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Asiya Gusa, Ph.D. found herself taking on a new role on her ELI team: "This was the first team project I’ve been part of where the journey was more important than the end product. And don’t get me wrong, when you put together a team of high achievers who are working to improve their leadership skills, you are going to get a quality product! But for ELI, the facilitators primed us to approach our work with intentionality and self-reflection at the core. After some initial panic at the condensed eight-week timeline to complete our project, we decided it was most important to leverage our key personality traits while also being vulnerable in sharing our shortcomings and asking for help." Read her reflection.
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Eduardo Coronado discovered a kind of teamwork that could support professional growth: "Teamwork at ELI was different than I’ve experienced before in that each team member was invested in uplifting others in their personal growth journey. I believe that sharing candid self-reflections of our strengths, weaknesses, and personal goals led to effective teamwork and personal growth. For starters, I believe it improved team communication and dynamics when we all gained a deeper understanding of each other’s strengths and specific goals for personal development. We actively sought opportunities to enable team members to achieve their individual goals." Read his reflection.
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Wilderson Medina found value in growing his self-awareness: "The most enriching experience I can recognize from this program, besides the uniqueness of each of my teammates, is the particular focus to work on self-awareness. By knowing how I react when facing daily challenges, I can develop tools that help me to take control of my emotions and thus perform at the best of my abilities for others. I was prompted to discover my leadership qualities by all the great people involved, from the facilitators to my personal coach; I came to have a broader and clearer picture of what kind of leader I am called to be." Read his reflection.
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Kevin Erning found the time and space to be intentional about his growth: 'I’ve learned through the wisdom of family, mentors, and clichés that “the journey is more important than the destination.' However, in our fast-paced performance-based culture, it’s a difficult concept to practice. I’m eternally grateful that ELI provided me the resources to use a team project as a means to grow as a leader, a team member and a person." Read his reflection.
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Loise Ng'ang'a gained a new perspective on team diversity: "With invaluable insights from the ELI facilitators and individual assessment tools, I now realize the incredible power of respecting each person’s point of view and leveraging individual strengths and skill sets to achieve a shared goal. I also understand the importance of continually striving to enhance self-awareness to my disciplinary, behavioral, and cultural predispositions. Knowing myself and understanding how I can use my background and strengths to contribute to and help lead a project towards its goals has been empowering and has continued to help me evaluate my own strengths and goals beyond the bounds of the Emerging Leaders Institute program." Read her full post.
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Beatrice Capestany reflected on her experience working with an interdisciplinary team: "Leadership isn't just about one person having power and authority, it's about recognizing the value and worth of each team member and being able to use everyone's strengths toward a shared goal. I won't say I 'lucked out' with my [Emerging Leadership Institute] team because it wasn't luck that made us work so well together and create these amazing deliverables. It was careful thought, reflection, and understanding that made this team experience one of the best I've had so far." Read her full post.
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Aaron Towers wrote about his effort to carve out the time to participate in the program, and the way he approached his advisor to support him: "The email from Graduate Student Affairs promised that the opportunity would 'develop participants’ leadership, professional adaptability, communication, self-awareness, and interdisciplinary teamwork skills, preparing them to become successful employees after graduation.' But how could I sell that to my mentor, who was likely more concerned about my success prior to graduation?" Read his full post.
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Jordan Schermerhorn shared her impression of the information she gained from the Human Patterns assessment administered during the program: "[T]he time to think about how you act during a crisis is most definitely not during the crisis itself, so proactively developing this awareness during down-time can be vital to success. This, for me, is the true value of ELI: being gifted the time to reflect on our motivations, quirks, and tendencies in a relaxed environment with gentle guidance." Read her full post.
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Emily Roberts reflected on her experience with the team project, a core component of the program: "[F]rom the beginning I was focused on the group project – not simply as an exercise in working with others but to develop a concrete product that I can reference in future interviews as a significant accomplishment from those six weeks." Read her full post.