There are two vectors of leadership skills I look forward to learning in this class and at the GSB in general. The first that comes to mind is personal connection. One of my strengths throughout my career has been my innate ability to focus, think analytically, and lead by example rather than lead by connection. Showing vulnerability is not something that comes easy to me, but I understand it’s importance to build trust with others and promote psychological safety within groups.
The other area of leadership that I’m excited to learn about is how to blend both logical and “gut feeling” reactions into decisions that lead to the best possible outcomes. We discussed this during our case last week with making the quick decision to hire someone, but this idea can be applicable to many more areas besides just personnel decisions. It’d be great to learn if there are certain environments or decision areas that make more sense to weigh the logical approach more heavily than the gut feeling approach.
As for my communication goals, learning to be more concise and confident in my delivery are things I actively want to work on, particularly if it’s an area where I’m not an expert. How things are said can have almost as much as an impact as what is actually said, so mastering my delivery is a focus area for myself in all types of verbal communication.
Trust is key. The balancing act between instinct and analytics is a wonderful tension with which we all wrestle throughout our decision making lives!
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