Leadership Portfolio

Significant People

The first person who influenced me in a significant way is my father. He worked so hard to get everything that we have today. He was a professor and held positions of power. He was always there for his students, making sure that they had everything to succeed in their life. He inspired his students that everything is possible with discipline and hardwork. When he was a dean, he showed true leadership skills, and helped for the betterment of colleges. He sacrificed a lot for family and his students. I witnessed a person who can be so giving and selfless. I learned this trait from him. I help unconditionally. Though he is retired, all of his students still visit him and tell him their success stories over calls. This shows the true connection between them. My mom would be the second person that inspired me to be a better person. She taught me the importance of confidence. She is extremely confident and I have always looked up to her. She doesn’t shy away from identifying a mistake. She encouraged me to be confident and extroverted. She is helpful to the people in need. I learned all these personality traits from my mom, thus making me a better version of myself today. The third person would be my sister. She is the type of person who never gives up on something until she accomplishes it. If she is working on something and if things get difficult, she would work even harder to overcome obstacles. She is a true leader. She manages everything with perfection. She is team manager, homemaker and a mom. She always inspires everyone around her and never gives up. I look up to her in terms of career.

Elon Musk quotes “It is possible for ordinary people to be extraordinary people if they choose to be”. He shows that we can achieve anything and everything with strong perseverance, powerful vision and stepping out of our comfort zone. The number of things he accomplished in various areas is true testament to demonstrate that nothing is beyond limits. I always look up to him, follow him. He inspires me to work hard and go against the odds to achieve success. Jordan Peterson has inspired me in ways. I watch his YouTube videos and interviews whenever I lack motivation. His thoughts and ideologies are what keeps me motivated to work hard and have a plan. I am quoting two of my favorite quotes. “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today.” He also says “Work as hard as you can on one possible thing and see what happens.” He also mentions that being able to communicate well and write well are the greatest skills one can learn to be able to achieve greatness. I relate to his words as they keep me motivated and inspired. Dr. Maria Witte, my mentor in Auburn. She is inspiring, ready to help anyone in need within her power, cheerful and bright. She celebrates all the little things in life. She brings a positive atmosphere in the Graduate school with her presence. She provides great feedback, tools and the support that I need in my life and career. Without her, my life would not be the same in Auburn. I am always thankful to her and she is a true inspiration to me. I am also learning leadership skills from her as I see her guide the entire Graduate school team on a daily basis. I would define a hero as a person who inspires others to become a better version of themselves. My six heroes would be the same as above. My father, my mother, my sister, Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, Dr. Maria Witte.

Coat of Arms

The above picture is a representation of my coat of arms. It has the following things in it.

• My name Medha is highlighted in this coat of arms as it is the biggest part of my identity as a person.
• The values that I personally apply and feel the need to be included are kindness, family, honesty, loyalty, adventure, creativity, curiosity.
• My family and I are proud of my achievements here at Auburn University. I got an admit at Auburn, achieved a scholarship, got a job as graduate assistant at the Graduate School. I am proud of myself for being a part of the Auburn family.
• If I must think about a symbol to represent me, it would be a heart shape and a OM. Heart is for love and OM is a symbol that looks simple but has a lot of meaning to it. It is a sacred sound in Hinduism. It is a sound used it meditation as well. The sound of OM makes me calm and gives me peace.
• A motto that describes the outlook of my life would be Trust the timing of your life and the other one would be it is a will, not the skill. These are the two powerful mottos that have a deeper meaning to it.
• To explain me as a person, I have added few things to represent me.
• Orange and Blue are the colours that I used in the coat of arms because I started falling in love with these colours after coming to Auburn. These colours represent my life in Auburn. This is a brief description of my coat of arms.

Books- I grew up reading a lot of books, I love to read books. Nature- I love to take a stroll in the nature, I love hiking, walking around in the parks, my love for visiting National parks all of these comes under nature which is a big part of my life. Food is another thing that makes me happy. I love to cook especially for the people I love, and food is the to show love. I love eating and trying different cuisines. I have to include food to represent my life. Dance and exercise are the other things that I love to do, makes me feel calm, energized and to go on with life.

Vision & Mission

Vision Statement: To turn all the obstacles, I face into beautiful opportunities and be mindful of the present to create a better future for myself.

Mission Statement: It is my mission to live my life according to the choices I make, achieve my goals, get to a place where I can help people achieve their goals, and make my family proud.

Book analysis

Name of the book: Start with Why

Author: Simon Sinek

Relation to leadership: The book focuses on leaders having a strong sense of purpose.
Briefly about the Author:
Simon Sinek is a popular author, publisher, and motivational speaker. He is well known for his TED Talk called WHY( how great leaders inspire action) which inspired millions of people and he later wrote a book called Start With Why which is one of the top sellers. His main focus is helping people understand their purpose in life as well as the organizations finding their purpose. He wrote other books related to Leadership called Leaders Eat Last and Infinite Game. Start With Why is an interesting book related to Leadership. He focuses on ways to inspire people and organizations to find their purpose and be happy with their lives.

Summary of the Book:

The book can be divided into three major parts. They are as follows: In the first part, he discusses how all the organizations fail because they don’t know their purpose. The organizations have customers but they are not sure why the customers are their customers. The organization has no idea about the reason behind it. He gives some real world examples to show the difference between successful companies and unsuccessful ones. He compares Apple to the other companies and what made Apple the company it is today. It is because they have a purpose and they know it. If you know your purpose or why you want to do something then you will be able to maintain the odds of becoming successful. He also talks about Martin Luther King, how he managed to get a whole country to support him for the civil rights movement when there was no existence of social media and he did not need campaigns or posts to know the date and location. Just a successful, strong leader who knows his people, did not focus on promoting himself rather he stood like a power and showed people what they are capable of, he believed in them, inspired them that they could achieve whatever they want. He also gives an example of how Wright brothers were the first ones to fly while there are others who are better qualified and funded. It's because they know what they do, how they do it. Everyone knows this but there are very few people who know why they do it. The purpose, cause and the belief behind it. That is when you are more successful and can maintain the success over the years. He mentions great leaders inspire others to do better rather than forcing them to do something

In the second part, he talks about the Golden Circle. This circle includes the What, How and Why. The outer layer of this circle is "What" represents the services. Then comes the second layer which is "How" that describes the values. The last layer, innermost layer is Why, it is the core of the circle which is the purpose or belief. He mentions how everyone, at least most people knows what they are doing and how they are doing it but most of them don't know why they are doing it. Whenever people are describing their product they start it with What the product is and How it works but they never mention Why they did it and Why we should use it. Our human brains want to understand Why part of the decisions but when the companies are not mentioning the Why then customers would feel like they are not sure about the product. That is the gut feeling/something is not right, a feeling caused in the brain when the company does not mention the Why part of their product/organization. He mentions that this is not his opinion and it is biology. He says Why is it related to the Limbic brain that helps us in Decision making and What is the Neocortex of the brain which is responsible for rational thoughts, analysis and the basic human behavior. So, explaining Why is what makes customers purchase something rather than the What is the product. Relating to the business, he says the goal of business is not to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have, instead it is about the people who believe in our Why and it is about finding people who believe what you believe that is when you found a loyal customer base. He uses the law of diffusion to help understand the importance of early adopters who are loyal customers who believe in what the company does and are willing to spend their money on them. Belief is a great force that pushes people to connect with a leader/organization. So, creating a loyal following is very important for an organization. We create that understanding of the Why of the organization and promote it. It creates a sense of purpose for the leaders at the same time it will motivate the customers as well. These are some key points that I understood by reading this book. Some of the points to note are as follows:

1. Understanding your Why/ Purpose as a person or organization.
2. Leaders should be able to communicate the Why throughout their organization and the impact of having/maintaining the purpose.
3. It is important that the organization must focus on maintaining the Why/Purpose of the organization to have a loyal customer base.
4. Understanding the Golden Circle and applying it to increasing the impact wherever it is required.
5. Creating loyal customers/followers at an emotional level which will help at an organization level.
6. Leaders should be able to inspire, lead and help people achieve their goals.

Some of the points I disagree/ was not so sure about are as follows:

1. How can different organizations from different areas follow this concept because not all the organizations are the same. Some might find it very challenging to do business based on the purpose itself.
2. Also maintaining the why/purpose throughout the organization can be really difficult when they are big organizations. Because they can be misunderstand and it would be difficult to follow the purpose throughout the organization when it is one of the big companies.
3. How can the purpose address the growing customer needs over time? The purpose might change over time based on the customer needs providing a product.
4. The organizations may forget that they are trying to solve problems when their leaders completely focus on the purpose itself.
5. Applying all these points already sound very complex, now imagine one of the biggest companies trying to apply this. It will only increase the complexity and it can be very difficult to even communicate the purpose. It can get confusing.
6. In such companies when multiple people are involved, it could be very difficult as they would be multiple decision makers. It is difficult to even maintain the purpose at this point.

So, to conclude, the author of this book took a very interesting approach to understanding how organizations work and the behavior of the leaders influencing the organization. It is a great book with a lot of relatable real life examples, simple to read and understand. I agree that a lot of points are really good to apply in your real life. It will help you to be a better leader and to inspire people. But I also feel like when we are in a highly competitive industry you try to move on with everything you have done in the beginning, you try to adjust according to the new situations, you try to come up with solutions to the current problems then your purpose will definitely change over the period of time. I feel like the Why can be something that could change over the time but it is good to have a Why/purpose and understand it to inspire the team of organization and also the loyal customers.

Last Lecture by Dr. Randy Paush

Dr. Randy Paush was an incredible man being able to give such an inspirational presentation in last few months of his life with a big smile on his face is the greatest! I earned a lot of wisdom just by watching this one video. A few ideas that I took away from this video are as follows: 1. Whenever you start something new, the brick walls are a part of it because they differentiate the people who badly need it and the people who just want it. People who badly need it will definitely try their best to go to the other side of the brick wall because they really need it. People who just want it, won't try their best to get to the other side. The brick walls show the dedication of the people who want to go to the other side of it. This is my favorite part of the entire video.

I can relate to it and will definitely apply this idea in my life. One example I could give would be that I got admission into a PhD program. I see a lot of brick walls already but I am super passionate about my program, wanting to prove myself and wanting to be able to contribute to the society will definitely help me get to the other side of the brick wall. I want to be the one who is willing to dedicate their life to get to the other side of the brick wall and not be the one who simply stops once they see a brick wall.

Dr. Randy also mentions about head fake learnings, when you train your brain enough every day about something, it becomes a part of you. Kids going to extracurriculars is more about learning team work, perseverance, collaboration than actually learning the sport itself. I have never thought of it that way. It was so thoughtful to think about it at such a level. Now that I think about it. I definitely had many head fake learnings throughout my life since childhood. I was a captain for 10 years in a sport, leading people older than my age. As I learned what sportsmanship and teamwork are since my childhood being a part of various sports and dance teams, I was able to handle the older generation with confidence and be a great influence on the younger generation to guide them and be the best version of themselves. Now if I am confident, able to work in a team and talk to anyone, it is definitely because I was encouraged to speak up and be myself since I was a kid. I would definitely thank my mom and dad for teaching me to be an extrovert at times required. Head fake learnings are definitely part of my life and will be a part of my life in future as well because I grew up that way and I am willing to get more head fake learnings which is learning so many things just by doing focusing on doing one thing as I go further in my life.

Wait long enough that people will surprise and impress you. When you are mad at someone, have not given them enough time to prove themselves then you didn't them enough time to impress you. You have wait long enough for people to show how impressive they can be and giving that little more time is very crucial and everyone is going to shine in their way and pace. This is another impressive piece of advice that I will definitely try to implement it in my life because such simple words has so much value and giving time to people to prove themselves will definitely be worth it, even if it is not you will learn something from it always. People cannot impress me easily unless they tell truth, be earnest and focus on others as well instead of focusing on themselves. There is a valuable lesson here, one cannot go any further in life especially when there are brick walls everywhere without the help of the other people. You can't get the success all by yourself, you will always need people and for that you have to be patient, give enough time to people to impress you.

I also liked the idea of a Feedback loop. Getting feedback is an important thing to get a step ahead in whatever you are doing. Listening to the feedback is the most important thing ever. Because being able to understand the feedback and accept that your critics are right is going to talk you to different places. Being able to accept the feedback and rectify your mistakes will put everything in place and bring success to you. Being good at something will always help you. The feedback loop is important in everyone's life. Nobody is right all the time. People need someone in their lives like mentors, people they look up to or friends, family who are willing to give them the harsh truth and feedback. The feedback must not always be nice or good. It must be the truth that resonates with the work. A person having at least one mentor in their life is essential as someone needs to point out their mistakes. When someone points out your mistakes, you need to have the big heart to accept your mistakes and rectify them instead of explaining why it is right. I am person who takes feedback very seriously in my life. I make changes according to feedback given to me from all the different perspectives that I have heard. Accepting someone is right and you are wrong when you are wrong, rectifying them will lead you in the right direction towards success.

Goals & Objectives

Two of my personal short-term and long-term goals are as follows:

One Short-term goal: Be good at developing projects
1. Objective: Time management

• Make a realistic schedule
• Stick to the schedule no matter what

2. Objective: Be good at technical stuff

• Reflect on past mistakes, practice a lot
• Don't give up when things get difficult

3. Objective: Understand the clients and market

• Do market research, different types of research
• Understand why the client would use your product compared to competitors

4. Objective: Excellent communication and writing skills

• Practice a lot, and think in English( difficult when English is not your first language but that's okay)
• Watch news, read papers, understand different types of writing

These actions will help me achieve my objectives, which will help me achieve my goals.

One Long-term goal: Finish PhD with top-tier publications while attending top-notch conferences.
1. Objective: Research contribution

• Develop a plan
• Work through your timeline

2. Objective: Develop professionally

• Getting feedback from the advisor
• Building good relations with the team members

3. Objective: Networking which helps in collaboration

• Attend workshops
• Socialize and active presence

4. Objective: Advance your knowledge in the field

• Great collaborative opportunities
• Grant writing and gaining teaching experience

These actions will help me achieve my objectives, which will help me achieve my goals.

Retrospective

I took this course to evaluate my leadership skills and learn more about leadership. I was a leader throughout my life on various occasions and worked under great leaders in school and at work. I was always excited to attend every class as I could learn something more about leadership every day. Now that the class has come to an end. I want to reflect on everything that happened throughout this course in this assignment especially what I learned over the semester between January to April. Evaluating my leadership qualities after listening to Joseph Fetsch and all the guest lecturers was the best part of this class. I related to a lot of lectures and wish I had known them earlier. I gained a diverse array of knowledge throughout the lectures and putting together would not be an easy task. So, I am adding some of my favorite parts of the lectures here in this assignment which will help me become the best leader. At the beginning of the class, Joey Fetsch explained that the most important quality, that all successful leaders have is courage. Understanding that there is risk in doing something and still having the courage to take action is important. A leader must have moral strength, and perseverance and must be able to withstand fear and danger. It is the first step in building trust. I distinctly remember the following quotes from Joey. A leader should never be a hypocrite, someone who says do as I say not as I do or if you don’t walk the walk then best not to talk the talk. These are the qualities of a bad leader. The best way to be a great leader is to lead by example and be consistent. The leader should be influential and people will always notice the actions of the leader and always count on someone looking at you while doing something wrong. When you want to influence people then you should inspire them with an example of you doing it rather than just telling them to do it. People will always look up to you and follow your actions, so make sure that you do right because actions speak louder than words. A leader must always know themselves, knowing more about yourself is always beneficial or else you might just have to work for someone who knows better. I will always remember these points off the top of my head as there is a lot of wisdom here that I can follow and apply in my life all the time.

We looked at Martin Luther King and other great leaders' achievements, who brought a true meaning to the word leadership on their terms. A few points that stuck in my mind are the Cause is more important than the dangers that fueled the courage. Leadership must be assertive and not aggressive. Attacking the issues is more important than the person itself. Being able to convince your team that they can do it too is a more important thing than focussing on yourself. Finding an opportunity in everything is a great way to start things. These are some of the most influential qualities of a leader. I heard three hidden principles from Blake Butcher, it was powerful and captured everyone's attention. Know yourself, Question your intentions, Listen to your intuition. These three principles can make you a good leader by understanding who you are, and what you love, knowing the intentions and curiosity that come from questioning yourself, you will understand everything once the noise settles. Stop comparing yourself to others, being you and taking some risks will lead you to be a good leader.

Gary Chesson's emphasis on family coming first to him and his employees which made them more productive with a set work timeline made employees look forward to work more and have more time with family as well. Creating work-life balance for your employees or team will make you a great leader. This makes you, and your employees want to work more and give efficient results rather than someone forcing/ bossing people around to finish their work. Lady Cox brought us a completely different perspective on the leadership aspect, she mentioned how she did not regret any of her biggest mistakes but instead understood the lessons behind them and made sure they would not happen again. The biggest thing I learned from Lady Cox was to just show up for everything that you can and it will lead you somewhere successful. Corey Spurlin mentioned that a good attitude and dependability are the main characteristics of a true leader. Getting to know everyone else and being confident in doing that is an important factor for being a good leader. Leaders are people who inspire others and have followers. Overachievers, underachievers, and status quo handle all of them they have a set of written rules that everyone should follow and leaders should make sure that their team is following all the rules. Having a vision to follow is important when it comes to a team. A positive culture and environment is a must. Excellence must be a habit to be a healthy leader. The thermostat example, be a thermostat than a thermometer might sound very simple but it got stuck in my mind from the moment I heard it from Corey Spurlin. Using the resources available is essential and a leader should know how to do that and guide his/her team to do that to be a great team. One of the best examples that he mentioned was pulling a square wheels cart with circle wheels on it. It shows how you have a cart full of circle wheels but still use square wheels to pull a cart instead of using those circle wheels is a classic example of not using your resources when you have them with you. Competency is really important. To be successful you have to focus on competence than success. I understood the different stages of mind that we have when it comes to doing/achieving anything.

• Stage 1 - Unconscious Incompetence, this is a stage in which you don't know what you don't know
• Stage 2 - Conscious Incompetence, in this stage you know what's wrong with whatever you are doing
• Stage 3 - Conscious Competence, this is the stage in which you know what's wrong, you can process what's wrong, and you understand how to make it right.
• Stage 4 - Unconscious Competence, we are so confident that we just do it with a do-it-now attitude with no anxiety.

Integrity is doing the right thing for the right reason and reputation is doing something for others thinking about your reputation on the line. Efforts and a good attitude in bad times is the biggest thing to learn for a true leader. Humility is not to care who gets the credit. It is about thinking less of yourself and more of others. A leader should be humble and not care about who achieved it in the group instead focus on the group's achievement, while still recognizing everyone's efforts. A leader should follow the quote “Well done is better than well said”

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
I learned a few valuable points by watching Randy Pausch's last lecture which will not only make you a great leader but a great person as well.

• 1. Whenever you start something new, the brick walls are a part of it because they differentiate the people who badly need it and the people who just want it. People who badly need it will try their best to go to the other side of the brick wall because they need it. People who just want it, won't try their best to get to the other side. The brick walls show the dedication of the people who want to go to the other side of it. This is my favorite part of the entire video.
• 2. Dr. Randy also mentions about head fake learnings, when you train your brain enough every day about something, it becomes a part of you. Kids going to extracurriculars is more about learning teamwork, perseverance, and collaboration than actually learning the sport itself. I have never thought of it that way. It was so thoughtful to think about it at such a level.
• 3. Wait long enough that people will surprise and impress you. When you are mad at someone, have not given them enough time to prove themselves then you didn't give them enough time to impress you. You have to wait long enough for people to show how impressive they can be and giving that little more time is very crucial and everyone is going to shine in their way and pace.
• 4. I also liked the idea of a Feedback loop. Getting feedback is an important thing to get a step ahead in whatever you are doing. Listening to the feedback is the most important thing ever. Because being able to understand the feedback and accept that your critics are right is going to take you to different places. Being able to accept the feedback and rectify your mistakes will put everything in place and bring success to you. Being good at something will always help you.

Finally, I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to our President Dr. Roberts on the last day of our class which was quite a valuable and wonderful experience. My thoughts about leadership keep on changing, it cannot be defined in a single sentence and it comes in all forms. Some of the points that were off the top of my mind from Dr. Roberts lecture include a teaching philosophy that every leader can follow as follows: You should care about them and truly want them to do well. You should set a bar high for expectations, never lower your bar no matter what. You should work as hard, or harder than them to get them to that bar. Use some real-world examples and mix them up, repeat these steps. I also understood that we have to try and get it down to 1 or 2 things and repeat it over and over until your team or you can achieve them. Keep your goals short and work on them repeatedly which will not overwhelm you but allows you to keep your focus on important things. Focus is a superpower and reflect on it and always try to reflect on it with others, it will make you focus and remain on the task that is required. Having people who can help you achieve these goals and push you to a better place and paying attention is the greatest leadership skill that can take you to places. From all the lectures, I evaluated my leadership type as a mix of both servant leadership and democratic leadership. This will be one of my favorite classes that I ever took here at Auburn University. I loved this class so much that I wanted to make a collage of everything to make it into a book for me to look at in my later years of life.

Areas of development for me to improve as a leader are as follows:

Self-awareness:Understanding my goals, and values in a way that I can teach a 10-year-old about it and getting feedback from the team, making sure that I understand my weaknesses from the feedback to be a better version of myself.

Humility:Sometimes when I achieve something for the team, I want to be recognized for it instead of understanding that it's a team effort and I want to think less of myself and more about the team and see it as a team's achievement.

Integrity vs Reputation:I want to be the one who has more integrity than to think about my reputation and do something to please others even though it doesn't feel right is something I can learn in future endeavors.

There are more places for me to learn and improve myself as a leader and as well as a person, this class had a great positive impact on me and I am glad that I registered for this course. My perspective of what/how a leader should be did not change much but only added abundant amounts of wisdom to it with the help of Joey and the guest speakers.