One Whales Reflection of a: Leadership Identity Development TimeLine By: Kyselen Jackson

FBLA Future Business Leaders of America definitely helped shape and grow me over the years. I was in it for five years and it is what led me to fall in love with both business and leadership. Much like the book says FBLA runs on a LMX theory they serve the people. The book says “leaders should develop high quality exchanges with all of their followers rather than just a few.” In FBLA as starting out as a follower I really liked this the presidents coming and talking to people just like everyone else. It made me feel important. Needless to say it drove me and I did not stay a follower long….

Becoming An FBLA Officer I knew I couldn’t be a follower. It just wasn’t ever going to be enough. So I embarked on my journey to leadership. I ran for office and achieved it. They sent me to summer leadership trainings, and me and the team you see in the pictures went to other leadership things to build skills. We hosted two leadership conferences for over 65 schools. Then attended national leadership conferences. I can truly say they have helped me become the leader I am today.

Mission Trip To Kayenta My mission trip to Kayenta taught an extremely powerful lesson. Being a leader is being humble, and selfless. In the Navajo culture you can see the skills approach utilized but in more of a teamwork aspect they use the skills approach to make sure things go smoothly so everyone will benefit. Which is so selfless it is mind boggling.

Fighting The Reaper I have struggled a lot with my health in life. But I use it to drive me. However, not to long ago I almost lost my life to blood poisoning. I couldn’t move from the neck down, body in complete septic shock all while I was conscious. All of my sickness never amounted to the pain of that. It was in those moments I learned a lot of leadership. One of the biggest was my mom, who was my rock through all of it. I remember knowing feeling the moment I was about to die, as scary as it sounds in the moment I just looked at my mom tears welled and told her I needed to call my sister, tell her what has happened, tell her goodbye. I asked her to please bring me my phone and hold it since I couldn’t move. She calmly said no, that my sister had finals the next day and she wouldn’t take them if she knew of me. She said words to me then that now I understand were not to me at all, “I need you to hold on”. She was asking for a divine intervention and she got one. No one could figure out where my blood poisoning was coming from. No one knows why it went away. But I do know that my mother showed me that sometimes you have to make hard choices as a leader. She also taught me that as a leader everyone won’t be happy with you all the time. So you have to do what is right and trust that it will work out.

Interpretive Dance Interpretive Dance taught me many things. I can honestly say I was surprised to gain leadership skills through it. However through constant practices, rigorous routines, and six years of the same people you learn to lead quick. Dance teaches discipline in itself but also because leaders and follows share a relationship that is dynamic to you making sure you know what you need to do. It also taught me that sometimes you have to use an authoritarian style to get things progressing. It all depends on who you are dealing with. It Definitely allowed me to see rewards as well, the picture on the left was my team and I at state and on the right is a picture of the performance that won nationals. (Also Us)

Why do we as leaders have in and out groups and how can we fix it? To bid you fareWHALE Why do we as leaders have in and out groups and how can we fix it? I think we do not see the judgmental nature that is within us, we are quick to judge and not know the whole story. To break down those walls we should work harder to ignore the snap judgment and reach out even when no one else does. All background and clipart from pintrest