Leadership Philosophy Reflection Paper

Leadership is a broad topic that is often times obscure and puzzling to scholars and students alike. The future of leadership resides within institutions that seek to provide prospective leaders with the necessary knowledge to bring about progressive social change. Today, the problems that leaders are confronted with require the application of theoretical knowledge to real life situations. Leaders learn about themselves by seeking leadership opportunities in environments that do not give them a title, but rather the opportunity to practice their learned leadership theory among a diverse group of people in varying situations. College campuses are the ideal place for student leaders to recognize their strengths and leadership potential.

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I now focus my philosophy on the idea that a leader becomes a leader through mastery of skills, not by being born a natural leader. The first step to mastering leadership skills is having a foundation of leadership theory. I feel that once one is introduced to the dense, contradicting leadership theories it becomes easy to apply the teachings in actual life situations. The theories presented simultaneously question and support each other, much like leaders and followers do in their interconnected relationship. An effective leader-follower relationship depends on a leader’s self-understanding. The leader of a group must know his or her strengths, style, and tendency to focus more on tasks or relationships. I believe that our actions are guided by intrinsic tendencies to be task or relationship oriented. Yet, I feel that the effective leader is aware of his or her tendency to be task or relationship oriented, and holds the ability to adapt to the situation at hand. The ability to adapt to the situation requires an understanding of oneself and variances in follower behaviors. I agree with Astin and Astin (2000) that the college classroom is the ideal environment to produce leaders who are authentic, self-knowledgeable, and responsive to diversity because this idea fully supports my leadership philosophy. My leadership philosophy acknowledges that leaders arise from developing personal skills through the process of recognizing strengths and weaknesses and inclinations to respond to task completion or maintaining personable relationships. In order to accomplish this, the leader must remain consciously aware of situational leadership with the ultimate goal being to bring about positive