This project involved collaborating with a group of other freshman leadership students to implement a sustainable farm for Three Birds Berry Farm. I took leadership of the group since I was very familiar with farming from childhood experiences. I was concerned at first with the dynamics of the group in terms of skill and motivation. Despite my predispositions, we succeeded at implementing the sustainable farming methods and spread awareness to the community of Blacksburg for sustainable practices.
-What?
When I met my group, I was surprised by two things: How passionate and driven some of the group members shared despite their limited knowledge of farming. At first, I was concerned and questioned our success. We started as a group with many questions, unsure of our strengths, and requiring guidance from the professors and the older Leadership residents. We learned to work together affectively and tackled many objectives and problems together. We learned how to deal with absence of some of the leadership students who didn’t show up to meetings and didn’t fulfill their obligations unexpectedly. We learned how to pick up the slack together and combine our strengths to fulfill our sustainable goals.
Together we grew professionally, and as leaders. In my opinion, this was one of the goals of the project. It wasn’t simply about building a sustainable farm, I learned that another goal was improving our leadership methods and our mentalities.
-So?
The significance of this experience was ultimately realizing how important leadership is and how broad leadership methods can extend. I was exposed to the idea of Transformational Leadership through the course of this project. I realized, as a leader, my goals were not only based on the monetary outcome of this project but in parallel with my group members. In fact, their leadership growth that was influenced by my guidance and demeanor was a symbol of personal success for myself. Perhaps we could’ve completed the project and never grew personally, too me this would’ve offset the overall success of the project.
-Now What?
As I have grown as a leader in relationships, taking initiatives in the work place, and holding a leadership position in Packaging Club, the sustainable farm has had an important effect on my leadership methods and my expectations for working with people. I currently embody Transformational Leadership within my leadership methods and I believe it is an effective way of leadership especially for young people who are still growing rapidly in their endeavors to become leaders professionally and interpersonally. I realize that having predispositions towards groups I work with is as effective as using our strengths and discipline together to achieve our goals. In the future, I plan on using Transformational Leadership to quantify my leadership success, not just the monetary outcomes of reaching deadlines and completing work projects. I’ve realized, they go hand in hand.
Leadership Journey: Nick Lawrence 