Nikki Devens

UNIV 392
Scott Harris
10 June 2015
As a returning College Coach, I have been thinking about how the
connections between power and leadership were at play last summer.
Personally, I identify with the assigned and emergent leadership types.
Last summer, the College Coach staff was a mess. We all had different
leadership types but we struggled to accept any type that was not our
own. Everyone wanted to control and lead everyone on staff, from the
way we dealt with students to the programs we lead. It caused much
hostility within the staff and kept us from functioning as a successful
group. As leaders we can have a tendency to want everything our way
and for everyone to listen to us but, leaders need to know when to step
back as well. This summer, I have struggled to find the balance
between when my power as a returning College Coach was helpful and
when it was, for lack of a better word, smothering the new ideas of the
new College Coaches. I think that I am an emergent/trait leader
because I am talkative and outgoing and want to be seen as a leader
by everyone. I am beginning to see how this is helpful but, also
harmful. I want to use my knowledge and experience as a College
Coach to help the new hires have a fun and successful summer but I
really do not want them to feel that I am using my experience to assert
dominance over them.

I can see the differences and similarities between the past staff
and the current staff already. Like last year, this summer I can clearly
see all the different leadership and power types. However, I feel like
this summer we have summer we have more respect for each other
and the specific role we play in the staff. We all understand that we all
have expert power in certain situations (which is process leadership!).
For example, someone who uses reverent power would be most
effective on a move-in day, whereas someone who uses coercive
power might be better disciplining students. Over the course of last
summer, we went from having all different types of leaders to all of us
trying to force ourselves into the emergent leader position. However, if
everyone is trying to gain and hold leadership, no one can actually
hold on to the power. We became more focused on who held the power
that we put the students on the back burner.
I think that the most important part of having leadership and
power is knowing when to let others lead. We cannot always be in
charge and we cannot always hold all the power. Everyone has skills
and experiences that let them be better leaders in different situations
because everyone is different. To be a successful College Coach this
summer, we have to learn how to accept and embrace these different
leadership and powers styles because they will make us a successful
team in the end.