Leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in another situation (Northouse, 2016, p. 20). I can relate to this describing two different experiences as a leader of two separate events. I approached the first event much like Stogdill’s research approach, using a survey to asses the position of others before planning the event. I received overwhelming responses, exhibiting one trait, social interaction engaging across platforms of social media, email and telephone. The second event required in person support to share ideas dealing with a compressed timeline, I exhibited the drive to exercise initiative in social situations. Before going into detail about each event, and the outcome as a leader, Stogdill’s research on trait characteristics he found both in 1948 and 1974, were insight, responsibility, initiative, persistence, self-confidence and sociability. I believe each characteristic is important to my leadership style. My style is of open-ness to include various points of view, reviewing the situation at the end and aligning actions. I find insight is important to trust your initial thoughts at times, adjusting as needed to the methods of trial and error. I have strong beliefs that may intuition is usually spot on when is comes to assessing my surroundings that has saved me only a minutes later when revealed accurate. Intuitive decision making can help magnify issues, but a good leader knows emotions can sometimes prevent you from seeing a broader view. Nosich(2012) revealed that emotions give us data, for example sometimes people have a narrow view of rationality (p.15). Suppose that while walking through a neighborhood at dusk ,you becomes afraid you are in danger (Nosich, 2012, p. 15). If they cannot pinpoint what is damages about the situation, they draw conclusion that their fears are unfounded (Nosich, 2012, p. 15). I say that to say, insight is good to reason through why we feel a certain way, responsibility is good to own the results of our involvement, persistence is good to know whether or not continue working towards change or find another approach until we are satisfied, self-confidence having faith to exercise our power and sociability to be engaging to all to find their own ways to contribute.
Based on Stogdill’s findings, my actions do align with traits mentioned above. For example, I decided to host of my first high school reunion. I made it known the reasons why, persistence I would add was key because within the time span of 9 months, it was important to keep consistent communication. Getting closer to the event, I started to detract from self-confidence in pulling it off because grand plans of hosting at a hotel was downsized after the selection of the date, timing seemed to be off for potential attendees, despite the date being the top selection in the survey. I didn’t believe there could be any other way to pull it off without doing it one way. I consulted with my team for some insight and reviewed my own beliefs before the event. The event occurred as expected in fact some attended and others didn’t but unexpectedly it gave attendees something to aspire to attend events like this in the future to add to their list of social events. Once I decided on a end goal, it was much easier to lead others in a clear direction, the same can be said in a second situation when no one agreed to developing flyers or sign up roster through a webpage for an event, I assumed the role. I found a website designed two or three designs, then when presented I was confronted with policy guidelines what not to do. I started to pull back from responsibility acknowledging that I was unaware of the policy, and taped in to sociability discussing this over with a proper contacts, and discovering my limitations but another ability to take over a portion of the responsibility designing a sign in form. I exhibited initiative to transition the task to another more fitting for the task giving insight and that person nailed it. Afterwards, I was told I did a great job seeing the potential in another as they executed the job flawlessly.
My leadership style were quite the same in both situations unique to specific traits, however, being able to work through leadership traits Stogdell (1948 and 1974) listed is something that takes me back to an arguerable similarity between a trait and a skill, that they can be developed.
Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think things through: A guide to critical thinking across the curriculum (4th edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
No comments:
Post a Comment