THANK YOU VERY MUCH, KEN !!! :)

 The whole term has just passed so quickly and I've just finished my last RW class, Lessons in Leadership and the Dynamic You, taught by Ken today. I learned so much from this class, honestly. Since I had many experience that I played a role as a leader in many groups, I was able to reflect on what I had done and my failure at that time, and think about what I need to improve or what I need to acquire to be a better leader from next time.

 What is a better leader for me? And now, I remember I wrote a statement in the beginning of this term.

"I, Shiori Asakura, living at my highest and best, am cooperative (understanding others), responsible, and the most hard-working in the team so that I can motivate teammates and provide them a comfortable environment to achieve the common goal."

 Learning from Shackleton, some guest lecturers and Ken, what I wrote above was not wrong, I believe. Many of so-called "qualities of leaders" are based on this kind of idea and leaders are able to get trust from their teammates. In addition to what I wrote in my statement, I learned there are something special that leaders need to acquire, rather than qualities based on emotional matters such as trust and respect. Those are optimistic ways of thinking, quick decision-making skills and courages to take risks based on their judgement, for example,  if the risk people were about to take is necessary or not. To gain these qualities, however, people need time and training. I think I now need to start training to acquire them in ICU and also in an organization I belong because I have never trained myself to be a skillful leader.

 What I really liked about this class was that every class was very entertaining and so interesting to me! In every class, I get new and useful information about some steps to be an ideal leader, and have some time to discuss with my friends, which worked very well on me because I was able to organize my thought by talking to them, and also gain others' perspectives towards leadership. Presentations by guest lecturers were so impressive, and I've got so many "impressive quotes" from their speech. Even though I feel regrettable that I was not able to attend the whole class because of my chronic disease, I really think I was fortunate to be in this class this term and had an opportunity to learn from Ken. Your class left me a big goal towards mu future, with specific steps I need to achieve one by one. The figure of my ideal leader has definitely changed since I took your class, and now I hope to acquire more skillful and effective leadership for my own future.

Thank you very much, Ken!

With my best regards,

Shiori Asakura