Written Portion of Research
Part 1:
What I Need to Know:
I have been pursuing a mentorship with The Gainesville Ballet Company over this past year. I taught several kids of various ages ballet and jazz. I wanted to be a really good role model and leader for them to follow. So, I first came up with an essential question. My question was how does leadership affect us, and what do relationships have to do with it? By figuring out the answer to this, I would better my relationships and communication skills in all aspects of my life. You have to understand what type of relationship you have with someone before you can take a leadership position within that circumstance.
Part 2:
What I Know or Assume:
Honestly, I thought I knew a lot more about leadership and relationships than I actually do. I know that leaders should possess certain qualities and ambitions such as creativity, dependability, integrity, compassion, passion, and decisiveness. However, I feel that the meaning of leadership is subjective. Everyone has their own definition of leadership. When it comes to relationships, I assume that leadership can “be” something different within whatever relationship you are dealing with. I know for a fact that relationships don’t have to romantic. They can be relationships based on love, authority, or family.
Part 3:
The Search:
Taking what I already knew about leadership and relationships, I began researching everything about the two subjects. I found two really good articles about leadership and relationships. The first article talked about what a leader should be and what qualities they should possess. This is where I learned about personal competence, social competence, and caring as it pertains to this subject. The criteria that comes from these three subjects was very eye opening. I learned a lot about the importance of knowing yourself, and I learned that I need to embrace other’s ideas and opinions. The second article I found talked about relationships. I gained knowledge about the fact that there are different domains that relationships can fall under. It is also important to intertwine those different domains in a healthy way instead of a stressful one. Finally, I conducted an interview with someone at my ballet company. Her name is Sophia Dixon, and she teaches kids of various ages too. I knew a lot of people looked up to her, so I asked her ten questions pertaining to my research. Her answers were extremely eye opening. She taught me just as much as the articles did. The research I did was not bias to my beliefs. The articles found were very factual and gave little opinion.
Part 4:
What I discovered:
At the beginning of this research project I thought I knew everything about being a leader. I was mistaken. I thought being a leader was the same for every relationship you happen to be put in. That’s not true at all. I learned that each relationship you have can vary, so you have to approach leadership differently throughout them all. You cannot be affective if you approach someone the wrong way. For example, it wouldn’t make sense if I approached my parent in the same way I do my students at ballet. It wouldn’t come across the right way, and it wouldn’t be affective in that situation. This changed the way I thought about my life and the people in it.
Part 1:
What I Need to Know:
I have been pursuing a mentorship with The Gainesville Ballet Company over this past year. I taught several kids of various ages ballet and jazz. I wanted to be a really good role model and leader for them to follow. So, I first came up with an essential question. My question was how does leadership affect us, and what do relationships have to do with it? By figuring out the answer to this, I would better my relationships and communication skills in all aspects of my life. You have to understand what type of relationship you have with someone before you can take a leadership position within that circumstance.
Part 2:
What I Know or Assume:
Honestly, I thought I knew a lot more about leadership and relationships than I actually do. I know that leaders should possess certain qualities and ambitions such as creativity, dependability, integrity, compassion, passion, and decisiveness. However, I feel that the meaning of leadership is subjective. Everyone has their own definition of leadership. When it comes to relationships, I assume that leadership can “be” something different within whatever relationship you are dealing with. I know for a fact that relationships don’t have to romantic. They can be relationships based on love, authority, or family.
Part 3:
The Search:
Taking what I already knew about leadership and relationships, I began researching everything about the two subjects. I found two really good articles about leadership and relationships. The first article talked about what a leader should be and what qualities they should possess. This is where I learned about personal competence, social competence, and caring as it pertains to this subject. The criteria that comes from these three subjects was very eye opening. I learned a lot about the importance of knowing yourself, and I learned that I need to embrace other’s ideas and opinions. The second article I found talked about relationships. I gained knowledge about the fact that there are different domains that relationships can fall under. It is also important to intertwine those different domains in a healthy way instead of a stressful one. Finally, I conducted an interview with someone at my ballet company. Her name is Sophia Dixon, and she teaches kids of various ages too. I knew a lot of people looked up to her, so I asked her ten questions pertaining to my research. Her answers were extremely eye opening. She taught me just as much as the articles did. The research I did was not bias to my beliefs. The articles found were very factual and gave little opinion.
Part 4:
What I discovered:
At the beginning of this research project I thought I knew everything about being a leader. I was mistaken. I thought being a leader was the same for every relationship you happen to be put in. That’s not true at all. I learned that each relationship you have can vary, so you have to approach leadership differently throughout them all. You cannot be affective if you approach someone the wrong way. For example, it wouldn’t make sense if I approached my parent in the same way I do my students at ballet. It wouldn’t come across the right way, and it wouldn’t be affective in that situation. This changed the way I thought about my life and the people in it.