LDR 2101 Final Paper - Grade: A PDF

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LaGrave 1 Daulton LaGrave Trisha Teig LDR 2101 28 April 2017 LDR Final Paper Over the course of the semester, we have studied many different styles and theories of leadership. Many of these theories can be combined together in order to create a tailor-made plan of what it takes to be a successful leader. Throughout the course, as I learned about these different approaches to effective leadership, I have gradually come to realize which theories I have been using in my past and present positions of leadership. Some of these theories include authentic leadership theory, servant leadership theory, and the acquired needs theory. I believe these theories and leadership styles I have been using throughout life were developed and strengthened through how I was raised and through my personality. Reflecting on what I have learned, I have been able to create my own personal definition of leadership. My personal definition of a leader is someone who can gain the respect and trust of their peers through hard work and dedication. Although I have already developed a personal style of leadership, this does not necessarily mean my future leadership style will stay the same. My overall goal going forward is to stick to my leadership style and my personal definition of leadership and use them as a guideline for what skills I need to improve on in order to become the leader I have always wanted to be. To begin, this course has made me realize the style of leadership which I believe fits me the most. My style of leadership does not focus on one specific theory of leadership, instead, it focuses on three theories that go hand in hand with one another. These theories are the Authentic

LaGrave 2 Leadership Theory, the Servant Leadership Theory, and the Acquired Needs Theory. Authentic leadership can be defined as leadership that is transparent, moral, and responsive to the needs and values of other people all while focusing on developing internal growth and external relationships (Northouse, 2015). This particular theory of leadership has been broken down into two practical models and one theoretical model in order for us to gain a better understanding about authentic leadership. The model that I have chosen to follow is Bill George’s model which focuses on building and developing authentic leadership characteristics over the span of a lifetime. The five characteristics that George focuses on are purpose, values, relationships, selfdiscipline, and heart. The two characteristics that I pride myself on the most in my past leadership scenarios are purpose and relationships. Purpose comes from passion, and a passionate leader is able to successfully motivate his followers much easier. For example, when I was captain of my football team in high school, we had a full contact drill at the beginning of every practice that everyone hated doing. Coaches would yell and holler at us to volunteer but no one ever did because no one wanted to ever go full speed. One day, I decided I would volunteer to go first for the rest of the season, in hopes to motivate the rest of my team to practice hard. Although I had to do a drill that I dreaded everyday, I was so passionate about my team that it didn’t matter. My purpose was to motivate my team, and by the end, I did just that. The second characteristic of authentic leadership that I embody the most is relationships. Good relationships are undoubtedly the most important thing to have in any type of leadership scenario. Healthy relationships with your followers are important, but many people struggle with this area of leadership. I have found the best way to build good relations with your followers is just to be honest with them and to make sure they understand the situation at hand. I learned to be honest and thorough with people at an early age because I hated being lied to and not being in the loop

LaGrave 3 when I was involved in something. Lying is the easiest way to break someone’s trust, and with no trust, you cannot have a healthy relationship. The second theory of leadership that helps describes my custom style of leadership is servant leadership. Servant leadership means a leader “places the good of followers over their own self-interests and emphasize follower development” (Northouse, 2015). Servant leadership is all about taking care of people and caring for others. It builds trust and loyalty; which are large components of my style of leadership. Proceeding further into servant leadership, this theory has ten characteristics that serve as the backbone for a servant leader. These characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. The two characteristics of servant leadership that I believe I embody most are community building and awareness. Although these are only two of ten characteristics in servant leadership, they proved to be the most helpful in the past. I was able to put these two characteristics to work when I was chosen to serve on the Student-Life committee during my senior year of high school. One other girl and I were chosen to sit down with the principle and other adults twice a month in order to discuss how to improve the happiness of the student body. Luckily for me, I was always aware of the other students’ wants and desires and I loved the idea of being able to help my peers in any way possible. As a result, I was successfully able to serve my peers and act as a liaison between themselves and the faculty. The third and final theory that helps to define my style of leadership is the acquired needs theory. According to Daft in chapter 8; the acquired needs theory, created by David McClelland, says that as an individual grows and gets older, certain types of needs are obtained. There are three different needs that are generally the most common; the need for achievement, the need for

LaGrave 4 affiliation, and the need for power. Of these three needs, the one that I ended up growing to desire was the need for affiliation. The need for affiliation is based off of forming many close and personal relationships while avoiding conflict at the same time. After acquiring the need to affiliate at a young age, I immediately began to expand my friend groups without even realizing this theory even existed. This helped me meet the right people and form trusting relationships with them. Looking back, this theory was vital for the development of my current style of leadership since the backbone of my style is gaining the trust and befriending others. Next, although my current style of leadership has seemed to work well for me thus far, my overall definition of leadership is slightly different from the type of leadership I have been practicing. After careful thought and consideration, I defined a leader as someone who gains the respect and trust of their peers through hard work and dedication, but also someone who utilizes the strength of his followers in order to accomplish a goal. Although the three theories mentioned previously fit the first half of my definition, there are two more theories that help to achieve my full definition of leadership. These two theories are known as path-goal theory and transactional theory. The first of these theories, path-goal theory, is expressed as the practice of a leader adjusting the path to a goal that best suits his followers (Northouse, 2015). Finding a path that is in favor of a leader’s followers helps the leader to efficiently use the strengths of his followers to achieve a goal. In order to do this, a leader first must have formed a close enough relationship with his followers to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. After finding the best path to choose, the next theory comes in to finally complete my definition. Transactional theory is one that is centered around the exchanges between a leader and his followers. This theory essentially states that it is the leader’s job to be very clear and precise of what is expected of his followers, but also the consequences of not doing what is expected (Northouse, 2015). This theory is

LaGrave 5 needed to support my definition because, even though a path that best suits the followers has already been determined; those followers still need to know exactly what needs to be done in order to stay on that chosen path. The more uncertainty that arises from miscommunication while trying to accomplish a goal, the higher the chance that the wrong move is made. In addition to this, being very clear also helps maintain the trust of followers because they are aware of what is going on; rather than being left in the dark. Looking to the future, I realize that I have not yet finished building and developing my leadership skills. Although I believe my current style of leadership is working well for the scenarios I have been involved in thus far, I know it will need to change for the future. I plan to improve on the the five leadership theories mentioned before. Looking back at the five characteristics for authentic leadership, I mainly plan on improving my self-discipline. Self discipline is something I have always struggled with, but I understand how important it is to have self-discipline in order to be consistent in my leadership scenarios. Coming back to servant leadership, I would like to build on foresight. Foresight helps to be able to see the road ahead, meaning I will have a better idea of what might happen, and as a result, I will be able to adjust to the situation in order to serve my followers better. Skipping ahead to path-goal theory, I would like to gain more experience on how to find a path that best suits a certain group of people. Most of all, my main goal for the future is learning how to put Vroom’s expectancy theory to use in my own life. This theory explains that someone will act a particular way depending on the possible outcomes and how enticing those outcomes are to an individual (Northouse 2015). This theory is often translated into a formula; reward multiplied by performance and belief results in the motivation needed to achieve the favored outcome (Northouse, 2015). All of these factors that result in motivation have to be present in order to succeed. If there is no reward, motivation is

LaGrave 6 lost; if you do not perform, you can’t be motivated; and if you don’t believe in what you are doing, you will not have the motivation to do it. Over the past few years I have struggled with this, partly because of the environment that I have surrounded myself in at Florida State. For example, I know that studying days in advance for a big test would result in getting a high grade; but once I see how rigorous the test material is, I lose motivation and have a hard time justifying that extra studying will pay off due to how difficult the test will be. In addition to this, there are other outcomes that seem more favorable to me, such as partying or hanging out with friends. In order to prevent this from happening, as said before, I plan improving my self-discipline so I can focus on what is really important. Overall, we have learned numerous different theories throughout this class that can be put together in order to create the recipe for a great leader. However, based on how I was raised, my morals, and my experience; I believe that I have created a plan that best suites me individually. I plan on furthering my leadership skills utilizing the authentic leadership theory, and servant leadership theory. In addition, I want to learn how to correctly put path-goal theory and transactional theory to use. Lastly, I want to learn how to motivate myself using expectancy theory so I can better myself as both a leader and an individual. Looking at all of these theories that I have discussed; they all contain a common theme. This theme is gaining the respect and trust of followers through hard work and dedication to my followers. Although I pride myself on excelling in this aspect of leadership, I realize things only get more difficult as I get older and that there are also other aspects of leadership that I have yet to learn. I know I will have to work very hard to improve in all aspects of leadership in order to be as successful as I want to be in the real world.

LaGrave 7 Works Cited Northouse, Peter Guy. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2015. Print....