Colorado State University
Personal Leadership Philosophy Paper
BUS 620 – Leadership & Teams, Fall 2014
Jessica Burch
SC - Margot Ganster
October 8, 2014
PERSONAL LEADERSHIP ASSUMPTIONS, VALUES AND INTEGRITY My thoughts, assumptions and personal values on leadership have developed over many years, simply holding the title as leader or manager is much more than being able to actually lead, and this ability is not a quality that everyone has, good bad or indifferent. Over the past seven weeks I have developed and grown in my own leadership philosophies.
Personal Assumptions and Values As a young child I looked up to my grandmother. She was the ideal roll model of what I considered to be a strong, independent and well respected lady. She taught me to hold true to my personal values, goals and beliefs regardless of how tough life may get. The value of having integrity, being trustworthy and loyal will become stronger and stronger over time. Today, those values have only become more important and defined, as time has gone by. In the years that have passed, I have witnessed countless leaders holding management rolls that simply failed to personally model their expectations. Simply holding a title given will not earn you the respect you need to be a successful leader of an organization or group.
Views on Personal Leadership Role After receiving feedback from my personal Leadership Practices Inventory 360, I can clearly see that fellow
The path to a personal leadership philosophy is made up of three parts. Each individual aspect is a facet of a complete whole. Much like a timeline that includes a past, present and future, my personal philosophy consists of a foundation, action, and growth. If you do not understand where your foundation of leadership came from, you will have problems acting in a leadership capacity. Also if don’t pay attention to how you are acting as a leader you cannot know in what ways you need to grow. Why should I spend the time and effort in developing myself as a leader? The Gunner’s Mate rating has a strength of just over 600 members. Maritime Force Protection Unit Kings Bay has 31 Gunner’s Mates assigned to it. I have a full five percent of the Gunner’s Mates in the Coast Guard that I lead. During my four year assignment at MFPU Kings Bay, approximately 55 Gunner’s mates (9.2 percent) will have been under my leadership. I see that as an enormous responsibility. As a young Gunner’s Mate I saw my senior leadership as people capable of effecting great change on the rating. Now today I am in the position to have that same impact.
Leadership is not a simple, static concept. It does not form overnight. Instead, it develops alongside experiences which form a person’s character. It is as dynamic as the events that shape our lives. My life experiences equip me with the knowledge to form my own leadership philosophy. As a Noncommissioned Officer, I ensure my subordinates understand my philosophy. I ensure they understand what I expect of them. The basis of my leadership philosophy is promoting self-development, serving others, being proactive, and being an example of effective leadership.
Being a leader is more than simply holding a leadership position or having the ability to lead. Everyone is capable of being a leader, but not everyone exercises his or her leadership abilities. Each person’s idea of leadership is different. My idea of leadership has developed over time, and being a member of the President’s Leadership Class has helped me develop my philosophy of leadership further than what it was two months ago. My personal philosophy of leadership is the ability to effect change through leading by example, taking initiative, and encouraging others.
Before going through this journey of self-discovery, my view of leadership was accurately described by John C. Maxwell “ Leadership is influence.” (Maxwell, para. 25, 2012). I believed, before taking this class and Northouse’s (2013) assessments, leaders were defined by the extent to which they could influence others to achieve company goals. I thought that, when discussing leadership, the leader was the most important aspect of the leader-member dyad and that it was the leader who had the greatest influence over how successful the organization was. Leaders themselves, in my view, should have been the focus of leadership studies and it should have been up to the leader to develop his/her skills in
According to dictionary.com leadership is defined as, the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group: Its synonyms include guidance, influence, control, direction and supervision. These are all qualifications that are needed to be an effective leader. All characteristics are not necessarily needed at the same time and do no need to be used for each subordinate. This paper will identify my personal leadership philosophy along with theories to support my leadership style.
Participating in the course Foundations of Organizational Leadership presented many opportunities to enhance and enrich my perspective on leadership as well as develop my own unique leadership philosophy. By observing the theories, models and cases presented in Northouse, Kouzes and Posner textbooks, I was able to learn through the experience of others what a true leader should represent. While considering the strengths and weaknesses of each theory, I am able to implement a leadership style with an effective approach tailored to many different types of learners. In addition, witnessing both the triumphs and failures of various businesses and leadership styles, helped me confirm my personal stance and aspirations towards becoming a leader. By implementing what I have learned from the course and textbooks, I will address in this paper what specific leadership theories, styles and models have contributed to forming my own leadership philosophy. In addition, I will also define the values, qualities, strengths and weaknesses and ethical considerations that pertain to my stance on leadership. By integrating a faith based approach as the foundation of my leadership style, I hope to implement my new philosophy into my current and future career path.
Phase 1 of the Personal Leadership Philosophy Paper presented the opinion and supporting information establishing that; leaders are products of opportunity, birth and environment, but of these; opportunity influences great leadership the most. Furthermore, it was discussed that assigned leadership is a cancer to corporate America and this point is illustrated in the following example. While employed at Deloitte and Touché Consulting Group (DNT) we engaged ARCO, a major oil and gas company, to develop and implement an email migration strategy that consisted of 1200 Arco users at their subsidiary company, Vaster Resources Inc. In the initial meeting we were introduced to a gentleman, we will call John Smith for the purposes of this paper,
This week explored and learned that there are desirable leadership traits to acquire, that becoming a leader can be a conscious process and that being a leader also means to owe respect and have a responsibility to others.
My father once told me that, “everything we do— be it in academia, at work, social or family life—we are guided by principles, beliefs and values that collectively form our ideology of life.” I believe that every leader, to a certain extent, is shaped through her individual personal experience. Although in some cases, we may not realize to what extent our personal assumptions and beliefs shape our ability to lead or be led.
following is my personal insight on leadership and how I feel we can successfully guide
My leadership philosophy is based on a set of core value. As a leader, we seek
As a graduate student approaching her final semester in school, thoughts regarding my leadership abilities in the soon-to-be “real world” have occupied my mind lately. To further explore and develop my ideas about leadership, I decided to develop my personal leadership theory. So, I asked myself the following questions: What makes a successful leader? How do you recognize a leader when you meet one?, and lastly, what is my theory of leadership? With this last question I thought about what leadership meant to me personally and how I personified it in a role of authority. While I had given thought to how I led, I had rarely taken the time to fully understand what my personal leadership theory entailed. Throughout the length of this paper I will analyze how my leadership skills, traits, values and elements from both Authentic Transformational theories help me to shape my leadership philosophy. In doing so I hope to define the leadership values that influence the way I view and practice leadership.
“If you actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” (John Quincy Adams, as cited in Forbes, 2014, p. 1). A leader is mentor, guiding others to their best. In this paper, I will reflect on my personal values and beliefs regarding leadership. Next, I will discuss a leader in my life that personally resonates with me. I will then discuss the attributes of my chosen leader and relate them to theory on leadership, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, group dynamics and peace and power concepts and identify the leadership style that my chosen leader embodies. Finally, I will discuss how my leadership philosophy and the newly acquired theory will impact my future career as a nurse.
Instead of adopting a single leadership theory, I have embraced aspects of the following theories that I feel align with my personal approach to
Denis Waitley (1995) in his book, Empire of the Mind, encourages the reader to explore his/her beliefs on leadership. He asks the reader to be cognizant of how these beliefs manifest themselves in our lives, by stating, "What the mind harbors, the body manifests in some way" (p. 119). My beliefs about leadership are shaped by my experiences with my father. I have compiled a list of good leadership qualities from watching him interact with others over the years.