My Personal Definition Of Leadership

What does leadership mean to me? Most dictionaries define leadership as, “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.” A lot of people think that being a leader is all about having a lot of followers and success but it’s definitely more than that. To me leadership is a quality that someone acquires through life experiences, self knowledge, and through visions in making a difference. Leadership allows a person to naturally motivate and inspire a group of people to captivate in his or her vision. There are many different types of leaders that have their own ways of leading, whether good or bad. But one thing that all great leaders have in common is that they know how to attain their goals and inspire people to captivate

What is leadership? When examining this question it is important to understand what it means to be a leader within an organization. “Leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change (Achua, 2010, p. 6). Leaders serves people best when they help them develop their own initiative and good judgment, enable them to grow, and help them become better contributors (Thomas S Bateman, 2010, p. 66). Unlike management leadership flows from the core of a personality and cannot be taught; although leadership can be learned and may be enhanced through coaching and mentoring. Leadership involves unique processes that are distinguishable from basic management processes (Thomas S Bateman,

Leadership is often defined as the act of leading a group of people or an organization. In its simplest terms I completely agree with that statement, but how that group of people is lead is an integral part of the definition. Leadership development has become a focus of the Coast Guard for good reason. Providing its members with tools to lead, mentor, and inspire among other qualities in order to care for their shipmates with a goal of maintaining mission readiness is how I would explain leadership within the Coast Guard.

The moments that shaped my lens through which leadership is pulled into focus are plentiful and occurred over time. The first, shared above, was being thrust into a leadership role, completely unprepared for the job. The next was my becoming a Coast Guard (CG) Boat Coxswain. This is a matter of great responsibility; CG asset, CG people, CG mission, all the responsibility of the coxswain. Amazingly, my coxswain certification was complete simultaneously with my undergraduate graduation. Consequently, becoming a teacher of science as a civilian job was the next leadership

How I define leadership has mostly to do with 27 years of service in the Army and 20 of those years spent as a Non-Commissioned Officer. Simply put, I believe leadership is the balancing of two competing priorities, the accomplishment of the mission and the welfare of the people that are in your charge. Others can probably think up a million of other subcategories that go into defining leadership, but I believe those are the two over arching things a leader has to do. I see those two priorities being symbiotic because without the people I can’t accomplish the mission but without the mission I don’t need the people.

My definition of Leadership is similar to the Coast Guard’s definition of Leadership, which is to influence others to achieve the same goal. The Coast Guard’s definition of leadership from the Leadership Development Framework COMDTINST M5351.3 is Leadership is the ability to influence others to obtain their obedience, respect, confidence, and loyal cooperation. My previous leadership influences during my career were able to lead myself and my shipmates by influencing us to accomplish many missions. The BMC Rick Barones and the MKCM Darcy Collins of the Coast Guard influence their people with compassion and respect. They also lead with confidence and knowledge of their rates and craft, which made them worth listening to.

“Where there is no community, trust, respect, ethical behavior is difficult for the young to learn and from the old to maintain” (Robert K Greenleaf). The founder of servant leadership, Robert K Greenleaf; believes that every person ought to own values that could support and guide others. According to Greenleaf, “The servant leader is servant first; it begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve”(…………….). In order to serve people must comprehend values; which are a person’s ethics of behavior shaping his or her vision. In addition, values could be distinct from taking the survey created by Milton Rokeach; which consist of the most important morals and beliefs and how it influences people, organizations, and society (Johnston, 1995). Furthermore, servant leaders have a purpose; which can be determined with the personal models of leadership; which are the advancement of personal growth and values. My personal model of leadership reflects and creates a purpose on my values and beliefs; which are trust, responsibility, equality and loving demonstrating how it impacts an individual, interpersonal, organizational and societal. In conclusion, once people comprehend their value and decide their personal model it will define them as a servant leader because it does not matter if it is today or tomorrow, the values will then have the same principles (Lee, Fabish & McGaw, 2005).

Leadership is the process of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing guidance, purpose and motivation. This idea of the leadership has been shaped and molded throughout my career, being exposed to the transition of the post 9/11 Coast Guard, experiencing multi-national operations/exercises on forward deployed assets, fostering relationships with inter-agency partners to effectively support counter terrorism and counter narcotic missions and developing processes at one of five Geographic Combatant Commands; has set the foundation for my own personal philosophy.

I have long observed many leaders in my time since enlisting in the Coast Guard from an early age. I have seen the good leadership styles and the bad. Each observation is equally important as it helped build my foundation and principles for which I choose to lead. Leadership to me is the simple fact of establishing guiding principles for others to follow. If done correctly each individual that is affected by my leadership should have a positive experience. I have had many great leaders in my career that have had a great influence on me.

I witnessed leaders who were neither personable nor pleasant. These individuals did not communicate with or mentor their subordinates, did not provide guidance and micro-managed all actions. These leaders simply dictated their wants and berated subordinates who did not comply. They were strict and harsh; the embodiment of my younger self’s vision of what leadership was. Although I wanted to be a leader, I knew I never could exhibit leadership the way they did. I was too shy, too caring and most of all, I did not agree with their leadership methods. However, I did learn from them. I learned what not to do. As Lou Holtz stated in his book Wins, Losses, and Lessons (2006), “You can learn a lot by observing, as well as by performing” (p. 17).

My definition of leadership isn’t one that came easily to me. All throughout my Coast Guard career, I’ve learned through boot camp, LAMS, CPOA, and other leadership training that the definition is “You, influencing others to reach a goal.” I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, but I am going to tweak it. My definition of leadership is “Empowering others to do everything they need to accomplish a given task.”

Leadership is best defined by Colin Powell “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership” This statement is simple and concise, unlike the actions of solving problems. Being a great leader is the ability to tackle difficult problems by facilitating actions through others. The leadership lessons I have had during my career have had an overwhelming impact on my character; these moments, were life altering. Leadership styles differ from person-to-person but, the few I truly admire know themselves well. This trait is very rare, and

I define leadership as setting a determined example through personal actions and ethics that influences others to greater levels of performance. I set a high standard for myself. I expect the same of others. I strongly believe in setting the example for those around me as a result of poor leaders I have had the misfortune to serve under in the past. I have worked for Chiefs who had no idea what I, or those that worked with and for me, did on a daily basis. I have worked for Chief’s whose relationships with the chain of command were so toxic they forced me to work around them in order to accomplish any tasks. I have worked for Master Chiefs who stepped into a job where they had no clue what our division’s purpose was; rather than learn it,

Beginning in boot camp and continuing throughout my career, I’ve seen the Coast Guard promote the leadership model to be: “You” influencing “Others” to achieve a “Goal”. With all the different ways leadership can be defined, this simplistic model which has been permanently engrained in my thinking definition still rings true for me. As such, when defining my own personal definition of leadership, I align it to this same model. More specifically, while I support the fact that leadership involves influencing others to achieve a common end I propose that is not the whole story. Leaders must not be stagnant in their vision and must lend themselves to the possibility they may have to adjust their leadership styles depending on the goal. The best leaders are the ones that understand their own personality traits as well as those traits of the people they are trying to lead.

Leadership can be defined as a process where one individual influences one or more individuals to work towards a common goal (Northouse, 2009). I am passionate about leadership and this is what I currently do. I am an active duty professional with more than 33 years experience in the military. I have trained, cared for, motivated and led about 7,000 soldiers in various operations during my active duty years. My aim is to ensure that all the soldiers under my command are equipped physically and mentally to defeat the enemy, complete the mission and return back safely to their families at the end of each mission.