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Leadership, to me, has always felt intertwined with self-confidence, emotional perseverance, and managing how much of myself I show to others. As Paul Ingram writes, “Leaders project authenticity, and become trusted, by communicating their identities.” (Ingram, p94, 2025). But that process is far from easy—especially when parts of that identity feel painful, contradictory, or too vulnerable to share. My initial interpretation of being authentic included being raw, which I don't particularly feel comfortable doing in a professional environment. However, contrary to this perspective, in class, we discussed that authenticity does not necessarily mean showing all sides of you in a professional setting; it means being open and genuine with people as you lead. Professor Rawcliffe clarified that practicing authenticity doesn't mean acting overly casual or unprofessional in the workplace, such as swearing or speaking as if you were with friends. This relieved me. Greatly.

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Leadership, for me, is not about asserting power but about guiding with insight, emotional depth, and imagination. When reviewing Knight's "8 Essential Qualities of Successful Leaders (2023), The three leadership qualities I identify with most are creativity, resilience, and empathy. These traits have not only shaped my dynamic in teams but also influenced how I navigate and impact the world around me.

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Creativity has always been one of my most intuitive tools. I don't see creativity as exclusively artistic output but as my ability to synthesize ideas, notice emotional subtext, and find unconventional solutions. I often engage in what Linda Hill describes as exploring the "adjacent possible" (Knight, 2023, p. 5), being open to perceiving all the possibilities that are not necessarily directly apparent but are reachable with the proper perspective. In group settings, this encourages divergent thinking and validates unconventional contributions, ultimately leading to collaboration on innovative and unique projects or outcomes. Creativity is an essential quality that resonates with me because I am someone who views things holistically, considering them emotionally, symbolically, and strategically.

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Besides my post-class appreciation for Ingram's commentary on leading with authenticity, his work especially inspired me to create my own identity map (Ingram, 2025). Throughout the process, I discovered that I can describe myself with very little use of proper nouns... which I had learned over my academic and professional life, were very important to include when introducing myself. This is something I unlearned through this exercise.

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Empathy is the foundation of my leadership style. I try to be deeply emotionally perceptive, often sensing what isn't said aloud. As Hill emphasizes, empathy involves finding ways to relate to others by understanding their perspectives and their commonalities with my own. (Knight, 2023) In my case, that means I lead by making space for others to feel seen. I also recognize that genuine empathy involves boundaries and self-awareness, which I continually strive to balance. Another point in Knight's work that resonates with me is the encouragement to surround yourself not only with like-minded people but with individuals with diverse ways of thinking. In doing so, this naturally leads to a personal discovery of various perspectives and worldviews based on unique, individual lived experiences.

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Resilience wasn't something I consciously developed; it was forged in environments that demanded emotional containment and constant adaptation. As Hill puts it, resilience means being able to "regroup and get input from others by asking, 'Is there another path?'" (Knight, 2023, p. 6). I've had to reroute in many different areas of my life: academically, relationally, and emotionally. My resilience is loud because part of me is still trying to improve this quality. Although I am resilient, I still feel damaged by situations that require it from me. My anxiety clashes with the need to banish the idea of absolutes and embrace ambiguity through multiple approaches to accomplishing a goal. I am someone who likes having control; relinquishing that and detaching from a specific approach is stressful. I reflect, recalibrate, and keep moving, but my body still has adverse reactions to resilience.

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One recent example where my group was able to reach high creative potential was in a Film production course, wherein we were put into groups and tasked with making a movie. This vague outline was initially demotivating, but within our group, we found inspiration in the fact that we had essentially no boundaries on what we could create. I proposed we make our film using my Brownie 8mm film camera. With this prompt, the team took the idea further, and we decided to document the movie-making process where we learned to use the camera, develop the film ourselves and project the movie on a 1930s 8mm film projector. This concept also documented our group-building, and emotional process, adding layers to an already creative project. Although some may say we overcomplicated the assignment, we added depth to this project that was uniquely our own, friendship-forming, and something to be proud of.

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FIPR 133-02 - Filming Backwards - Ally Carey, Anna Shubina, Danae Biln, Paige Sullivan

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An example would be my development of epileptic seizures during times of high stress. I want to say that my ability to pull through this physical ailment in times of high pressure demonstrates a type of resilience. However, I would like to focus on Knight's outline of how to build this quality in a way that mitigates the physical responses I have in these situations. The way to overcome this is to be open to alternative paths to an obstacle rather than pushing myself through my original approach, which results in such a visceral response.

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The most straightforward way I have practiced leading with empathy and surrounded myself with people who view the world vastly different from me is in my work as an early childhood educator. Throughout my years as an arts teacher, I have noticed that children view the world in a raw and unfiltered way, unlike myself and other adults. They are blunt and emotional, and they think outside the box because they haven't been forced into a traditional way of thinking yet. I have learned a lot about effective communication with these little humans who don't think or talk like me at all. I do this by practicing empathy toward their backgrounds and the way they approach life, projects, and interpersonal relationships.