Justin Bernardy
Last Friday, our guest speaker discussed leadership principles with us. We were then prompted to write about some of these principles and provide examples of times that we exhibited them. This is another prompt which resonates with me as prior military. The entire culture of the military is based on personal achievement, growth, and demonstrating leadership capabilities. In fact, each year we were required to draft reports specifically detailing events and actions where we were “leaders” or demonstrated the qualities of one . In particular, ‘learn and be curious’. Pursuing education is a huge stepping stone in military culture when working towards promotion, again going back to the idea of personal growth, which in turn yields greater leadership.
“Insisting on the highest standards” is another aspect partial to me. When I was enlisted, my work entailed maintenance on weapons systems of fighter jets, as well as the loading of munitions onto said jets. It kind of goes without saying that if you do not pay the utmost attention to detail when loading a live bomb, it spells disaster, and thus, we had to insist on the highest possible standard; there was no other option.
“Ownership” is yet another example of a leadership quality that I personally believe is one of the most important. We are all human, and all fail. If we do not accept responsibility for our failures, we cannot learn from them, move on and grow; we cannot only accept our victories. I say this from experience, as I am typically a fairly slow learner and have to fail more than most to finally reach success. More specifically in recent history, I failed to grasp the concept of HTML and CSS in interactive design, causing me to fall behind my peers in a group project, and slow our entire process down. I had to first admit where I was failing, and then put in extra time and effort, sometimes losing hours of sleep, to reach a point where I was a little more able to keep up with my team.
I think the hardest principle for me to apply to myself is “backbone”. I find confrontation and conflict highly undesirable and avoid them when possible. Sometimes I find I am unable to stand up for my work/art/designs because I am unconfident about them and the way others will perceive them, even when I feel that they are solid. I’m told repeatedly that ‘backbone’ is essential in fighting for your designs, and sometimes its better NOT to avoid conflict.