Personal Leadership Philosophy Research Paper

In emergency, I see myself as an Autocratic leader who makes quick decisions. On the other hand, I see myself as a Democratic leader when time and situation permit. Rarely, I can see myself as a Laissez-faire leader as I usually have hands-on with any process with my subordinates.

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.

I want others to be able to see my leadership philosophy at work. To do this, it is important that I be able to connect with those I seek to lead, as “The Relational Leadership Model” states, “Relationships are the focal point of the leadership process” (Komives, Lucas, & McMahon, p. 74). One way I hope to develop a relationship with my followers is by “Modeling the Way” (Kouzes, Posner, 2008). I will do this by clarifying my values and leading by example. Clarifying values is important because “To earn and sustain personal credibility, one must be able to clearly articulate deeply held beliefs” (Kouzes, Posner, 2008, p. 29). By clarifying my values, those I seek to lead will understand my mission and will believe I have a goal in mind. Leading by

My personal leadership philosophy is simple, lead by example and be authentic in everything you do. I always model the way with my staff. I make sure that if I request for them to be at work on time, I am on time. I make sure that if I set an appointment or promise something, I honor it. This is the only way to build rapport and gain respect from my team. I have learned through trials and tribulations that subordinates are always watching, even when we think they aren’t. Visibly spending time on what’s important shows that you’re putting your money where your mouth is (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). I take time with my staff to ensure they see that I value a good work ethic.

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.

My personal leadership philosophy reflects a desire to develop subordinates and create an efficient, purpose driven environment. A leader must create a clear vision which followers can understand in order to meet all the requirements of their unit. A leader must lead with the end in sight creating goal driven activity. I believe the way to measure the success of a leader is through the success of their subordinate leaders. Therefore, a leader must constantly develop their subordinate leaders. Passion drives success making it essential for a leader to create buy-in to their plan at every level. It is inevitable that a leader will have to make correction and in order for this to have a positive influence on the organization the correction must be clear, quick, and recoverable. My personal leadership philosophy focuses on these three main points; care for Soldiers, clear vision, development of subordinates, and positive corrective practices.

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,

Throughout my life and my military career I have experienced various leadership styles, from civilian employers to military Officers and Non-Commissioned officers alike. Each had their own approach to leadership, some I found to be effective and others I did not. I have attempted to create a leadership philosophy based on a fusion of the leaders I have encountered and my own personal experiences.

What is my leadership philosophy? That is a very good question which made me think for a while. First, what does the word philosophy really mean? The dictionary says the word philosophy comes from the Greek roots philo- meaning "love" and -sophos, or "wisdom." But what does it mean to me? Is it a way of life? Or simply what my values and beliefs are and the fact that I have control over it and it can be changed. After pondering over this question I can say my leadership philosophy is to make sure Soldiers are not being used as a

Leadership perspectives are very important when making decisions and strategies. A leader that only sees information on one side does not have the grasp on a situation. A leadership perspective such as understanding that there are more than one way to see things and it does not have to be what you see is what you get as a leader. When a leader uses their surrounding and employees the perspective may change and rather than seeing one side they see a variety.

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.

Through identification and ongoing assessment of her leadership style and ability this leader is able to develop and understand her own strengths and limitations in order to grow and develop into a more effective leader. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of servant leadership, contingency, path-goal styles leadership to gain an understanding of current leadership models, identify this author’s style of leadership and explore why leadership is important to organizations, society and this author.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

Leadership is a process of influencing activities of a particular group of people with the aim of attaining certain stipulated goals. In defining leadership there is need to consider a particular group, the common goals and the duties that are allocated to specific members of the group depending on their abilities (Fiedler 1976). Leadership therefore cannot successfully occur unless members of the group are given different considerations in terms of personality, traits and responsibilities. In considering leadership, it is important to look at the leader, the group or organization they are leading, the members as individuals and the situation; these are

The opportunity to positively affect the careers and lives of those I work alongside is one of the greatest privileges and responsibilities that I have. As a Boatswains Mate I’ve been fortunate to be in the presence of some great leaders; they defined leadership through their actions, not words. They epitomized the Core Values and expected the same from the crew. The bottom line was that they cared, respected, trusted us and empowered us to become the leader we wanted to be and more importantly the leader the service needs us to be so that we can continue our Service to Nation, Duty to People and Mission Excellence. As an Officer in Charge (OIC) I’m afforded a unique opportunity as an enlisted leader of a unit. Responsibility and accountability cannot be delegated and the repercussions of betraying those duties will have far lasting effects on not only the unit but also the members who were impacted by negative leadership and inconsistent alignment of values. My personal leadership philosophy, which has been drafted and revised numerous times throughout my career, now serves as my Command Philosophy: Family, Readiness and Mission Excellence.