Month 1 - Exploring the Leader Within

I started the Entertainment Business Masters Program at Full Sail University on March 28, 2010. My first class at Full Sail was Executive Leadership with Dr. Steve Adkins. Executive Leadership taught us necessary leadership skills that are effective in today's entertainment business field.

We learned through various readings, lectures and discussions as well as by analyzing clips of business oriented shows like "Shark Tank". The reading materials that we had for this class were The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell. These two books took very different approaches to leadership and I found them very useful to lead us into the program.

The Leadership Portfolio Assignment for Month 1 asked us to assess our current leadership skills. We talked about things that we were good at as well as things that we could improve on -

The Leadership Skills Assessment allowed me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses as a leader. The assessment opened my eyes to which areas of leadership I am effective in and in which areas I need improvement:

Highly Effective:
• Attitude
• Creating Positive Change
• Integrity

Needs Improvement:
• Self-Discipline
• Priorities
• Vision

The skill that I believe I am most effective in is attitude. It is extremely important to have a good attitude in all situations, as it has a very large effect on people and outcomes. In most situations I am able to keep a positive attitude and use that positive attitude to help others, and myself. Having a positive attitude has also allowed me to be good at problem solving, since it is hard to solve a problem with a negative attitude.

I also discussed potential leadership activities I would partake in over the year -

My goal for the leadership portfolio is to get involved in different groups that both help the community and can give me experience on my career path. Two groups that I am interested in are the Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association, MEISA, and the Entertainment Networking Society, ENS. Participating in groups like these will give me a greater insight to the field I want to work in, and help me develop leadership skills that are important to possess. Some leadership skills these groups will help me with are people, because I will meet a lot of new people and learn to network effectively.

I also want to get involved in the community. Pure Motivation is an organization that volunteers to better the community. I have already participated in a Pure Motivation event, a beach clean up at Cocoa Beach. A weakness of mine has always been public speaking. Toastmasters is a group that focuses on improving public speaking skills, so getting involved with this group would help me a great deal. These groups will also help improve my self-discipline and priority skills because I will have to put these meetings ahead of things that might not be as important.

This assignment helped me see early in the program which areas of leadership I am strong in and where I need to improve. The assignment also prepared me for the Leadership Portfolio since it got me thinking of future activities I would do throughout the year. One organization that I have not yet joined, but plan to still get involved with is Toastmasters. I enjoy putting together presentations, therefore Toastmasters will help with the oral aspect of giving the presentations. I will continue to use what I learned about leadership in Month 1 as I plan my future career path.

This month we also chose a Business Plan that we would focus on throughout the program. I had never really thought of starting my own business in the beginning of the program, so I picked something that was of great interest to me. I have always loved going to concerts so my business plan was "In The Round", a concert venue that had a 360-degree rotating stage in the center of the venue.  Since then my plan has changed, however I still have "In The Round" in the back of my head as a possible project in the future.