What makes a good leader?
Experience shapes who I am today
My Leadership Journey
Why choose to be a leader? To bring a positive impact to the world, I believe many things need to change. Nevertheless, several steps should be taken to achieve a goal. I would like to share some perspectives on the journey of being a good leader.
Launched a day event for 20 elderly, showing patience, understanding, and enthusiastic
Organized 6th Symposium on Bioactivities and Diseases Prevention of Phytochemicals and Natural Products for Health
Toastmasters International.
Organized weekly meetings, social events, and speech contests
Collaborated with US Fish and Wildlife Service to cultivate 2 hands-on activities for Winter Wildlife Field Days
Distributed and advertised over 25 posts and increased 843% engagement on social media
Awarded $13475 from the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, E. R. Jackman Friends and Alumni Club, the Agricultural Research Foundation, the 2023 Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society Grant, Student Organizations and Activities Grant
Compose the 1st joint symposium with the College of Forestry with 166 registrations
Assist co-presidents grant applying
Act as liaison between College of Agriculture and the club, conveying club’s need.
Keys to a Successful Leader
01
Communication
Effective communication and managing emails play an important role in leadership.
02
Mentorship
Passing down knowledge to future generations makes a huge impact on one’s career or personal goals.
03
Inclusive
Being aware of people from diverse backgrounds makes a better inclusive environment.
Everyone is on the same page
Communication
Organization
Effective communication via email is important to build up leadership skills.
Organize your inbox
Prioritize & classify
You may get hundreds of emails every day. Which emails should you spend time reading, and which are not that you should set aside? One big thing here is to create folders.
Step 1: Prioritize those emails that need your attention and require your action. You can classify those need your attention emails into an “attention” folder.
Step 2: If you are in the middle of waiting for others to respond, I recommend you place those emails into an “await” folder. Although this await folder does not need your action, you should be able to see what emails are still in your working pipeline.
Step 3: Finished a task? Great work! For future records, you can place those emails into a “reference” folder. Just in case you need to dig out those emails in the future.
Auto-cleaning
Done classifying your inbox? Setting up an auto-cleaning system will reduce your time to open and delete those emails that don’t need your attention (e.g., subscription emails). An auto-cleaning system helps you to set up a time to automatically delete emails. This way, you don’t need to delete each email one at a time. When those emails approach due time, they will be deleted.
Learn how to set up an auto-cleaning system in Outlook. Read Amy’s blog.
The relationships
Mentorship
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by whatever we give.” – Winston Churchill
There are three components to mentorships
✵
The Mentor
✵
The Mentee
✵
The Relationship
The Mentor
A good mentor should have a few characteristics that help a mentee grow.
Willingness to help
A good mentor will show genuine help and be eager to help without gaining official credit. This is important because we seek someone who truly wants to help instead of exchanging benefits for something else.
Willingness to share
While it is easy to share the story behind success, however, the most challenging thing for people is to share their failures. Sharing stories about failures can show that the mentor sincerely hopes you can avoid the same pitfall and make your journey smooth when you plan to achieve a goal.
Willingness to grow
Remaining a growth mindset is important. A good mentor will know how they can improve themselves in many ways. When a mentor is moving forward, they may get inspired by something and share those stories with you that can help you grow.
The Mentee
A good mentee also needs to have a few characteristics to make the best of their learning experience.
01
Having a clear goal
Setting a clear goal will help your mentor to identify places that they can help with. Also, it is beneficial to set up milestones when you have set up a goal. Without having a goal, your mentor may not know how exactly they can help.
02
Willingness to accept feedback
As a mentee, you should be prepared to receive feedback and make changes. In some circumstances, you may or may not agree with all feedback from your mentor. But keeping your mind open can help you get closer to the goal and also show your willingness to grow as a learner.
03
Willingness to meet regularly
Meeting your mentor regularly can help you keep track of your progress toward the goal you set up. Setting up regular meetings will help your mentor give helpful suggestions without losing track of your current progress.
The Relationship
Besides mentors and mentees, the relationship between them plays a critical role. Maintaining the best mentoring relationship will help both mentors and mentees grow.
Goal Alignment
Double-checking whether both mentors and mentees are on the same page can have both sides see the goal clearly. Mentors will be able to spot any place that can help more mentees. Similarly, mentees can then expect what is the next step to move forward. It would be helpful to set up an agenda to help mentees see where their goals are.
Meetings
Setting up meetings can help mentees know where they are now. Moreover, mentees and mentors will need to decide few components of meetings – how often? where? duration of the meeting?
Know each other
Each person has a different personality. Spending time together can help each side understand more about their mentees and mentors as people. Building strong connections will help create a more comfortable and happier collaboration atmosphere.
Inclusion
People come from different backgrounds that shape their unique personalities and identity. Accommodating differences among people has become more important than ever.
Ways to be more inclusive
Establishing an inclusive environment is never easy. But as we try hard to support the needs of different groups of people, we can then help them build up a more friendly environment for them to shine. There are a few steps to help you build a more inclusive environment that benefits more individuals.
01
Aware
Others perspectives
Pay attention and listen to what other people are saying. They may imply they are facing certain difficulties. Give support if possible
02
open
Open-minded
Listen to the voices of people from different communities and understand their situation. Oftentimes, you will notice different groups of people need something different (gaps).
03
difference
Accommodate the gaps
Identify gaps that need to be filled by pulling in more inclusive actions. Establish more inclusive actions that meet the needs of various communities
04
Change
Challenge people or systems effectively by sharing your story
Sharing successful stories behind helping more people make others understand why you want to change the current systems