Megan Lord

Management & Organization

December 2, 2014
Leadership Philosophy

One of the most perplex question many companies try to define would be, what is a
leader? Robbins and Coulter classifies a leader as, someone who can influence others and who
has a managerial authority, they also add that leadership is, a process of leading a group and
influencing that group to achieve their goals (Robbins, 536). Personally, I consider myself as a
maturing strong leader, who aspires to become a successful manager one day, whom many
respect and trust to work for. My personal mission statement is to serve as an inspirational
leader. I seek to provide opportunities for others to grow and nurture their development. I would
utilize my skills of organization, interpersonal and motivation to encourage others to work
towards their fullest potential. My leadership style supports the Ohio state studies mostly,
acquiring both an initiating structure and consideration (Robbins, 539).
A strong philosophy that I go by as a developing manager is, one needs to know how to
follow before they can lead. Being aware of how you are treating your fellow employees, is
essential to high performance and member satisfaction. Experiencing all levels of employment or
roles in a corporation can help a leader understand those in positions lower than them. Obtaining
a behavioral dimension of consideration means, a leader has work relationships characterized
by mutual trust and respect for group members ideas and feelings (Robbins, 539). I aspire to be
a high-high leader, where I am easily approachable and care for my employees well-being but
also set goals and roles for each group member (Robbins, 539). Personally, I like to follow a
democratic leadership style, where lower-level managers are involved in decision-making and
delegate feedback; utilizing their knowledge of the issues that occur on the sales floor can help
upper-management get an insight of the problems that need to be improved.
As I begin to acquire executive positions during my college career, where times are
constantly changing so wouldnt my leadership style. Being a strong leader requires continuous

improvements, that receiving constructive criticism from your peers now can effective benefit
you in the future. Currently, I am the Service & Giving Chairman of Alpha Sigma Alpha and
have had great feedback from my sisters on what I need to improve on. One of the
characteristics that I need to mature on is what, Harvard Business Review calls, emotional
intelligence which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social
skill (Goleman).
Self-awareness is a trait that I preferable want to develop for the reason that I want to
better understand my strengths, weaknesses and to just continuously be honest with those I work
with. I have high expectations from those that I work with because when I have a task to carry
out, I will put my full focus on making sure every detail is taken care of to know that there will
be a successful turnout. The review continues to explain that leaders that have self-awareness,
recognizes how their feelings affect them, other people, and their job performance. Thus, a selfaware person who knows that tight deadlines bring out the worst in him plans his time carefully
and gets his work done well in advance (Goleman). Another characteristic that would build my
leadership skills would have to be self-regulation, which is when engaged in such a
conversation that they feel bad moods and emotional impulses just as everyone else does, but
they find ways to control them and even to channel them in useful ways (Goleman). I will admit
that I have caught myself losing control of my emotions when I have felt frustrated towards a
member that didnt fulfill their task.
I have just recently been elected Vice President of the National Society of Leadership and
Success, this astounding program develops stages that every member has to pass through to
progress their skills as a leader. Now maintaining two executive positions, I am holding myself
to a higher standard to what I need to do to improve my overall leadership style. The approach

that I will begin to take on will be to clearly assign tasks to my members, this semester I wasnt
as precise as to what each sister had to do. I will now take the time before meetings to list the
main topics that need to be discussed with specific tasks for each person. This way our meetings
are more efficient and effect with staying on track. Containing self-control on my emotions will
be my challenge for the reason that I hold such a high standard to how I would like a task to be
done and realize that there are people that work differently than I do. With more responsibilities
that I am now taking on, there will also be more problems that will arise, I will take a different
approach that is more professional and is sensitive to others that may not see a situation the way I
do. From a Forbes article, Kevin Kruse defines leadership as, a process of social influence,
which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal, this to me truly
illustrates when one is leading those that aspire to follow because of a common purpose (Kruse).

Bibliography
Goleman, Daniel. "What Makes a Leader?" Harvard Business Review. N.p., Jan. 2004. Web. 29 Nov.
2014. <https://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader/ar/1>.
Kruse, Kevin. "What Is Leadership?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/>.
Robbins, Stephen P., and Mary Coulter. Management. Harlow, England: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.