Running head: Leadership Philosophy

Leadership Philosophy

Loyola University of Chicago

Olivia Collins
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Leadership Philosophy

As I write this paper I think of my past, my heritage, my upbringing and how I became

the first person in my family to attend college. Then I think the past and present all have one

thing in common, my ability to adapt to the people around me. My ability to understand the

information I learned, my ability to lead in new ways and my ability to learn to follow when I

had no sense of what a leader was. My leadership philosophy is inspiration to create equity, build

community, bring awareness, and provide a lasting positive societal impact. My leadership

philosophy can be related to different leadership styles such as: the traits approach, the culturally

relevant model and the authentic model.

In my family I am a leader to all my siblings, my cousins and even my aunts who are now

going back to school to get a degree. I recall being a junior in college and getting calls when

people needed assistants with applications. Even moments before college, when I was applying,

it was the traits that made my family think I was a leader. By example, I have brought awareness

to what is possible to achieve. I showed them that if they want to go to college they too could do

it. I displayed the traits below through the process of applying to college, preparing for college

exams and saving money, before I knew what it meant to be a leader.

As stated in Northouse (2018), Similar to the first survey, Stogdills second survey

identified traits that were positively associated with leadership. The list included the following

ten characteristics: 1. Drive for responsibility and task completion 2. Vigor and persistence in

pursuits of goals 3. Risk taking and originality in problem solving 4. Drive to exercise initiative

in social situations 5. Self-confidence and a sense of personal identity 6. Willingness to accept

consequences of decision and action 7. Readiness to absorb interpersonal stress 8. Willingness to

tolerate frustration and delay 9. Ability to influence other people’s behavior and 10. Capacity to

structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand” (p. 21).

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According to Northouse (2018), “The trait approached was considered the “great man”

theories because they focused on identifying the innate qualities and characteristics possessed by

great social, political, and military leaders (e.g., Catherine the Great, Mohandas Gandhi, Indira

Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc and Napoleon Bonaparte)” (p. 19). At this point in my

past I would have identified as being a traits approach leader. The traits I displayed and who I am

made me bring that level of awareness to my family which is a principal of my philosophy.

Apart of bringing awareness is using the awareness to build communities. My community

of working-class families taught me way before institutional education did. My heritage is a part

of my culture and has taught me different values and beliefs. I was born in a southern family. A

southern family that believes in faith, honesty, family, kindness, hospitality and communities. In

my childhood I learned to have faith in what I aspired to do in life. At the beginning (high

school) I had no clue what I would be doing post-graduation. I knew I wanted to do something I

loved, and I had faith that I would do it well. By my junior year I knew I wanted to be a social

worker. I knew I wanted to help other people who were like myself, working class students who

had been in the foster care system. I started working with a school social worker to learn more

about the system of social welfare and counseling. As I began to understand the field I worked

with families and children like myself in their communities as a role model/mentor. I asked

students and their families what they needed. Each family needed something different. I tutored

children after school. I taught students how to garden. I was a listening ear to the parents when

they were unsure or concerned about students’ behaviors. I taught children to be respectful and

why that was necessary in order to be successful. I learned what their family values were and

explained to the students why family values and beliefs were essential to being good students

and good people. I showed them the importance of community building. Together we built a
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community of students and parents that supported each other in a time of need. This is one of the

key foundations of culturally relevant model and how I see myself as a leader in this aspect.

Without my culture I would not be who I am and where I am in life. My culture dictates my

understanding of the world and how I see myself in it which leads to how I lead and or believe I

am a leader.

As a graduate student this is where I have begun to have a lasting positive societal

impact. Simply by being in a system that was not built for me I am leaving an impact. By

speaking out against the negative effects and stereotypes I am leaving an impact. In the short

amount of time I have been here I have stood up for myself and those around me. I have showed

the communities I am within that impact comes from awareness, hard work within your

community building which lead to lasting societal impact. Every choice I make I try to have it be

a choice that is positive or leads to positive results. Going forward in life I now have the ability

to do more with the power I now have. My choices are mine but come from the experiences I

have had in life. Those events have taught me who I am, how I process information and what I

want to do. This style is a lot like the authentic leadership interpersonal process. According to

Northouse (2018) interpersonal authentic leadership is “relational, created by leaders and

followers together. Results not from the leader’s efforts alone but also from the followers.

Authenticity emerges from the interactions between leaders and followers. It is a reciprocal

process because leaders affect followers and followers affects leaders” (p. 198).

Throughout this paper and my personal journey, I have struggled with identifying as a

leader and what my leadership philosophy is. I am still on that journey. If I had to define it I

would say its inspiration to create equity, build community, bring awareness, and provide a

lasting positive societal impact. It is hard to know if that is true in a space that was not built for
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you. In something that may not be tangible except by hierarchal power. Outside of hierarchal

power I identify with parts of the traits approach, culturally relevant model and authentic

leadership. As someone who is naturally honesty, integrity, kindness and has southern hospitality

it was easy for others to see me as a leader. My culture has installed other positive traits in me

that have made me be driven and resilient which is where the culturally relevant model comes

into play of my leadership style. Due to being raised to value and treat others with the same

respect even when they have different vales is why I can see myself as an authentic leader.
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Work Cited:

Northouse, P. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice, 8th edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.