Drake Masters of Science in Leadership Development Review

I cannot say enough good things about the Drake Leadership program. My experience in the program allowed me to make connections with local leaders in the community. I gained valuable learning tools and exercises I can implement in my professional and personal life. While I was completing the program I was recruited and took a new career opportunity.  I received a promotion within my first year at the company!

The most important lesson I learned from the MSLD experience is that leadership is all about bringing out the best in others.  Being a leader today has everything to do about caring for people. No matter you're title, anyone can be a leader. 

All of the courses in the program are memorable, but there are a few highlights I'll share. During my first class in the program was Ethics & Leadership we learned about moral dilemmas and how our personal, professional and company values shape our decision making as leaders. As a marketing and business development professional, I still consider the concepts we learned in class about how people actually make decisions based on intuition then justify with logic. Personally, I gained the most hands-on technical skills and abilities from the Technology & Learning class where the assignments involved creating a website, maintaining a blog and creating a virtual course. I loved how the Drake professors brought in professional guest speakers to the classroom because it helped correlate the lessons from our readings and classwork to real world applicability. 

​Of all the MSLD competencies I believe I strengthened my aptitude for team building the most. A common theme throughout the program was the importance of creating psychological safety. I talk more about this in my review of office politics paper from Organization Politics & Influence class. As a leader, it is important to me to make everyone feel heard and safe to voice their ideas without fear of retribution.  

I will miss the classroom discussions that were always filled with trust, openness and the spirit of collaboration. Moving forward in my journey, I will strive to create the type of safe environment that I experienced in the MSLD classes. Check out my final action plan assignment I submitted for Understanding Self & Others where I go more in depth. 
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haley's msld portfolio

info on the msld