LAUREN BARNES E-PORTFOLIO GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY



Benchmark- Leadership Style and Philosophy Lauren Barnes Grand Canyon University: EAD-5011/5/2020"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams. As an emerging leader one must start to form a Philosophy of Leadership that will work as a guide for how they lead. To start creating my philosophy of leadership I reflected on my own personal values and beliefs. I found two current leadership styles, Transformational and Servant leadership, align well with my personal values and beliefs. My philosophy will create a climate of acting with integrity and fairness. The philosophy in leadership I have begun to create is just emerging and will continue to grow and develop throughout my career.?Personal Values and Beliefs??A leader must have strong personal values and beliefs that drive their thinking, decision-making, goal setting, and interactions with others. By doing so they are trusted by their followers, because they are predictable and reliable, even in situations that are uncertain. (Northouse, 2018, p. 167) Throughout my life I have always had strong personal values and beliefs that drive my thinking, decision-making, goal setting, and interactions with others. Looking at my personal values as a pyramid God is at the top leading my personal values and beliefs. Every choice I make relays back to, is this choice Christ like or am I serving fleshly desires. It is my belief that my purpose here on this Earth is to spread the love of Jesus Christ. Along with my personal values and beliefs in Christ I also have strong personal values in hard working and knowing the reactions from your choices and actions in life. It is through life experiences that I have come to following my personal beliefs in Christ as well as knowing all choices have consequences. I would not be where I am today in life if I had made different choices; like leaving a toxic relationship and moving back home. I reflect on this choice quite frequent, because I am so grateful for the life I have today. Before I made this choice, I prayed for God to show me what direction I needed to take. He revealed to me that I needed to leave. This was a huge steppingstone in my life and is why I am the way I am today. I have become a better person for it, and I am able to sympathize with those around me because of it. When I am making decisions, I think about all the possible outcomes of my choices. Then I relay to God and pray about the choices I could make and ask for his direction. It is my belief that some choices are just black and white; knowing that if something is wrong there are no if and or buts about it. My personal values and beliefs also help me when I am setting goals. I am first thinking about are the goals I am setting out to achieve going to be serving my purpose through Christ. I then think about will these goals be achievable through hard work from everyone involved in accomplishing the goals. When it comes to interactions with others I think about the person as a whole. Knowing everyone has different views, emotions, personalities, and beliefs. Keeping this in mind I determine how I should talk and act with each person. I want to respect each person as a whole, but still keeping my personal values and beliefs strong within me. Our interactions with others can show the love of Christ. I can simply just take the time to listen to others' views and give support, by doing so I am showing God's love through my actions.??????Leadership StyleTo be a successful leader one must have strong core values and personal beliefs that drive their thinking and reasoning. Using my personal values and beliefs I have started to create my own personal Leadership Philosophy. While researching; Transactional, Transformational, and Servant Leadership styles I concluded that my leadership style is a combination of Transformational and Servant Leadership. My strong belief that my purpose here on Earth is to spread the love of Christ is why I chose both leadership styles to guide my own. I believe God designed us all to reach our full potential in life; we are the ones who have to take action and not only help us, but those around us to reach their full potential. Through combining Transformational and Servant Leadership I believe I will be able to reach my full potential and help others reach theirs. Transformational leadership holds the qualities of looking at the person as a whole; emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals. (Northouse, 2019, 164) This is a quality I hold within my personal values as well. Knowing the person as a whole to know how I should talk and interact with someone. This leadership style also holds a strong focus on the relationship between the leader and follower. I believe to have someone trust and work towards common goals there has to be a relationship built first. “Transformational leadership is attentive to the needs and motives of followers and tries to help followers reach their fullest potential.” (Northouse, 2019, p164) Through knowing my followers on a personal level, building a relationship, and serving their personal needs I know they will reach their fullest potential. When my followers are reaching their fullest potential, they will be going above and beyond what is expected of them. My followers are not just expected to stay inside a box of tasks to complete, but to go beyond the box. “Although leaders play a large role in articulating the vision, the emergence of the vision originates from both the leaders and followers.” (Northouse,2019, p.207) By incorporating Transformational Leadership I am the Social architect who creates and forms the meanings of serving the greater good. While my followers are challenged to be creative and innovative, thinking on their own to solve problems that may arise. In order for my followers to have the confidence within themselves to think outside the box I have also incorporated Servant Leadership into my philosophy. “Servant Leadership emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers first empower them, and help them develop their full personal capacities.”( Northouse,2019, p.261)? The ten characteristics of Servant Leadership are what I want to use to guide my interactions with my followers; listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. Listening to my followers will allow me to understand their reasoning and see their viewpoint. Showing empathy allows me to understand their thinking and feelings in certain situations. Helping my followers heal from personal situations will allow them to reach their full potential. Having awareness of my own self lets me know what impact I have on those around me. By having positive persuasion, I will be having persistent communication to help others change. Through conceptualization I will have a vision to set achievable goals and lead in the right direction. By reflecting on what has happened in the past and looking into the future I will have the foresight to help lead in future directions. Using stewardship, I will know what my responsibilities are to manage my followers in the areas they have been given to lead. Having commitment to the growth of people means I will be helping each follower reach their full potential. Building a community will create a sense of unity between my followers and I. The purpose of Servant Leadership is to put the needs of your followers before your own. I believe this will create a successful leadership philosophy because if I do not serve my followers and their needs then how will they be able to accomplish their part in serving the greater good. By combining transformational and servant leadership, I will be able to help my followers transform into their greatest potential by setting high expectations, but knowing I need to serve their needs first before they can begin to serve others.??????????Integrity and FairnessBeing a leader is not only guiding others toward a common goal but acting with integrity and fairness. As a school Principal I will be acting with integrity and fairness to ensure a school system of accountability for every student’s academic and social success. Any position in a school is centered around student success. Whether this success is academic or social it is the job of anyone working in the school to ensure students have all opportunities to be successful. I like to refer to a school as a well working machine. The principal is the leader who is running the machine keeping everything going on the outside, but when you start to dig in you realize there are many working parts keeping that machine working. If I, the Principal am not taking care of the machine, it will start to break down in certain areas and eventually the whole machine will no longer work. My job is to make sure all the parts know their leadership roles within the school so their part of the machine continues to add to the overall machine. How I will make sure to act with integrity and fairness is by sticking to my morals and values of how I treat every person within the school. Communication will be the key to having each person know what their part is in making sure we as the school are reaching each student needs to be successful. I will also be listening to those in each position about their ideas of how to make their part more successful. To allow each person to think outside the box of how they can improve I will be empowering them to do so. They will all be leaders in their part of the school machine. By each part being accountable for their tasks this will ensure to make sure students are given the opportunity for academic and social success. I will make sure to keep up with observations and see what is going on throughout the school weekly to ensure that each person is upholding their part. If I have any concerns, I will have already built relationships with each person to be able to voice my concerns with respect and honesty. Likewise, I want my employees to feel confident in our relationship that they as well can voice any concerns they may have. The climate within my school will be that our number one goal is always the students. We are servants who are to make sure our students are given every opportunity needed to help each individual student be successful. As servant’s criticism should not be taken personally but know that we want to grow and reach our potential to help our students reach theirs.?????????Emerging Model of Effective and Inspirational LeadershipMy current philosophy is an emerging model of effective inspirational leadership. I am bringing fresh and new ideas from what I have experienced throughout my life and teaching career. By researching and being influenced by other leaders I am confident in what I will be bringing to be an effective and inspirational leader. Using Transformational and Servant Leadership as my starting point in developing my leadership philosophy. Effective leadership means being able to reflect on how effective you have been while leading. I will use surveys completed by my followers to determine how effective I have been in leading. The Servant Leadership Questionnaire was a great survey I used to reflect on what areas in leadership I need to start improving on now. I had a colleague complete the survey about me. Through this survey I realized I needed to start helping others improve to reach their potential in their roles. I know I have not yet arrived at my full potential of leadership, but I will continue to emerge as an inspirational leader. By keeping my personal values and beliefs strong throughout my experiences as a leader, I know I will have a guide to keep my choices serving the greater good.?????ReferencesAnastasia. (2019, September 24). How to Develop a Leadership Philosophy that Inspires.Retrieved from , E. L., Barling, J., & Trivisonno, M. (2018). Leaders’ trait mindfulness and transformational leadership: The mediating roles of leaders’ positive affect and leadership self-efficacy.?Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue Canadienne Des Sciences Du Comportement,?50(3), 185–194. doi: 10.1037/cbs0000103Crippen, C., & Willows, J. (2019). Connecting Teacher Leadership and Servant Leadership: A Synergistic Partnership.?Journal of Leadership Education,?18(2). doi: 10.12806/v18/i2/t4Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. pgs 163-253 ................
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