​How I Approach Leadership

I have always found myself to be a natural leader.  Whether it be in the classroom or at work I have always been the one to take the reins.  In group projects I would assign the parts that best fit everyone’s strengths and at work I would be the first to step up to the plate when something needed to be done.  Therefore, I chose to become a University 101 Peer Leader during my Sophomore year of college because it gave me the opportunity to do what I have done my whole life.  Doing these things established myself as a leader, however there was still a lot for me to learn about what it meant to be a leader.

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In Management 371 with Dr. Lynn McFarland we spent a lot of time talking about what leadership trends are relevant in this day and age.  One of the points of leadership that Dr. McFarland made sure to make clear was the fact that leadership is not management.  This point is something that I always make sure to keep in mind before I act. The reason for this is because if you are trying to display leadership to your peers or coworkers you don’t want to come off as being the only one who has a say in things.  As a University 101 Peer Leader I experienced this during my first few weeks on the job. 

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It was my first time teaching a course and I didn’t know how to properly conduct myself.  Looking back on my few weeks on the job as a University 101 Peer Leader, I came to realize after hearing Dr. McFarland talk about Management vs Leadership that I should have taken into consideration how my students felt about what we were doing as a group.  Asking my students about how they felt would have given me the opportunity to cater my meetings to everyone instead of just myself.  To coincide with leadership not being management Dr. McFarland was able to expand my knowledge even more by teaching us the Four Approaches to Leadership.

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After teaching us about how leadership is not the same thing as management Dr. McFarland went into detail onto what the Four Approaches to Leadership are.  One of the Four Approaches to Leadership that Dr. McFarland presented to us directly coincided with my role as a University 101 Peer Leader which is being a Servant Leader.  I found being a Servant Leader to be very important in the Peer Leader role because one of the main points of being a Servant Leader is designing work to develop the people you are working with.  To develop people, you should challenge them to bring out their potential and cater to their strengths. 

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An example of developing people would be a professor assigning homework that covers the material you are learning in class.  As a Peer Leader assigning meaningful work was crucial for my success and the success of my students.  All of the classes that I decided to cover had a significance behind it.  The reason for this is because this is one of the first classes for my students is University 101 and they need to learn crucial skills to survive college.  Some of those life skills include registering for classes and finding off campus housing after their first semester. To successfully accomplish these feats, I had my students come up with a sample schedule for the following semester and had a presenter come in from the office of off campus living.  Doing this transferred the work from just assignments to material they can use in the future.  In addition to designing work to develop the people you are working with, being a servant leader focuses on transcending self interest to serve others. 

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As a leader it is crucial to not put yourself before others.  If a leader focuses too much on themselves, they are not leading.  An example of this would be a coworker using their ideas to bring themselves further ahead instead of helping the whole company.  If that employee found a more efficient way to accomplish the task they were working on without telling their coworkers, they would be helping themselves but hurting the company.  In this situation the employee is only focused on themselves, however they can use their idea to help their coworkers and as a result make the company better off.  I was able to experience this in the Resident Mentor role because I was not the only one teaching the class.

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In University 101 I served as the Peer Leader and Peyton Paradiso served as the instructor.  Peyton and I had a great relationship because of us being very open with each other.  If Peyton had an idea she wouldn’t hesitate to share it with me and vice versa.  Not hesitating to share ideas with each other made it so Peyton and I were able to lead our students to success.  One time where this was very prevalent was when it was time for Peyton and me to do a lesson on drug and alcohol safety.  I had the idea of teaching this lesson when Peyton was not in the room because it would make our students more comfortable.  Instead of keeping quiet and doing what made me more comfortable, I put myself to the side and brought my idea to the attention of Peyton.  Peyton thought it was a great idea and it made the students more susceptive to the idea of drug and alcohol education.  With realizing that management is not directly correlated to leadership and about the servant leadership approach I was able to make my University 101 class a great experience for my residents and myself.

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Being a leader has always been something I take a lot of pride in.  Dr. McFarland was able to push my leadership to the top with teaching me about management vs leadership and servant leadership.  If it wasn’t for learning about designing work to develop the people you are working with and transcending self-interest to serve others I would have not had the success I had being a Peer Leader in University 101.  Having the success, I have had in University 101 has taught me the skills necessary to carry on this leadership to the work place.  I can use Servant Leadership by assigning coworkers work that I know they will be able to succeed most in.  Additionally, I can transcend self-interest to serve others by sharing with my coworkers what I find to work most.  Doing this will allow us to get the work done more efficiently and effectively. Although I have learned the difference between management vs leadership and servant leadership very well, there is still room for me to grow as a leader with the different approaches to leadership.