Megan King

2/20/14
HCOM 3364
Quiet Places, Quiet Spaces Reflection
For my reflection, I decided to visit the atrium of the Center for Sciences and Innovation
on Tuesday February 18
th.
As a Human Communication major, I rarely get the opportunity to use
the science buildings, so I thought it would be nice to explore and get a feel for a new space on
campus. The atrium is a neat space because it is relatively quiet during class periods, but during
passing times it becomes loud and social. There are several sitting places and alcoves to be used,
though, and I liked that I could hang around and write or talk to people depending on my mood. I
did not use the space for writing my reflection, but it did give me a chance to sit and think
quietly for a few minutes; this was a period of gathering my thoughts and deciding what I wanted
to discuss in this reflection. Coming home from my visit to the atrium, I was relaxed, organized,
and ready to write.
Some aspects of the course that have resonated with me are types of leaders and
followers and the self-assessments we did that determined whether we were more task- or
relational-oriented in our communication in groups. When we discuss leadership and
followership, I tend to think about my experiences as president in Alpha Phi Omega this
semester and how my communication style must influence that of the members of my
organization. I have become more conscious about how I communicate with members and I have
also begun to think about the different types of followers and members of groups that we have
discussed. In an organization of 140 people, we are bound to have those who are supportive in
group environments and those who are disruptive; it has been helpful to be able to identify those
roles happening in my own experiences and learning how they can be addressed. The self-
assessment we completed about our task- and relational-based tendencies in groups was also
interesting to me. While I knew that I was more relational-based (I had completed an assessment
before), our discussion afterwards about benefits and costs of each and how they appear in
everyday life was relevant to my other studies in the HCOM department and to my own insights
about my strengths and the strengths of others.
One insight I learned about myself (and others) through this process is that not everyone
sees leadership the same way. On the first few days of class, we attempted to define leadership
and some of our answers varied greatly. In addition, we completed the activity in class in which
we were given a scenario and had to justify whether or not we felt it was an example of
leadership. After having to think about this and justify my answers, I stepped back and thought
about how I perceive leadership and how I saw my classmates perceptions differed. It was an
interesting and thoughtful experience that I was glad to have so early on in the course. Thinking
about why I have certain opinions and discovering my own thought processes was a neat way to
start off my learning in this class.
The material Im learning in this course has been and will continue to be applicable in my
leadership positions in various organizations on campus. I am serving on two executive boards
for two organizations currently, and I have already been able to draw connections between the
course materials and my experiences. Our class discussions are good for taking a theory and
applying it to our own experiences, so I have been able (with the help of my classmates) to see
real connections with the material in the text and my own leadership experiences. I enjoy the
discussion aspect of the course because it allows for that extension of class content into the daily
lives of students. I anticipate the discussions continuing to be useful in bridging the gap between
theory and real life practice.
After the first days of class when we defined leadership, I have continued to have
questions about our final definition of leadership, specifically: how important is the group
aspect to the definition of leadership? and where does intentionality come into play? These
questions have continued to enter my mind throughout our class discussions, and I look forward
to exploring them more throughout the semester. Our discussion of followership addressed the
group question a bit, and as a class we tend to mention these ideas. It will be interesting to see if
we modify our definition during the course of our semester based on our discussions.
After gathering my thoughts for my reflection in the calming atmosphere of the CSI
atrium, I see why Trinity provides this list of quiet spaces and places. I rarely take time to gather
my thoughts before launching into a task like a paper, and the relaxation was definitely
enjoyable. It helped me to calm down before jumping right in, and that allowed me to formulate
and think deeply about what I wanted to discuss before I really got started. This reflection and
this course have allowed me to synthesize my thoughts, my outside experiences, and our course
materials into an even better understanding of leadership and the many ways in which it
manifests itself in our world.