GOVN 500

Leadership Statement

I lead through coordination, collaboration, reflection, and integrity.  These values shape how I work with people and the kind of environment I try to create. My goal is to help build systems that support belonging, safety, and fair access to services in my community. For me, leadership is not about title or authority. It is about showing up, paying attention and active listening. It is an everyday practice of noticing what people need, staying present, and helping guide collective efforts toward shared goals, which closely reflects values-based leadership ideas around clarity, integrity, and purpose (Kraemer, 2011).

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My style is collaborative and reflexive. Reflexivity has become one of my most important values because it forces me to look inward (at my assumptions, my decisions, and the ways my position shapes what I see). This is something I have only begun to understand recently. Even at 44, I feel like I am just starting to learn what it means to be truly reflective. That learning never really stops, and it shapes how I lead. It reminds me that leadership is not about having all the answers, but about staying open to growth, adapting as I go, and trying to do better each time. That way of working fits closely with my core values of empathy, growth, curiosity, and balance, the same values I identified in my Values Inventory assignment.

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Before starting this assignment, I asked my administrative assistant what she appreciates about working with me. She said she values that I am always learning and open to growth. In her last job, her manager never adjusted or changed, and the work ended up feeling stuck. Hearing that reminded me that staying open to learning does not just shape me as a leader, it shapes the workplace as well; growth becomes normal, curiosity becomes welcomed and development becomes something we do together.

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I feel most aligned with the public and nonprofit sectors because they balance social responsibility with a focus on long-term impact. Public-sector leadership research often points to this commitment to fairness, accountability, and serving the public good, and that really matches how I see my work (Galley & Gold, 2020). The nonprofit sector’s strong focus on mission, equity, and community-centred leadership also aligns closely with my values and with what I do day to day (Van Ymeren & Lalande, 2015).

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I value diversity in every form and believe that everyone carries knowledge shaped by their lived experience. Approaching differences with curiosity helps me lead with fairness, humility, and openness. I have never worked in the private sector, so I cannot fairly say I am not aligned with it. I suspect it has many strengths (including innovation and adaptability) (Torres, 2013). In saying that, my alignment comes from what I know; from public and nonprofit settings where my values, my work, and my leadership style feel the most connected.

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At my core, I am ambitious, invested, and driven by the desire to keep improving. I care deeply about my work, and I want the end product of every initiative to be strong. I personally believe that teams feel more motivated when their leader keeps growing because it shows that growth is encouraged for everyone. When leaders stop learning, the team can start to feel stuck or limited. When leaders stay curious and reflective, people feel that their own development matters too. That is the kind of leader I want to be, someone who brings accountability, but also openness, movement, and a sense of possibility.

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Critical Self-Assessment and Plan to Strengthen Competencies

Through my own reflection and the competency inventory in Assignment 2, Part 1, I identified three areas where I want to continue growing:

• data literacy

• mentorship

• leading without stepping in too quickly

This reflects what the research shows as well, that today’s leadership across all sectors depend on emotional intelligence, collaboration, and the ability to adapt to change (Taylor et al., 2023).

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Strengthening Data Literacy

I find myself naturally drawn to the qualitative side of the work, the stories, the context, the lived experience. At the same time, I know that quantitative data matters for making solid decisions, shaping policy, and securing funding, especially in the public sector where accountability and evidence are essential (Galley & Gold, 2020).

My goal is to feel more confident using and explaining data, so numbers and stories can work together instead of competing for attention. This fits with leadership thinking that encourages blending evidence with lived experience to support better, more balanced decision-making (Bryson et al., 2006).

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Planned steps:

• Participate in data-literacy workshops

• Practice translating data into plain language

• Pair data trends with real and meaningful stories so that the full picture is always clear

Becoming a More Intentional Mentor

I want to create more deliberate developmental relationships within my team. I often support people when they ask for help, but I want to shift into a role where mentorship is proactive, not reactive. This aligns with values-based leadership, which emphasizes developing people through clarity, accountability, and mutual trust (Kraemer, 2011).

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Planned steps:

• Set intentional development-focused check-ins.

• Ask staff what they want to grow in, not just what tasks they need.

• Offer opportunities for shared decision-making.

Leading Without Stepping in Too Quickly

I do not micromanage in the traditional sense, but I often step in and correct my assistants work because the wording is not how I would have written it. Instead of coaching her, I fix it myself. This, in turn, limits her development and creates avoidable pressure on me.

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To grow into a more strategic leader, I need to slow down, delegate with intention, and trust the process. This supports healthier team development and aligns with leadership research that emphasizes trust and shared ownership (Van Ymeren & Lalande, 2015).

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Planned steps:

• Pause before editing to ask if it’s a coaching moment.

• Provide clearer expectations upfront.

• Accept that "different" wording is still correct.

Closing Reflection

This leadership statement represents who I am and who I am becoming. My values, style, and sector alignment guide how I lead today, but the self-assessment helps me grow into the leader I aspire to be. I want to remain grounded in reflexivity, driven by learning, and committed to building workplaces where belonging and development feel possible.