Exploring Leadership: an Honors Seminar
LeaderShape inspired me to lead. I knew what I wanted to do and had a plan, but I had no background information to start from. The Exploring Leadership seminar gave me an opportunity to look at leadership styles and their applications to situations with real life connections.
Coming into the course, I still had the misconception that a leader was always some exceptionally extroverted archetype, full of energy and ideas. This notion was the perfect leader in my head, at least before taking the class. This class taught me that a leader had to go into every situation and lead according to a variety of factors such as motivation, demographics, task, and relationships among team members.
The course followed Peter G. Northouse's text: Leadership, Theory and Practice. The first four chapters discuss leadership from the leader’s perspective, such as the traits, skills, and styles of leading. The second set of chapters focuses on the follower and how the leader must carefully examine those who he or she is leading and adjust appropriately. The third set of chapters tends to be more complete, looking at who a leader is and who the followers are based in a necessarily important concept: context.
Here are some of the leadership theories discussed in the book with a very simple simple explanation:
Trait theory -> "Leader's are born, not made"
Skill theory -> Leaders are determined by a set of teachable skills
Style theory -> a leader has a set of skills and behaviors that are good for certain tasks
Situational approach -> team members go through stages of needing directive and or support, depending on the task
Contingency Theory -> best results with matched member and leader personalities
Transformational Leadership -> a leader's ability to inspire fellow members directly relates to performance.
More detailed information is in my essay. Not any of these theories is wrong, but rather state that no one leader is going to be great in all situations. A leader in healthcare is going to lead differently than a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, who is going to lead differently than someone directing an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. A good leader has to be flexible to both personal goals and needs of the team, with varying degrees according to the situation. In fact, sometimes a leader doesn't have to be actively "leading." Often it is best to let a team member take responsibility to feel more involved in the task at hand and therefore become more motivated.
In a world where leadership is visible in every facet of life, it is important to have a well-rounded idea of ways to lead. Inappropriate leading can lead to failure to meet goals, disorganization, resentment, and even dismantling of a team. This class helped me to redefine myself as a leader. I learned leading styles that I used as an RA and Academic Coach, and will continue to use in future leadership roles. Transformational Leadership was particularly important for me in the Academic Coach role. More can be seen in the documents from the class linked below.
Coming into the course, I still had the misconception that a leader was always some exceptionally extroverted archetype, full of energy and ideas. This notion was the perfect leader in my head, at least before taking the class. This class taught me that a leader had to go into every situation and lead according to a variety of factors such as motivation, demographics, task, and relationships among team members.
The course followed Peter G. Northouse's text: Leadership, Theory and Practice. The first four chapters discuss leadership from the leader’s perspective, such as the traits, skills, and styles of leading. The second set of chapters focuses on the follower and how the leader must carefully examine those who he or she is leading and adjust appropriately. The third set of chapters tends to be more complete, looking at who a leader is and who the followers are based in a necessarily important concept: context.
Here are some of the leadership theories discussed in the book with a very simple simple explanation:
Trait theory -> "Leader's are born, not made"
Skill theory -> Leaders are determined by a set of teachable skills
Style theory -> a leader has a set of skills and behaviors that are good for certain tasks
Situational approach -> team members go through stages of needing directive and or support, depending on the task
Contingency Theory -> best results with matched member and leader personalities
Transformational Leadership -> a leader's ability to inspire fellow members directly relates to performance.
More detailed information is in my essay. Not any of these theories is wrong, but rather state that no one leader is going to be great in all situations. A leader in healthcare is going to lead differently than a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, who is going to lead differently than someone directing an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. A good leader has to be flexible to both personal goals and needs of the team, with varying degrees according to the situation. In fact, sometimes a leader doesn't have to be actively "leading." Often it is best to let a team member take responsibility to feel more involved in the task at hand and therefore become more motivated.
In a world where leadership is visible in every facet of life, it is important to have a well-rounded idea of ways to lead. Inappropriate leading can lead to failure to meet goals, disorganization, resentment, and even dismantling of a team. This class helped me to redefine myself as a leader. I learned leading styles that I used as an RA and Academic Coach, and will continue to use in future leadership roles. Transformational Leadership was particularly important for me in the Academic Coach role. More can be seen in the documents from the class linked below.