A Summary of my blog
Throughout this semester, I have completed a series of blog assignments. These blog posts include my thoughts on various leadership theories, my own interpretations of certain leadership theories, and which leadership theories I believe most similarly relate to my own leadership style/the leader I strive to be. Below, I will summarize each blog post, reflecting on what I learned about leadership theory as well as myself.
LEADERSHIP & ME
To create a platform for my blog posts, I designed my website with images and quotes I thought best resonated with the type of leadership style I exemplify. In addition, I created an introduction to my website by adding an image of myself and a brief summary of the type of leader I strive to be. Through this blog exercise, I learned that I see myself as a leader who wants to work with a team and eventually lead a team of my own to success. I tried to incorporate this theme through my quote on my front page as well as through my themes in my blog posts as well. TRAITS & ME
In this blog post, I evaluated the pros and cons of trait theory as well as the pros and cons of great man theory. I also listed the traits that I felt resonated with the type of leader I strive to become. These traits included honesty and integrity, commitment and passion, creativity and innovation, and decision-making capabilities. All these traits resonated with me as I see them being used in action by the leaders I admire and I see myself portraying them as I become a leader in my future professional career. |
BEHAVIOR BASED THEORY
In this blog post, I took a look at People/Task, Theory XY, and Behavior Based Leadership Styles. I watched a couple episodes of LOST and analyzed the characters to see which behavior based leadership style they exemplified and examples that led me to believe in that conclusion. In addition, I read the Yukl Summary to learn more about leadership theories, expanding on the ones I thought connected with myself the most. From this exercise, I learned that I find myself to be more of a support leader who not only assists and motivates my team, but also encourages innovative thinking. CONTINGENCY THEORY
In this blog post, I took a look at contingency theories and described examples of leaders in my life who exemplify certain aspects relating to Blanchard's model. I also reviewed points made in the book "Good to Great" that show how level 5 leadership is about the leader, the follower, and the situation. I then nominated 3 of my classmates' blogs which I thought were aesthetically pleasing, courageous, and creative. From this exercise, I was able to connect certain leadership aspects in my life by relating them to those who I work with and my classmates as well. |
TRANSACTIONAl & TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY
In this blog post, I distinguished transactional leadership with transformational leadership. I also provided examples of both of these in my own personal life. To explain transformational leadership even further, I created a 5 slide powerpoint about Steve Jobs, explaining how he exemplified a transformational leader. From this exercise, I was able to learn the difference between the two leadership styles and apply them to real life leaders in order to see how their actions and ideas translate into certain leadership styles. |
CONTEMPORARY THEORY - EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE In this blog post, I chose a contemporary leadership theory that I thought related most closely to me. I then created a slideshow, defining and explaining how emotional intelligence theory works. I felt that emotional intelligence theory resonated the most with me because it had an equal balance of characteristics I believe I am strong in and characteristics I am striving to improve within my leadership. I found it interesting to research the different aspects and see how they each connect and work together to form the emotional intelligence contemporary theory. |