Who am I as a leader?

I never thought of myself as a leader.  I often just think of myself as a team player.  My first experience of being a leader was not related to a work position.  It was a Relay for Life team.  Sure I was listed as the team captain, but we were a team.  I was the one that had to attend meetings to gather information to bring back to the team.  I was not the leader.  It took the effort of everyone involved to do the amazing projects that we pulled off.  However, now that I reflect back to that time I was leading the team.  They looked to me for answers to questions, for resources to help them and to be the one to hold the team together.

As I think of myself as leading projects now at work, I feel I take the same approach.  It takes a team to complete many tasks.  It takes everyone sharing their point of views and giving their experiences to make a project successful. In some cases, in the position I am now in as the technology coordinator, I find my self being the one being more of the "cheerleader" for a teacher who is intimidated by the technology than the person leading their way and making them feel even worse about the insecurities with tech.

As I was reflecting on who I am as a leader, I was listening to Simon Sinek's TED Talk, "How great leaders inspire action".  I really started to make notes of what my "why" is as I start this new position and take this course.  I feel I know the basic part of my "why" which includes helping and supporting others.  I want to make it so technology is "easy" for others and they find the love for it that I have had for years.  Changing from the network administrator to the technology coordinator has allowed me to find my passion again when related to technology. I need to take the responsibility to make sure teachers are supported in their adventure of bringing technology to their classroom.  I need to have the courage to support and lead them while not making them feel like I am taking over their current practices.  I feel this will be where I need to continue to grow.  Being the person they see that use to come in and "fix" the internet or phone system to now helping them with technology in the classroom will be a challenged that I will need to continue to work on my "how" and "what" while always changing and reflecting on my "why".

I am excited to see where I will grow the most through the Leadership and Technology course.  And I am excited to see where this blog takes me.  George Couros' blog post 3 Ways Blogging Has Helped Me Grow as a Learner, gave me a direction with blogging that has helped to make it a little less intimidating.

I look forward to the future...