HDF 190:

FIRST YEAR LEADERS INSPIRED TO EXCELLENCE

LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO
Liz Potenzano
SPRING 2016
epotenzano@my.uri.edu

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Strengths

SLIDE #3

Opening Statement
Section 1: Self Leadership
Section 2: Self Leadership
Section 3: Leadership Theories
Section 4: Inclusive Leadership
Section 5: Interpersonal/Organizational Leadership

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SLIDE #5
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Signature Strengths
Woo
Communication
Harmony
Positivity
Includer

Values in Action Strengths

Humor
Honesty
Kindness
Gratitude
Social Intelligence

OPENING STATEMENT
Hello, my name is Liz Potenzano. I am a freshman at the University of Rhode Island with a major in Public
Relations and minors in Leadership Studies and Business. In the future, I am looking to fulfill a career as an
event planner for major industries. In my field of study, my strengths are vital to a successful career. My top
five strengths include woo, communication, harmony, positivity, and includer. My top strength is woo, which
means that I love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. This is necessary as a
Public Relations major because I need to be able to persuade the public and convince them to come to any
event I may be hosting. My second strength is communication, which is also vital within my major because I
must communicate with the public when advertising different businesses and corporations. The Relational
Leadership Model connects to my future because it is important to learn how to relate to others and have a
sense of community in every project I take on in my career path. Not only do my strengths come into
practice within my field of study, but my strengths and values form me as a leader as well. My top five
values include humor, honesty, kindness, gratitude, and social intelligence. I use all five of these values and
strengths when creating my own leadership style. I believe that it is necessary when leading others to stay
positive and kind in order for your peers to respect you as a leader. I am very grateful for all of the
opportunities I have been given and am excited to find out who I become in the next four years at URI.

Self Leadership
Outcome 8:
Student will
express a
personal values
statement

After completing my VIA, my top five values were some that did
not come by surprise. I value humor, honesty, kindness,
gratitude, and love. I have grown up in a family where honesty,
kindness, humor and love are the most vital roles in being
successful, so in my college career I have carried over the
values I had during my childhood. Since I have been at school,
hundreds of miles away from my family, I have also gained the
value of gratitude. I am extremely thankful for everything I
have and the opportunities I am able to reach at this institution.
I grew up in a one square mile sized town. I knew everyone and
everyone knows me. My graduating class consisted of eighty
four students and almost all of them graduated first grade by
my side. I never really left my small town and met new people
until I came to college. My eight best girl friends have been my
best friends since the first grade and I never thought that it was
strange to have such long lasting friendships. Ever since I have
been at college, I have noticed that not every one is lucky
enough to have such long relationships like me. I am extremely
thankful and proud that I was able to grow up in such a small
town where everyone is so close. Gratitude is one of the newest
value I have gained since entering my freshman year and I am
happy that it came up in the VIA assessment.

Self Leadership
Outcome 12
Student will show
evidence of goals and
objectives that were
planned and achieved

In HDF 190, my class was given a project to volunteer at

an environmentally friendly organization to become
servant leaders and work towards a social change. My
small groups goal was to volunteer at Save the Bay on a
Sunday afternoon in the beginning of April. Our overall
purpose of the assignment was to make an impact on
the environment to better the community around us.
Some personal issues we faced while trying to complete
the project was finding a good time for everyone to get
together to volunteer. This was nearly impossible since
we all are involved in multiple clubs and organizations
on campus, as well as jobs. Once we all agreed on a
date in April to meet, the weather ended up being to
dangerous to volunteer in. Save the Bay got cancelled
due to inclement weather. There was an issue when
trying to reschedule because one group member had an
interview for an internship on the day we all planned.
Since this internship was very important to him, we
decided that we should not reschedule and come up with
a different volunteer project. We ended up fulfilling our
goal of making an impact on the environment around us
by forming a recycling club. The recycling club, if
approved, would be able to educate students and faculty
on campus of how impactful plastic is on the Earth and
propose ways on how to positively advertise recycling.

Leadership Theories
Outcome 40:
Student will show
knowledge of the
Relational
Leadership model
by Komives,
McMahon & Lucas

In HDF 190, we learned the five components of relational

leadership. These components include purposeful,
ethical, process-oriented, inclusive, and empowering.
Purposeful means having an individual commitment to a
goal or activity. This teaches us to change process and
models to fulfill our goal, as well as have an attitude that
is hopeful, positive and optimistic and helps everyone.
Ethical involves the development of values and that
socially responsible behavior is to be encouraged. We
must be trustworthy and trusting of others when leading
others because being reliable and responsible is
extremely important in relational leadership. The third
component of the relational leadership model is processoriented. This component focuses on group collaboration
and that process is as important as outcome. This means
that working as a group and putting full effort by each
group member into the project or activity will accomplish
the goal of the group effectively. The component of
inclusive involves people and their diverse viewpoints. As
an inclusive leader, you must know yourself and others,
have the belief that differences in people are valuable,
and have good listening skills. The last element of
relational leadership is empowering. To be empowering, it
is necessary to have the belief that everyone has
something to offer. Every group member is as influential
as the next person. With these five characteristics, a
relational leader is made.

Inclusive
Leadership/Diversity
and its Application to
Leadership
Outcome 81
Student will show
knowledge of effective
leadership as it relates
to change agency

Effective leaders follow the Social Change Model of

Leadership Development by following the 7 social
change values. These seven values include
consciousness of self, congruence, commitment,
collaboration, common purpose, controversy with
civility, and citizenship. According to the HDF 190
Leadership packet, The Social Change Model was
created specifically for students in college who
want to learn to work effectively with each other to
create social change over their lifetimes. This can
be made possible by following the three levels that
create a feedback loop for social change
development. The three levels are individual,
group, and society. A change agent is formed on
an individual level by developing personal
qualities, self-awareness, and personal values.
They are formed on a group level by collaborating
and interacting between the group and the
individual. The change agent is formed on a
society level to bring about change for a common
good. Once one is able to develop leadership
qualities on all three levels, they are able to
connect the seven critical values to themselves.

Interpersonal and Organizational

Concepts and Skills

Outcome 104
Student will describe
examples of giving
and accepting
feedback.

In HDF 190, we were required to create a speech

about what, why, and how servant leadership
connects to our lives. As each member of our
small group went up and said their speeches, we
were given a yellow paper with a chart on it. The
chart is divided into two sections: strengths and
deltas. Under the strengths column, each person
in the group would write positive feedback on the
person who was presenting their speech. Under
the deltas column, we would write constructive
criticism. Some examples of strengths that I wrote
on some group members papers were good eye
contact or good job connecting servant
leadership to your passions. Examples of
constructive criticism were try to slow down, try
not to stutter from nervousness, or try not to say
um quite as frequently. The feedback I was given
on my paper was that my strengths were that I had
good eye contact and rarely looked down at my
paper, but my deltas were that I seemed extremely
nervous, which I definitely was, and to not say
um. I really enjoyed this feedback because it will
help me on my next oral presentation.