Response ALV

My perspective of the DSL has become more defined since the beginning of the term. I have gained a greater understanding of the multiple ways in which the DSL can be implemented within various businesses and organizations. Also, my knowledge of the concept of Strategic Leadership has grown tremendously during this term. I have learned that it is necessary to choose more than one theoretical instrument before applying them into a specific plan, which combines more than one theoretical approach for evaluating and improving strategic leadership into an organization (Jaradat & Mashhour, 2017). Learning the various leadership theories and evaluating the best approach is critical to the success in the DSL research project.

One of the surprising things I have learned this term is it’s going to take a tremendous amount of work to obtaining my DSL. I will have to study twice as much as I anticipated in learning multiple theories of leadership, some that I have little knowledge about at this point in my post graduate studies. Theories such as “Servant Leadership” has really inspired me. I have learned that a true servant leader embraces service to others as a personal philosophy (Dameron, 2016).

Another surprise to me was the intellectual acuity of my classmates. Reading their various posts and learning vicariously through their written words has taught me a lot over the past term. Each week I found myself eagerly anticipating learning something new about my classmates or a new perspective of the week’s forum. I saw understanding, compassion and support in my classmates’ responses. I found this to be inspirational and reassuring that I can reach my goal.

Three important things that I took from this course that will aid in my success included; learn from my classmates, communicate with my professor and enjoying my journey.

What worked for me this term was learning to relax while researching and enjoying the learning process as opposed to stressing over the due date and the assignment. During some assignments I was intimidated by other classmates’ thorough knowledge of the discussion assignment. At times, I questioned my discussion response in comparison to the original post. However, I soon found myself writing from the new knowledge I acquired, and the joy of learning in conjunction with my personal experiences. This led me to not focus on the work of others and appreciate my growth throughout the term.

What did not work for me was not communicating with my professor during the two major storms, hurricane Florence and hurricane Michael that affected my city. Being the head of my department, I was required to work an extraordinary amount of hours day and night to provide the oversight of the city and my officers. At times I was very limited on opportunities to research and study my course assignments. Dr. Jones communicated that if we were affected by the storms or any other unexpected dilemmas we should contact her and share our ordeal. However, I hold myself accountable for the standards and expectations of our professor and the university, sometimes to my own detriment.

Next term I propose to stay ahead of my assignments and complete my original post earlier than this past term. This strategy may reduce the need for me to contact my professor in times of personal struggles. Additionally, I contend that getting reacquainted with the research and writing process this term will aid in subsequent course work.

Time management is crucial to the achievement at any level and there are always opportunities to improve in this category. The fundamental basis for any time management process is linked to the planning process. Time management is an essential component of leadership (Farrell, 2017). This term I under estimated the amount of time each assignment would take to complete. Also, I found myself reading and attaching subtopics to my original assignment. I would be reading about something like Transformational Leadership and then I would find a related subject and read more and more. Two hours later I would be somewhere unexpected, but I enjoyed the overall learning experience from the additional reading. At first, I thought of it as not staying focused, but I quickly realized I was just enjoying the journey.

I believe that I could improve my time management skills by using the results of the exercise we did earlier this term. I contend to use specific times during the week to work on my assignments. I have to continue to enjoy the learning process to reach my goals. Attempting to value the pursuit of my DLS more than I enjoy other things in my life is important, since we spend most of our time on things we value.