OT 630: Glyphs Reflection

The drawings above are the results of a glyph drawing exercise "A Self-Portrait of a Leader," in which I followed prompts about the face shape, eyes, eyelashes, eyebrows, nose shape, skin and so on as they correlated to leadership qualities. The picture on the left was completed in my first semester of OT school and the picture on the right was just completed in my last semester of courses in OT school.

The first noticeable difference between my drawings is the face shape: square head = leadership stems from nurture over nature, triangle head = leadership is an inborn trait. I am not surprised that this quality changed between pictures because I believe that leadership stems from a pretty even balance of nature and nurture, so I am glad it is represented in both! The second difference is that my first picture has eyelashes and the second does not. This simply means that I could not recall 5 of the themes from the Flifton StrengthsFinder assessment and need to freshen up on them. In my first picture I drew curved eyebrows which indicate that I like to take the role of the leader in an out-in-front way and the pointy eyebrows in my second picture indicate that my leadership style is more behind the scenes. I'm not quite sure why I switched to pointy eyebrows in the second drawing because I have held multiple leadership positions since being in OT school. However, I think I must have been thinking about how an outright position/out-in-front style is not necessary to be a leader. Lastly, the long curly hair in my first picture indicates that I think creativity is more important in leadership and that an introvert can be an effective leader. Whereas the short straight hair in my second picture indicates a move towards the belief that organization is a more important in a leader and that an introvert may be a less effective leader. As for these leadership qualities, I believe that both creativity and organization are essential skills in a leader and will be drawn on to different degrees in varying settings. I do still think that an introvert can be an effective leader. However, they may find the tasks of constant communication and interaction with others to be more draining than an extrovert. This simply means an introvert may take different approaches to or have a different style of leadership.

The qualities in my drawings (aka the beliefs I have about leadership) which have remained the same include small circles for eyes = believe there is a fairly equal mixture of leaders and non-leaders in the field of OT, glasses =  believe I have had more experience in leadership roles than most other people my age at this point in my life, nose = believe that a person can be a leader without seeing him/herself as a leader, freckles = believe self-awareness is vital to effective leadership, mouth = can think of at least one leader who has had a positive impact on me, ears = think technology is an important part of effective leadership in many situation, accessories = see myself as a leader, hat = the way I think about/ approach leadership has changed as a result of what I have learned since beginning OT school, and finally name written in print= do not yet have a written plan or goal about serving in leadership roles in the future.