For those following along with me on my journey to complete this MA program in Professional Studies, here's my latest paper/self-assessment. I get points for working in a Rocky Horror reference, right?
Studying leadership, negotiating, and conflict management this summer has been an eye-opening experience. From day one, this course aggressively challenged my goal of pursuing this degree for positive self-growth. Although I consider the course content to be terribly patriarchal and out-of-touch, the material served me well as I rededicated myself to championing the need for diversity in leadership roles.
As someone who has varied experience in all levels of leadership and management in several fields over the course of more than 30 years, I challenged myself to digest the information from a personal perspective but with an eye to the future. Quite frankly, I adopted The Art of Leadership’s purpose “to help the reader be or become the kind of leader he or she always wanted to have,” which was stated in the book’s preface, as my mantra the past seven weeks. All of the readings, quizzes, and discussions helped me reflect on my past experiences with fresh eyes to mostly discern the type of leader I do not want to be.
With my past, present, and future in mind, Part 1 helped me realize I embody Ghiselli’s six important leadership traits – need for achievement, intelligence, decisiveness, self-confidence, initiative, supervisory ability – and I operate based on these traits regardless of my role in an organization. I am a democratic leader in my daily walk and I most often utilize verbal-linguistic intelligence. I crave a participative style of leadership as both a follower and as a manager. Going forward, I feel as if it is my duty as an aging, experienced member of the workforce to bridge generations and actively search for ways to develop participatory environments.
Considering that the majority of my past work experience was in a deadline-driven, task-oriented, creative, team environment, my Part 1 self-assessment is not surprising. Identifying my leadership traits helps me understand the frustration I feel toward the more autocratic, directive-driven hierarchy in my present work environment. As I consider my future with my current organization, this course has made me aware of how I have tried to change leadership styles around me to better suit my needs. As with most areas of my life, communication once again revealed itself as being key in leadership dynamics.
Part 2’s focus on vision and motives to lead left me nostalgic for some powerful visionary leaders from my past. I found it incredibly inspiring to recall the complete package leaders I have had the privilege to cross paths with over the years. It was refreshing to take the time to analyze how those effective leaders not only affected my work ethic but how their strengths and desire to achieve manifested into the high expectations I have had for leaders to come. Until this course, I was not fully aware of how demanding I am as a follower.
When it comes to organizational climate as discussed in Chapter 5, I was left feeling terribly disappointed by my current situation. The overall message of lead by example – for better or worse – hit a little too close to home regarding my experience thus far working in higher education. The readings not only left me yearning for enlightened climates from my past, I was left struggling with how I can use my lower-level role to achieve my desired positive work culture. Studying Part 2 was a defining moment for me because it was the first time in many years I entertained the notion of pursing a leadership path. I kept thinking of how I can be the change – I kept thinking of that song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Don’t Dream It, Be It.
Of all the quotes, leader vignettes, and sidebars in this text, I was most taken with the 16-Point Plan for a Positive Work Culture set forth by the Maine School Management Association that was included in Chapter 5. The enumeration of action items categorized by Organizational Clarity, Standards of Performance, The Reward System, Warmth and Support, and Leadership is a remarkably simple, straightforward, succinct, and progressive top-down personalized empowering leadership plan that can be implemented in any workplace with all daily leaders. As I consider my leadership path in these twilight years of my work life, I will look to these points for inspiration and guidance.
I was thoroughly edified by Parts 3, 4, and 5 of the text. Not only was I reminded of the huge impact that studying philosophy had on me as a young adult, I was reminded of the power of an open mind and open heart to propel humanity toward a more inclusive world. This point of our study missed crucial teaching opportunities to focus on Aristotelian concepts. Even more than 2,300 years after Aristotle walked the Earth, he remains an enlightened beacon regarding ethics, morality, and human relations. I am grateful to the inept, watered-down structure of this text for reminding me of a core Aristotelian principle I internalized some 25 years ago: He who cannot be a good follower, cannot be a good leader.
The course was lacking in providing instructional methodology of how to become a successful leader. I know I am a good leader because I am a good follower. Granted, “good” is a relative term subject to personal interpretation but leaders without experience as followers fall short. It was so odd to me how the text seemed intent on maintaining the differentiated relegation of roles between followers and leaders. For me, being a follower and leader are one and the same. I find that building hierarchal rapport is a mutual act that comes from a place of respect and understanding by both followers and leaders.
Experience has taught me the importance of common ground as a tool of empowerment for maximizing organizational success. There is so much to be said for the experiential value of earning respect and successfully rising through the ranks of an organization. It is my experience that finding sincere common ground is near impossible unless a leader has been a successful follower.
Admittedly, I was continuously appalled by the barrage of ethnocentric, patriarchal examples used in this course but one mention in particular was especially unsettling. I hope no one reads this book or takes this course and adopts Napoleon Bonaparte as their model leader. As with most of the examples used in this course, the authors’ focus on Napoleon in the section on “The Art of Persuasion” had me struggling to grasp any modern leadership relevancy. I dug deep, though, and revisited that one little opening line from the book’s preface: The purpose of The Art of Leadership is to help the reader be or become the kind of leader he or she always wanted to have.
Those few paragraphs on Napoleon helped me see some truths about the leader I do want to be or become. Valuable lessons learned from Napoleon this go around … as a leader I will: provide resources as opposed to withholding them as a tool of coercion; work alongside all ranks to realize a goal rather than asking anyone to complete a task I would not want to complete myself; and finally, I will know when to quit. I find the greatest takeaway to studying the life of Napoleon is the importance of staying grounded and avoiding delusions of grandeur
Although I reject the exclusive, oppressive point of view and presentation of this course’s textbook, which accelerated throughout and peaked in Parts 6 and 7, I admit the extremity of these final chapters served as a 21st-century reality check for me. I am left knowing there is so much work left to be done toward inclusivity in the workforce and in leadership roles. I am left feeling empowered by my voice. I am left knowing that questioning the status quo is more important now than it has been at any point in my past. I stand ready to meet the challenge no matter my position in the hierarchy.
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