Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

Kathleen Camire
EDLD 6020: Educational Leadership, Systems, and Change
Western Michigan University

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

My current status as a leader is more awareness-based than anything else at this point,
which isnt a bad place to start. That being said, I can also now look back at my time as a high
school teacher and identify a few areas for improvement, as well as identify a few areas in which
I was unknowingly exhibiting one or more theories of leadership. Based on which theories I
tend to identify and agree the most with, I would say that in general my leadership style is best
defined using one word: relationships.
In terms of leadership positions, Ive been out of the game for about a year now, but I
can still look back and reflect on where I was, what I was doing well, and what I will know to
work on improving for the future. I have always been a reluctant leader, very rarely the first
person to speak up. My tendency toward shyness is certainly a personality trait that doesnt
really bode well for making others feel they want to be a follower. For that reason, I feel I am
best suited to be a leader who utilizes the style approach of leadership. As Northouse explains,
the style approach blends both task and relationship behaviors. Northouses text suggests that
task behaviors include organizing work, giving structure to the work context, defining role
responsibilities, and scheduling work activities. (location 1862) In my experience as a teacher, I
was very good at being the organizational voice with my students, but perhaps more significantly
with my fellow teachers. Because I was in a group that I was familiar with, I felt comfortable
enough to raise concerns and to take charge of organizing groups, meetings, and events.
Recently, I have had the opportunity to further hone that particular skill set within myself as Ive
taken over several organizational roles within my husbands window company. As far as task
behaviors go, I am able to delegate, problem-solve, and determine action.

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

Perhaps the most important (to me, anyway) piece of style approach revolves around
relationship behaviors, also known consideration behaviors (Northouse, location 1862).
Northouse defines them as including(ing) building camaraderie, respect, trust, and liking
between leaders and followers (location 1862). This piece is most significant for my
personality traits because my tendency toward shyness could otherwise ruin any chance of my
taking the leadership role in many situations. As I mentioned earlier, I felt comfortable stepping
into that role during my years teaching because I was with coworkers with whom I already had
good relationships. If theres one thing I can evaluate about myself, its that Im a very good
listener; people feel comfortable talking to me. While I may not be a great orator or particularly
great with large groups, my relationship skills are good. I can adapt well depending on
someones individual needs, and I know how to alter my style accordingly. I did this especially
well with students. When I had the opportunity to work one on one with students, I have an
ability to diagnose their particular needs, both academically as well as emotionally. I know
which students need gentle coaxing and which need a tough love reality check. By doing so, I
was able to gain their trust in a way I may not have otherwise, and they were more likely to go
along with things that I might suggest to them from that point on. It may have been leadership
on a small scale, but gaining their trust one by one translated into a better classroom climate. I
am proud of my ability to massage relationships this way in both my professional and personal
lives.
Id put myself somewhere between the Team Management and Paternalism/Maternalism
spots on Blake and Moutons Managerial (Leadership) Grid. (location1901) within the style
approach. Within the Parernalism/Maternalism piece I am certainly goal oriented, and I use

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

compassion and benevolence to achieve an accomplishment, but I am usually doing so from a

team standpoint. In my years teaching, there were constant battles about writing new
curriculums, and I would often embody the descriptions of Team Management in my dealings
with the various groups I worked with on this task, such as stimulating participation, act(ing)
determined, follow(ing) through, behave(ing) open-mindedly (location1949).
Since one of my strongest and most-developed traits involves relationships, I also relate
quite a bit with the theory of authentic leadership. As weve read this semester, the culture of an
organization or group is very important, as is the trust within it. Kouzes and Posner both posit
credibility is the foundation of leadership (Kouzes & Posner, pp. 37). I have much experience
with leaders for whom I had very little trust, as did many other followers, and those leaders
were not only unsuccessful in their attempts to make large-scale changes within my school, but
they seemed to fall back on coercion (the tacit threat they had the power to decide who was
affected by job cuts) to make followers follow. As Robert Evans discusses in his elaboration of
authentic leaders, consistency is the lifeblood of trust. People who do what they say they will do
meet their commitments, keep their promisesare trustworthy; those who dont, arent (pp.
136). Without those things, there is likely to be little change, as it is unlikely that many
followers will feel confident in their leader. Evans continues, making the point that most of us
prefer to be led by someone we can count on, even when we disagree with him, than someone we
agree with but who frequently shifts his position (pp. 136). If as a leader I dont have a
steadfast commitment within myself, if I am unable to have a firm grasp on who I am and what is
important to me, I will never be successful; for me, that has been the most valuable part of
assessing myself and my potential to lead. It is not something that many people think about

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

when they think of being a good leader. Conventional wisdom may value innovativeness and
charisma, but I think that if I know myself, all the rest will come along with that.
Throughout my studies on this topic, Ive identified that one of my major weak spots is in
developing a strategy for change. Within education, especially K-12 education, I know what I
dont want, but I struggle with creating a strategy for what I do. I can identify with John Kotters
explanation of the major errors that corporations make in attempting transformation in his article
Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. I can see what I want to create in the
future; I want to inspire others within the higher education community to follow me in a venture
to bridge the gap between K-12 and universities in a way that hasnt been attempted before:
through the focus on globalization, global citizenry, and study abroad. In order to do this, I will
need to create new programs and inspire others confidence in me. That being said, I know that
one of my weaknesses might be in creating a vision that is clear enough about each minute step
that this plan will require, in addition to not having the foresight to plan for and create short-term
wins. Kotter explains, most people wont go on the long march unless they see compelling
evidence in 12 to 24 months that the journey is producing expected results. Without short-term
wins, too many people give up or actively join the ranks of those people who have been resisting
change (pp 102). That being said, however, my awareness of this as a weakness makes it more
of a strength, in that I can plan for it and work harder to make sure to address those things.
Overall, if I can be truly authentic in my passion for change, I will be able to inspire
others to come onboard. So long as I take the lessons of Northouse, Kouzes, Posner, and Evans
along with me, I will know what to expect, how to best lay out my plans, and how to gain and
then keep followers and their confidence in me. I may not have the position of leadership that

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

Im striving for yet, but I feel much more confident in my ability to keep that position and be
successful within in when that time does come than I ever did before studying the intricacies of
leadership. Successful leadership is truly a science, and while some aspects of it may come
naturally, there is much more to it that a good leader must be aware of and work hard at; for me,
this new knowledge is invaluable for my future.

Personal Profile: Myself as a Leader

References
Kotter, J. P. (2007, January). Leading Change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard
Business Review, 96-103.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2007). The Leadership Challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
Publishers, J. -B. (2007). The Authentic Leader. In The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational
Leadership (2nd ed., pp. 135-155). New York: John Wiley & Sons.