CHANGE IN UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP

As I stated in the Understanding Leadership section of my Three Semester Review, my view on leadership changed throughout my experience in the Public Leadership program. These three artifacts are strong evidence of my gradual change on my view of leadership. Overall, my view on leadership changed from needing to follow a strict guideline to be a strong leader, to understanding that leaders come in all different shapes and forms.

The first artifact is a discussion post from September 12, 2019. I chose this post as it demonstrates the beginning of me considering alternate methods of leadership as I weigh authentic and servant leadership. It represents the beginning of viewing strong leadership taking on more than one form.

"Servant Leadership is defined as “servant first” and beginning “with the natural feeling that one wants to serve...then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” Therefore, the basic definition of Servant Leadership is becoming a leader through a natural desire to serve a cause. Many find this different from Authentic Leadership which is practically a leader who “tries to determine what is truly good for the leader, followers, and organizations.” Therefore, an Authentic Leadership is in essence not choosing between what they want to do or not, they are merely always following what is the “right” choice. In essence a leader who possesses Authentic Leadership is really having his choices dictated by the greater good and therefore isn’t really making any choices themselves. In fact, an Authentic Leader is really just a servant to the greater good; first possessing this natural feeling that they want to serve the greater good and then consciously aspiring to lead in order to help this greater good. This definition of an Authentic Leader also falls within the wider Servant Leader category, because by definition an Authentic Leader is a Servant Leader with a specified cause, the greater good. Therefore, Authentic Leadership is a subcategory of Servant Leadership and by definition of an subcategory, an Authentic Leader must be a Servant Leader, and a Servant Leader, although they can be one, does not have to be an Authentic Leader. "

The second artifact is a my final positon paper from December 9, 2019. I chose this essay as it demonstrates the continuation of me considering alternate methods of leadership. I argue that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was an effective leader despite him not following a strict guideline that many effective leaders follow. This represents the first time I renounced needing to follow a strict guideline in order to be an effective leader.

The third and final artifact is my Leadership Philosophy Paper from November 8, 2020. I chose this paper as it demonstrates the final stages of my new view on leadership. I emphasize on various occasions that there is no clear cut path to being a good leader. Thus, this paper represents me reaching my current belief of strong leadership taking on more than one form.