Responsibility to Uphold

By: Janna Parke

Last night, I learned a lot about what type of leader I am, and who I can be! Let me catch you up on the position I am talking about.

I am in the Entrepreneurship program here at Purdue, which has been very helpful in my knowledge of starting a business, financials, and teamwork. As a communication major, this program has given me a different aspect of education that I originally did not experience. On another note, at the beginning of the semester we were placed into teams of four people from various majors. On this team, we are given many tasks, assignments, and have been creating an original and new business venture.

When being put into group projects, I am always nervous that I will be stuck with a “bad” group. I define a bad group as students who are not willing to help and do not contribute ideas or time. I was pleased to find that my team of entrepreneurs meshed well together and is well rounded. As far as the team goes, we established our places within the team early in the semester, and I found myself in the leadership position. Although this is not where I originally wanted to be, I discovered that I am one who can organize, plan, and delegate in the most effective way, while having full support of eager team members.

While the semester has been going smoothly, last night our team hit a bump in the road. One member could not make it to a meeting, and therefore was unable to contribute to one of our last projects. After working for about an hour, the team decided that it was only fair to ask the other member to present the work on the upcoming Tuesday. Not only did the absent team member not want to do this, he basically refused. As the leader, this put me in a tough position to handle at 12:00am, through text. In order to keep all team members on a level playing field, it was only fair that he present, therefore we all put in an equal amount of effort.

Although it was hard, I decided to stick to our original plan of having him present, although he was not happy. If this happened a year ago, I feel that I would have taken things into my own hands and done the presentation myself. The reason I did not do this is because I trust my team members to put fourth the effort that I put fourth. Being a leader in this class does not mean doing everything, it means being able to take the team’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, and creating a successful business venture. I learned that I may feel bad and it may be hard, but sometimes other people need to take responsibility. When you are on a team when I am designated the leader, I expect nothing less than 100% effort! Now that it is the end of my sophomore year, I think I am finding my specific leadership style.

I know you are probably wondering how the presentation went….