership, I will also get a mentor to lead and assess me
along the journey. I believe such initiatives will mould me to be
the leader I dream about.
References
George, B. (2016). “What does authentic leadership really

4. mean?” HuffPost.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-does-
authentic-leade_b_8581814
Powlus, A. (2017). “Five characteristics of authentic
leadership.”
PennState.https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2017/04/09/15415/
Squires, V (2016). "Leadership: Theory and Practice (Book
Review)." Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and
Policy, 185, 91-94.
Running head: Personal Mastery 1
Personal Mastery 2
LDRS 310: Personal Mastery Paper
Your Name in Given/Surname Order
Trinity Western University, Langley BC Canada
BA in Leadership
12 September 2016
© Given Name Surname Year [Optional]

5. Personal Mastery Paper
This paper explores my life-long personal mastery of leadership
experience in four reflective moments: the past, the future, the
analysis, and the synthesis.The Past
[Delete this sentence and start writing.]
The Future
[Delete this sentence and start writing.] The Analysis
[Delete this sentence and start writing.]The Synthesis
[Delete this sentence and start writing.]
References
[Delete this sentence and start writing.]
LDRS 310: The Learning Organization
Page 1 of 2
Personal Mastery Paper
What is a personal mastery paper?
Personal mastery is the discipline of lifelong
learning and self-development. Its
essence, as Senge (1990) puts it, is “learning
how to generate and sustain creative
tension in our lives” (p. 124). Creative tension
is the product of two important self-
development practices, first, “continuously clarifying what is
important to us” and
second, “continuously learning how to see current
reality more clearly” (p. 141).
Personal mastery is not a place where we
arrive, but rather it is a process, a

6. lifelong
discipline of taking responsibility for our personal
learning and growth.
What is the writing process?
Yourpaper will include four parts, based on an
autobiographical method of
professional learning inquiry known as currere
(Pinar, 1975)1, which explores the
experiences giving shape to a person’s
professional self-understanding and life’s
work. The essence of this method involves your
movementthrough four reflective
moments: (a) the past, (b) the future, (c) the
analysis, and (d) the synthesis.
(a) The past. Remember the past leadershipexperiences
and leadershiprole
models you’ve had; consider how theseexperiences
influenced the formation
of your own personal leadershipattitudes, ideas,
capabilities and behaviours.
These memories may be either positive or
negative experiences of leadership.
a. Identify a childhood memory of leading, or
being led.
b. Identify an adolescence memory of leading, or
being led.
c. Identify a young to middle adulthood
memory of leading, or being led.

7. (b) The future. Imagine the type of leader you
aspire to become, using George’s
(2016) authentic leadershipmodel as a framework
for clarifying your vision.
Consider threeleadershipcontexts in articulating your
personal vision:
a. Begin by exploring your personal vision of your
self-leadership—that
is, describe your vision of the life you want to
create for yourself and
how you will take responsibility for generating this
life for yourself.
b. Then, consider how you might extend your
leadership, by coaching
others in their own self-leadership and collaborations
with others.
c. Lastly, imagine how you might lead in
organizational/social contexts.
End this section with one example of a SMART
leadershipdevelopment goal.
1 Pinar, W. (1975). The method of "currere".
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of
the American

8. Research Association, Washington, DC.
LDRS 310: The Learning Organization
Page 2 of 2
(c) The analysis. Analyze your present self-development
as a leader by (a) your
potential strengths as a leader, (b) the obstacles
you might face in achieving
your leadershipdevelopment goal, and (c) options you
have to help you
successfully achieve your goal. In your analysis, identify
one way your
personality (based on your Birkman report) can
(a) be a potential strength,
(b) an obstacle to achieving your goal, and (c) expand
your options to
achieving your goal. Lastly, assess if you are
generating sufficient creative
tension (or not) as a leader in your life in
order to achieve your goal.
(a) The synthesis. Define how you intend to resolve
the creative tension you are
creating as a self-leader, connecting your past
and future to your present.
Specifically, outline your way forward—that is, your
plan—to achieving your
leadershipdevelopment goal. Identify the commitments
you must make and

9. the supports you need to achieve your leadership
development goal and
ultimately your vision of becoming the leader you
aspire to be. Also, outline
the feedback structure, or success cycle system
that you need to put in place
to make continuous improvements towards
achieving your goal and vision.
What are the grading expectations?
A paper meeting all the expectations below
demonstrates “very good work with few
flaws”, which according to the grading scaleused in
this course is a B+ grade. Work
that does not meet all expectations (with few flaws)
will receive a grade below B+.
To receive a grade above B+ the work must
exceed all the expectations below.*
ü Demonstratesa careful understanding of the
personal mastery paper’s
scholarly context, audience, purpose, and all the
prescribed elements.
ü Follows a logical four-part reflective inquiry
structure, including past, future,
analysis and synthesis sections, as well as, an
introduction and conclusion.
ü States ideasclearly, elaborates with explanations, and

10. exemplifies using good,
credible, relevant examples and otherevidence, such as,
expert sources. In
this paper, as least two expert sources should be
used, including Birkman.
ü Uses straightforwardlanguage that communicates
meaning to readers with
clarity and fluency, and is generally error-free.
ü Correct use of APA conventions, including intext
citations, references
documentation, document formatting, and stylistic writing
elements.
* To exceed expectations, you must demonstrate a
thorough understanding of the
assignment, your argumentation must be carefully
constructed with insightful
linkages and well-written transitions, you must have a
higher density of ideas,
substantial explanations, use compelling examples,
your language must be graceful,
your grammar virtually error-free, and you make
elegant use of APA conventions.