Master of Science in Leadership

In life, we take on a multitude of roles. At this moment in life in particular I have many. I am an Academic Advisor for students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, I am a trainer for volunteers who want to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate, I am a husband to my partner, and confidant to my friends. Reflecting on the different roles that I play, I notice that they can all be viewed through the lens of directive and supportive behaviors as described in Leadership: Theory and Practice (Northouse, 2016). Here, I reflect on the leadership behaviors that I use in the first two. In some circumstances, behaviors that lean towards a directive one-way communication meant to provide “structure, control, and supervis[ion],” are necessary; in other circumstances, behaviors that are supportive or two-way meant to “praise, listen, and facilitate” could be more or less important (Blanchard, 2008).  Academic Advisor: High Supportive, Low Directive In the role of Academic Advisor, I ...

As a trainer in trade and at heart, I view assessment as an ideal way to gauge growth and track progress. It can be tricky to assess one’s own progress, so reaching out externally to a self-assessment to a third party perception is helpful. Northouse (2018) provides a useful leadership traits assessment instrument that uses this concept exactly. I completed a self-assessment of my leadership skills and reached out to members of my family, friends, and colleagues to ask them to rate me on my leadership traits. The results can be found in Table 1.1.    Leadership Traits Questionaire Results From Leadership Trait Questionnaire (Northouse, 2018, p. 90) The results from this self-directed survey reflect that the incongruence between my self-rating and the average of the 5 who rated me on my leadership traits was on average 2.07% lower. I am impressed by this result as it indicates that my-self perceptions are largely congruent with how others who know me personally perceive me. One...

I was recently asked to develop my own definition of leadership. Inspired by the integrative definition of leadership developed by Winston and Patterson (2006) and leadership as defined and described by Northouse (2018) I came up with the following: A leader causes a follower to change in a way that helps the follower achieve something that they desire. The role of leader and follower can be assigned, or emergent. That is to say that a leadership-follower relationship can arise out of formal positioning, like that of a manager and subordinate. Leadership can also arise organically, or emerge, within any group or relationship that forms in any setting (Northhouse, 2018). An environment that allows the leader-follower relationship to work both ways can be mutually beneficial to those involved. I believe that my supervisor and I lead one another to ensure the success of our campus. While she has the formal role of supervisor (an assigned leader) I emerge as a leader in our group when she ...