Megan King

HCOM 3364
4/29/14
Leadership Philosophy
Through my experiences in this course and in leadership positions during my time at
Trinity, I have become more in tune with my own personal leadership style, my strengths and
weaknesses as a leader, and what someone could expect from me as a leader. I have been able to
connect my own leadership to research-backed theories, and through these connections I have
come to see what I bring to the table as a leader and what makes me unique in leadership roles.
As I look back on this course and on my college career as a whole, I am glad that I learned so
much about leadership and communication, and I hope to use this philosophy as a summarization
of my own self-reflections throughout my experiences this semester.
Two important personal values that permeate my leadership are trust and openness. I find
that, when these two things are present, my leadership is immensely better. It is necessary to
have a level of trust between leaders and followers. This not only adds to productivity, but also
generally can boost the satisfaction level within an organization. The more a leader can be
trusted, the more a follower will trust the leader and work toward their shared goals. I can carry
this out simply by being honest with members of my organization and giving them greater
responsibilities. This increases trust on both ends, which is even more effective. Openness has
also been extremely important to me in general and as a leader. I find that when I am open to my
followers, they are more understanding and appreciative of the work we are doing. It can also
add a feeling of cooperativeness to an organization because a leaders actions are more
transparent to the members of the organization. I have carried this out before in my leadership
through presentations (such as budget updates, for example) that make my actions as a leader
open to other members of my organization. Actions like these keep my accountable as a leader
and can increase trust, my other core value. Trust and openness are important to me in everyday
life and transfer seamlessly into my actions as a leader.
One of the theories we have discussed that I connect to most as a leader is the relational
approach to leadership. While there are aspects of others that I find important, the relational
approach seems to best sum up what I try to do as a leader. More specifically, I think I most align
myself with Leader-Member Exchange Theory within this approach. When I am given
leadership roles, my instinct is to immediately begin building a relationship with my
followers/group members. The developers of Leader-Member Exchange Theory claim that
there is a link between relational quality and personal and organizational effectiveness
(Hackman & Johnson, 2009, p. 92). Throughout my leadership experience at Trinity, it has
become obvious that to gain cooperation from and to motivate followers, the leader must build a
relationship with them. While this may not necessarily be a one-on-one friendship, this can come
in the form of acknowledgement, a quick, private e-mail of appreciation, etc. This immediately
starts a relationship with each follower, making them more motivated to succeed within the
organization and to cooperate with the requests of the leader. In my time as APO President this
semester, it has been important for me to build my relationships with my members. It has made
them more receptive to the new ideas that we have been implementing, and it also makes for
more pleasant organization meetings as well. In my own leadership style, the ideals of Leader-
Member Exchange Theory and the relational approach are alive and well.
After reflecting on my experiences, I would say that I am a leader not only in my
appointed/elected positions, but also in my general interactions with others. While elected
positions are obvious examples, I tend to extend my leadership naturally into my friend groups as
well. I am typically the member of the group who coordinates events with other members,
contacts other members, and brings them together or sets plans in motion. Part of this, Im sure,
is because of my nature. I consider myself a planner, and this can definitely manifest itself at
times in my leadership within my friend group. I also consider myself an extrovert, so often
times I drive conversation or group interactions naturally because of that trait. It is interesting to
see leadership bleed over into my everyday interactions; I hadnt thought much about this
happening before, but it is very clear that it does. My planner nature and my extroverted
personality make it natural for me to lead at times during my day to day life.
I have several strengths and weaknesses as a leader. My first and most important strength,
in my opinion, is my passion for everything that I do. When I am a leader in a given
organization, it is because I want to lead that group of people and I am passionate about what we
are doing together. I think it is important to love what you do as a leader; if you dont, who will?
Along with this comes enthusiasm. I am always excited as a leader for my groups activities.
This is important for motivation of other members and to keep energy levels consistently high.
My next strength is the way I relate to followers. While some leaders may treat leadership roles
as if they are above group members/followers, I like to take a different approach. I want
followers to have ownership of their ideas and what we are accomplishing, so I often ask them
for input and empower them with various jobs that give them more responsibility within the
organization. While this may not look exactly the same in a larger, business context, I think it is
important to make followers feel valued. This increases motivation and satisfaction and doesnt
require a whole lot of extra work on the part of the leader; in fact, it make even make his/her life
easier. This is one of the things I have loved about serving as APO President this semester, and I
hope to revisit this idea later in other leadership roles. One of my weaknesses as a leader is that I
am a perfectionist in that I want all activities to go smoothly and perfectly. This isnt something
that I can ever expect, but I always strive for it and it can be discouraging if something falls
through. It is difficult to see the value in something that did not go as planned, but as I continue
to evaluate myself as a leader, it is something I will try to do more.
I would describe myself as a passionate, driven, hard-working leader. Followers can
expect a cooperative environment with a great deal of self- and whole-group reflection; I think it
is important to evaluate and reevaluate over time to assess the operations of an organization and
the effectiveness of leaders and followers work together. I am full of ideas and tend to take on
ambitious projects, but with the help of willing and equally passionate followers, there are so
many possibilities in what can be accomplished. I believe it is important to establish a
relationship with followers to increase motivation and satisfaction, and in my previous
experiences as a leader this has been one of the key factors in my success.
Looking back over this course and my own experiences, the previous statement sums up
what I aim to be as a leader in the future. At times, I may not be able to accomplish everything I
want to, but I hope that, given a leadership role in the future, I can see these ideas come to life.
Coming up with a sort of vision statement like this will help me to uphold these ideas in my own
leadership. Knowing my own ideal self as a leader, I hope to remember my values moving
forward into the real world and, hopefully, into more serious leadership endeavors.
References
Hackman, M. Z. & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: A Communication Perspective. Long
Grove, IL: Waveland.