Leadership Identity Development Timeline

This leadership identity development timeline represents the leadership positions that I have held throughout my life that have shaped me into the leader that I am today.

As noted by Northouse, leadership is a concept with a variety of different interpretations and meanings. Although everyone has their own definition of a leader, many value a leader to be confident, persuasive, respectful, and cooperative. Of the values, the two that I hold to be most important are respect and cooperation. I strongly believe that a good leader is someone who realizes that the leadership process is a two way street, so to speak. A respectful and mutual relationship between a leader and his or her followers is essential. The leader must realize that without his followers he would be nothing, just as a group of followers must realize that they would not be able to achieve their purpose without a steady leader. In chapter one, Northouse includes a quote from another piece of text in describing this mutualistic relationship. “Stressing mutuality lessons the possibility that leaders might act toward followers in ways that are forced or unethical. It also increases the possibility that leaders and followers will work together toward a common good.” (Rost, 1991) The overall purpose of having leaders in our society is to achieve a common goal of a group or people. This common goal is something that a group of people as well as the leader himself strives for. It is through mutual interaction and cooperation that a leader, is able to guide, encourage, and support a group of people in achieving their goal. Without a respectful leader-student relationship, essential bonds of trust would not be able to be formed and a common goal would most likely not be reached. I believe that this relationship is often reached when someone a group of people responds well to and agrees with fills the role of leader, rather than when an individual is assigned a leadership position or title. This is what Northouse calls emergent leadership. “When others perceive an individual as the most influential member of a group or an organization, regardless of the individual’s title, the person is exhibiting emergent leadership,” (Northouse, 8). It is easy for a group of people to respect a leader and vise versa, when the said leader is given a leadership position by his peers. To me a leader is someone who understands and encompasses this idea. A leader is able to not only teach and guide a group of people, but also in return learn something from his or her students. Leadership is a give and take process during which both the leader and those being led develop and grow in ways they would not have been able to on their own. An interesting point Northouse included in chapter one was the idea that as a group dynamic changes and evolves over time, the leader who emerges from that group is someone who embodies the identity that the group as a whole has developed. This insightful perspective especially comes into play with the idea of having a mutual and respectful leader-follower relationship. However, it makes me question at what point does having a leader who fits perfectly with his or her group’s identity become counter-productive? To some extent, wouldn’t having a leader who is just like everyone else in the group  hold the group back from further development and growth?