solo podcast

In this podcast, Kira Slater, a tourism, recreation, and sport major, talks about leadership and what makes an effective leader. She explains that leadership is defined as leading a group towards a common goal, while management is about controlling things or processes. Kira shares her personal experiences with leaders and how they connected with their audience and made them feel comfortable. She also discusses her own experiences as a leader in her previous and current jobs, emphasizing the importance of listening, problem-solving, and teamwork. Kira concludes by saying that effective leaders are those who can adapt and overcome challenges. Hey my name is Kira Slater and I'm a tourism, recreation, and sport major here at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. This podcast is for REC 375 also known as Leadership and Management. So today I'm going to talk about how I define leadership and what makes an effective leader. So leadership is defined by the Oxford Dictionary simply as the action of leading a group of people or an organization. And while most people would agree that that's simply all it is, however each person is going to have a different definition of what leadership is. In our first few weeks of classes we described how our personal definitions of leadership are shaped by your own beliefs, values, and experiences. This is what can make or break someone as a good or effective leader. To me personally leadership is defined as someone who can confidently steer a group in the right directions in order to make a greater goal. While leading this person is able to effectively listen to everyone's opinions, adapt, problem-solve, but maintain their ground for the greater good. Within leadership there's a number of factors people have to consider, one of them being motivation, skills, responsibility, power, communication, and teamwork. People often group leadership and management together and while they're similar they're not the same thing. Leadership is defined as leading a group towards a common goal, whereas management is a process of dealing with or controlling things or processes or even people. Some people can be both, hold both positions, but that does not make them the same thing. On a more personal level a lot of my own definitions of leadership have come from my own personal experiences. When I first reflect on previous leaders in my life the first people that come to my mind are people from the church that I used to go to, which I used to attend at Port City Community Church back when I was in kindergarten all the way up until about my sophomore year of high school and I've been to a few camps with that church. I've even led my own small group and attended their weekly services every Sunday. These leaders that I sat and listened to on stage would walk around and try to truly connect with every audience member. While yes they were on stage above me and talking to a large group, they still connected with the audience and made the group feel comfortable and included. As far as my own experiences with leadership, I've been put into two positions throughout my time working where I was viewed as a leader. At my former job and my current job. My former job I worked at Jimmy John's and that was on the verge of being a managerial role but not quite and then my current job is at Crumble where my title is a shift lead. I would call this different from a managerial role because it's a team of my co-workers not just one solid person in charge where we cohesively are trying to work together to meet a common goal. In this role I do a lot of things but mainly I'm ensuring that everything is running smoothly for the greater good of an operational store. I have to listen to what people have to say, how they feel, take their input for different situations. My job is to ensure that everything gets done but that people are motivated and working as a team together. For me my morals include listening intently to people's opinions, issues or just overall feedback. Having active problem-solving skills for both co-workers as well as customers and having a continuous caring personality. I try when I'm put in these positions whether it's leadership at work, in my class or even in my everyday life to keep my morals the same as how they actively are normally when I look at people such as my friends or family. When people think of positive leaders who have had a lasting impact we often think of people such as Muhammad Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. While these people are at the extreme end of the spectrum since these people are all considered famous and when you say their names everyone in a room tends to know who they are unless maybe they're children. But they're famous for being such impactful and prominent leaders who have created a successful chain where people came together for the greater good that they were leading for. The same goes for local leaders or everyday people we interact with. They can still be successful as leaders without the aspect of fame as long as their goals get attention and met. So overall leadership is a process. It's combined of many things. People, morals, influence, their willingness to work as a team and looking to meet a greater goal at hand. Just because a person is put as a leader does not mean they're an effective one if they cannot adapt and overcome the problems that may arise. Thank you.