Category: E-Portfolio

Women are always seen by society as frail and men are seen as the dominant person when it comes to leadership. There is still an inequality in society because men and women are not treated with the same respect. There are different expectations of how a woman should behave,where as those expectations do not exist for a man.

An adaptive leader is someone who helps his or her followers complete a task without completing the entire thing for them. An adaptive leader helps the followers complete the task by guiding them in the right direction.  Adaptive leadership focuses on how people react with change and how they will deal with the change in the environment. Adaptive leaders encourage their followers to asses the challenge and be willing to be flexible. An example of something that demonstrates adaptive leadership is the EPA. The EPA is the the environmental protection agency and they asses and research about the environment. They have to show adaptive leadership because there is a constant change in the environment and they have to be able to be flexible and think of a solution and enforce the laws. Servant leadership demonstrates how a leader should put his or her followers before themselves. Someone who is a servant leader will listen and interact with his or her followers and show empathy towards them. Servant leadership is described as leadership that puts their followers first through commitment to the growth of people and awareness.  An example of servant leadership can be seen in society is Abraham Lincoln. During the civil war, Lincoln fought to maintain the unity of the nation during the Civil War. He could have ignored the problem of slavery and avoided the war, but he chose to address the issue because he knew that the outcome would be beneficial. Transformational leadership is described as a type of leadership that motivates followers to become leaders themselves. Transformational leaders encourage the followers to motivate themselves and achieve the goals that they set.  An example of transformational leader is John Rockefeller. Transformational leaders usually work behind the scenes by motivating followers to be superior leaders. He is an example of a transformational leader because he involved everyone in his oil company to be leaders and strive for a common goal. This method works in business because companies who have employers that are content and working together will function better than companies who have employees that are having conflict all the time. Another type of leadership is known as charismatic leadership. This type of leadership is defined as a leader who motivates his or her followers by being persuasive. They are able to convince their followers because of the way they are expressing themselves. This allows them to have many followers because followers come together and united for a common cause of achieving what the leader wants.  An example of charismatic leader is Martin Luther King Junior. This is because he was able to rally many people during the civil rights movement by engaging them on the idea of equal rights for all citizens.  A mixture of these leadership styles make a leader who will be able to address all the issues at hand. There is no single trait that is the definition of leadership because all the traits have faults, so the best way to define a good leader is someone who falls under multiple theories of leadership.

My understanding of leadership has changed greatly throughout the course of this semester. What started of as only focusing on the traits and personality of a person to determine the kind of leadership they will have has changed to how these types of leadership styles affect the person as a whole and the group. By this I mean that I am focusing on how personal experiences, values and beliefs can affect the group rather than just if the leader is confident or not. I use to believe that a good leader is someone who is extroverted and develops the traits that were listed in the trait theory. However, now after many self reflections, lecture reflections and the media paper project, I think that I understand the big picture of leadership. I learned a new concept of leadership with every assignment that I did that required me to reflect on my own leadership and someone’s else leadership. In general, through the reflections I did about leadership I was able to explore my development as a leader. In my first reflection I did a journal entry that discussed how leadership will affect my life because of my future aspirations of a career in medicine. I discussed how important it is for doctors to gain the trust of their patients and how if they do not gain their trust the patients will not trust their course of treatment. My main point behind the first journal entry was that without some loyal followers a leader can not be successful. My understanding and analysis of leadership was very surface level as I explored how leadership affects me and how the trait theory is not a good conclusion of distinguishing leaders. In my second reflection I discussed through a poem how I could gain courage. I discuss that at start of poem I am a person who scared to be front of many people and this results in my followers not taking me as seriously as their leader. Then as the poem continues I show how I develop a leadership style that encompasses a balance of fun and authority. The end of the poem I discuss the change of how even though I am nervous and having anxiety I can overcome that with courage In my third leadership reflection I discuss how it use to be daunting to me to be a leader because I would be scared to be in front of many people. Through the lecture reflections I was able to understand not only the textbook definitions of the types of leaderships, but also how personal values, integrity and ethical leadership all tie together. The two lectures that impacted me the most were the Cuddy complex and Monika Korra. Through Monika Korra I was able to understand how self empowerment and courage can rebuild a person after a traumatic event. She inspired me because she was there not to discuss her about her attack, but how an event like that should not consume your life. In the Cuddy Complex it discussed the social issue that is racial inequality. I learned that a good leader is not just someone who has a good attitude and focuses on the good. I learned that a good leader has to take into account both sides a situation and stand up for his or her followers. Through the speakers I was able to learn about how to become a netter leader because they were speaking from experience.