Payton BoehLeadership Journey

About Me

My name is Payton, and I recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Azusa Pacific University. I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies, with an emphasis in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication and a minor in Leadership. I am passionate about travel, music and– of course– people!

Why I Lead: When I first started seeking out leadership positions, it was because I liked the power and the status. But as I grew up, I began to realize that I lead because I like to influence people for the better, and to serve others through Christ.

Strengths

Woo | Communication | Includer | Input | Maximizer

My “Woo” tends to come out most when I deal with change, surrounding myself with new friends

Strengths can have a “dark side”– with “Woo,” this comes in the form of people-pleasing

FRESHMAN

Coursework

LDRS 201: Foundations of Leadership- This is the class that started me on the track to assessing who I am as a leader and what that means for my calling. What drove me to continue pursuing the Leadership Minor, actually, was the emphasis my Foundations professor placed on introspective exploration and development. I loved the idea of working on myself and my leadership skills throughout college, because I knew that in the stress of academia, it is common for people to lose sight of their personal wellbeing in favor of assignments and hard work. While these are important parts of college, of course, I wanted more out of my college experience than just a mortarboard, a tassel, and a piece of paper with Jon Wallace’s signature– I wanted to know that I was a better, more self-aware and well-rounded person for the experience. In taking this class, I realized that this minor would help me do that!

FRESHMAN

Experiences

During my freshman year, I began what would be a long and frustrating string of applying for student leadership positions and being turned down. Because my entire high school career had been a series of positional leadership experiences– from ASB to freshman mentoring to being a club co-president– it was unusual and extremely frustrating for me to all of a sudden have no leadership positions at all.

Toward the beginning of the year, I applied to be the LAC (Living Area Council) member for my hall in the dorms, but the position was instead given to my neighbor. Then, toward the end of the year, I applied to be an Alpha Leader and a chapel band singer for the following year, only to be bitterly disappointed once again. I think that this series of disappointments actually started me down a path through which I would learn a very important lesson: that leadership is not always positional.

FRESHMAN

Lessons and Themes

Strengths can have “dark sides,” too… constant awareness of these is vital to my growth as a leader.

Personal development is just as important as scholastic achievement, especially in leadership– I want to graduate with more than just a degree!

Sometimes, leadership positions just don’t work out, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a leader without them.

FRESHMAN

Strengths

SOPHOMOR

E

Includer | Input | Positivity | Woo | Communication

The appearance of “Communication” on my results for the second time reaffirmed my strength in communication and my choice of major!

Coursework LDRS 311: Leadership Values and Virtues- The most important

lesson I took away from this class was the value of studying other leaders’ styles, values, virtues, and philosophies in order to learn from them and shape my own leadership philosophy.

LDRS 322: Leadership Strengths and Skills- For someone like me who is fascinated by the study of strengths, this class was an absolute treat. In addition to the opportunity to explore my own strengths in a more in-depth setting, I also had the opportunity to hear from other people how their own strengths have played into their personalities and leadership experiences. Most importantly, though, I learned that the results of any personality test do not define me; rather, they give me insight into who I am and where my strengths lie.

LDRS 333: Leadership Influence and Impact- One takeaway from this class was somewhat freeing: I learned that a change agent doesn’t always have to see change through to the end, but can actually be simply a catalyst that will push the change initially and give it the momentum it needs to become a continuous movement. Additionally, through our reading of Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak, I was first introduced to the idea of vocation and calling, which would later play a huge role in my senior year transition into adult life.

SOPHOMOR

E

Experiences

RAR (Resident Advisor Roommate)– As a result of one of my roommates taking a leave of absence from APU, I ended up moving from the sophomore apartments into the all-girls freshman dorm for the second semester of this year, to live with a good friend of mine who was a Resident Advisor there. While this wasn’t technically a titled leadership position, I ended up learning a lot about myself and about leadership as a whole from this experience. In this role, I learned how very rewarding leadership can be. And I’m not talking about accolades, awards, or accomplishments; no, the rewards I am talking about simply come in the form of followers. As I said, this was a hard year for me… but I cannot tell you how many hugs, sweet little notes, and words of encouragement I got that semester from the girls on the hall. Although I was supposed to be the supportive role model for them, they also supported me, and it was one of the most successful and healthy leader-follower relationships I have ever experienced!

SOPHOMOR

E

Lessons and Themes

How do I define myself as a leader? Am I still a leader if I don’t have a title or a formal position? YES!

Studying the leadership styles, philosophies, and studies of others can play a huge part in defining my OWN leadership.

The most rewarding thing about leadership is a relationship with your followers.

SOPHOMOR

E

Strengths

JUNIOR

Input | Includer | Positivity | Woo | Maximizer

As a leader, “Input” plays out in my curiosity about my followers and my “collecting,” if you will, of their names and facts about them

As follower, “Input” makes me crave detailed directions and longing to know more about the person leading me

Coursework

COMM 330: Small Group Communication- This is the class in which I first learned about the Group Development Process and about shifting roles in Functional Leadership Theory, and I also got to see how different people can take on different leadership roles within the same group process and actually use that to be an effective team. While there isn’t necessarily always going to be a “group leader,” at least in a positional sense, the different roles of a leader can be taken up by different members of a team. By participating in a semester-long project, we got to see these concepts enacted in a real group setting.

JUNIOR

Experiences

I went into my job at APU’s Phonathon program at the start of this school year as a supervisor! It was in this role that I learned the more task-based side of leadership. While there is a relational component to any sort of leadership position, my job was more focused on productivity, discipline, and tasks. I learned to take initiative, since I had some difficulty in my first semester getting callers to respect me as a leader because I acted a bit more shy and distant at work than I had in past leadership roles. I ended up having to take more initiative, to be ok with having to discipline callers, and to be a more confident presence as a leader.

JUNIOR

Lessons and Themes

Curiosity can be a valuable asset to leadership.

Groups don’t always just have one leader… leadership roles can shift based on the needs of the group.

Leadership isn’t always just a fun “get-to-know-each-other” game. It also takes initiative, confidence, and sometimes even a firm, disciplining hand.

JUNIOR

Strengths

SENIOR

Input | Achiever | Significance | Futuristic | Focus

More academic-type strengths like “Focus” and “Achiever” crept into my results as I worked on finishing my college career strong

Input | Achiever | Futuristic | Woo | Competition

“Competition,” in me, is more of a self-competitive tendency. I constantly compete with myself to top my previous standards!

Coursework COMM 335: Leadership Communication- In addition to learning various

leadership theories and concepts in this class, we also chronicled a leadership position with which we were involved during the semester and spent time studying the leadership practices and culture of that organization. I chose to study and write about my experience as a member of the chapel bands , and through interviews, field observation, and course concepts, I was able to explore the leadership practices of the senior chapel band and assess the stronger and weaker qualities thereof.

LDRS 401: Leadership Practicum- This is the class that has tied the minor together, and that has given me the opportunity to really and truly explore my calling as I got ready to graduate and enter the “real world.” One major lesson I took away from this course was the idea of making a meaningful impact, because, as Tyler Wigg-Stevenson (2013) puts it in The World is Not Ours to Save, “Impact is value neutral. It’s a concept based on degree of influence rather than quality. If I make an impact on something, all I’ve done is hit it really hard—with no guarantee that it’s better for the collision” (p. 33). I also realized that to be an activist and to “make a difference,” I do not have to carry the weight of totally changing the world. Rather, my meaningful impact can create change in a smaller– but still significant– way.

SENIOR

Experiences

Lambda Pi Eta President- This year, I took on the responsibility of being Chapter President for APU’s chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, a nationwide communication honors society. Through this experience, I had to learn patience, and also become more comfortable with delegation. I am generally a bit of a “control freak” (Dear self, I use this criticism in the most loving way possible…), so it has always been very difficult for me to let go of projects and let other people take the lead. I was forced to do so in this role, though, because there were far too many events for me to get it all done on my own.

Chapel Worship Band- This experience was largely about learning to lead by example, and about realizing that as a leader, especially in a position like this, I am under constant scrutiny. Because I was now– literally and figuratively– in the spotlight, people knew who I was, and associated me with student leadership on campus. Everything I did on and off stage reflected back on Chapel Programs, and this made me much more aware of how I acted in all areas of my life!

I was also a Teacher’s Assistant, the Conference Intern for the David C. Bicker Communication Ethics Conference, a Phonathon supervisor, and the Assistant Coordinator for the TEDx Azusa Pacific University event. I tried to “do it all, and as such, I learned that when you have too much on your plate, it is impossible to give every single responsibility your all. Some things will suffer when I spread myself too thin, so I need to be wise about choosing what I commit to and learn how to say “no!”

SENIOR

Lessons and Themes

Don’t try to “change the world” as a leader… instead, try to make a valuable impact on whatever cause to which you choose to dedicate yourself!

Leaders are always under scrutiny; live authentically and congruently in every area of your life, and this won’t be a problem at all.

I can do it all… but I can’t do it all EXCEPTIONALLY. Leaders need to choose wisely and learn to say “no.”

SENIOR

Thanks!To my sophomore roommate and RA, Brigitta, for

giving me the opportunity to learn through the experience of being an RAR

To my past and present bosses at Phonathon– Jennie, Melissa, and Michaela– for helping me to grow in my leadership and supervisory skills!

To Dr. Ryan Hartwig, Wendi Dykes, Dr. Brooke Van Dam, and Starla Anderson, for showing me through their teaching and by example what it means to be a Christian leader

To Sandy Hough, Kristin Ritzau, Sarah Visser, Paul Kaak, and Jeff Boian, for their lessons on life and leadership over these past few years in this wonderful minor!

What’s Next?

What’s next for me, you ask? Well, I don’t know exactly… but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be proactive in figuring it out!

I am in the final stages of applying to become an English teacher with a program in South Korea, which would be a yearlong opportunity for me to immerse myself in a new culture, expand my worldview, and gain new perspective on leadership while guiding young Korean students toward learning objectives.

It is important to me to broaden the lens through which I see the world in order to understand others’ perspectives, and I think that familiarizing oneself with the viewpoints of others is vital to leadership development. I intend to explore this as thoroughly as possible, in order to determine what exactly is next for me as a scholar, an adventurer, a Christian worker, and a leader!