Leadership in Review: My View on Leadership my eight-week journey

Mark Edward Campbell II

Western Michigan University

Introduction
Throughout the whole experience of the online class Education Leadership 6791:
Educational Leadership Masters Seminar, I have actively seen my own leadership change
within the few weeks of this course. This course has given me the time to personally
reflect upon my own leadership style and how it was formed during my undergraduate
years. Furthermore, after reading the required materials and having discussions with my
fellow colleagues in the course, the course has given me resources to use in my new
environment for being the new graduate assistant for the Office of Student Involvement at
Kalamazoo College. Additionally, this course has brought insight into how to practically
apply leadership skills in the work place. These readings have been increasingly helpful
in my practical implementation of areas of growth in my leadership journey.
Having the humility to see areas of growth in my own leadership style has been a
novel idea to me. For example, this has been very astonishing because I naively thought
as an undergrad that I was close to completing my pinnacle level of leadership
development and that I would not make substantial growth once I graduated with my
undergraduate degree. I was severely mistaken in this assumption, from the readings in
this course has I have been able to see where my current state of leadership development
is, where it is going, and how I can assist fellow colleagues, and students with their own
leadership development. In this paper, I shall discuss my own leadership journey, which
readings have shaped my leadership development, how I make a synthesis between the
abstract leadership concepts and concrete leadership crises, and how to use both abstract
and concrete leadership skills in addressing current and or future issues in the broader
student affairs and higher education field.

Leadership Synopsis
First, I shall focus this section on two readings: Relationships: The Critical Ties
that Bind Professionals (Roper 2002) and The political environment of the student
affairs administrator (Stringer 2009). I found both of these readings beneficial to each
other because politics is a relationships based arena. As the saying goes, all politics is
local I have learned that, that saying is true when dealing with political situations in the
student affairs and higher education field. Most importantly, relationships and knowing
institutional politics is wise to know when attempting to challenge campus culture, and or
starting a new program on campus.
Second, as Roper (2002) states, I would argue that our success as student affairs
professionals is more closely tied to our ability to construct and manage essential
relationships during our careers than to any other activity (p. 11). After my brief time in
student affairs and higher education I have learned that relationships are everything in
this field. For example, as the graduate assistant in the office of student involvement one
of my duties is to oversee our leadership program for first-year students, Emerge into
Leadership within this program I had to complete a vast amount of advertising to
complete our departmental goal of having twenty first-years students be a part of our
program. First-year students had to apply and or be nominated by a faculty, staff, and
fellow peer to be a part of the program. There were ten days in which participants could
fill out the application. As an eternal optimist and a novice I thought students would
scurry into my office pick-up and application and return it the next day. This was not true,
for a majority of the ten days I had less than ten people pick up an application. It was not
until, I started to use social capital with my colleagues that I started to see applications

come through the door. I had failed to realize that starting a new program could be a
political thing. Stringer (2009) states that micro-politics is "the political behavior of
campus and groups" (p.426)

Personal Leadership Application

The first idea I shall reflect upon is model the way from the reading Five
Practices of Exemplary Leadership by (Astin & Astin 200). From as long as I can
remember I have always tried to model the way in my own personal leadership style.
At Kalamazoo College, with a student population of less than 1500 students the
community is quite small. In this environment ones personal and professionall
repuatation is of great importance because the community is very small. I have learned
that is best to be at professional as possible to staff, faculty, and students because one
never knows who someone else may know/The example of modeling the way is quite
literally being engaged in meetings, being polite to

Field Based Leadership Application

Briefly I shall expound upon the relational and political components of student
affairs and higher education. I shall preface my remarks with this questions: Are political
agendas doing the best service to students? To be honest, I am not searching for a simple
black or white answer. I am looking for an efficient answer. I strongly agree with the
author Roper that student affairs professionals need to build relationships to be successful
professional. Another question is: Are relationships necessary to thrive in the student

affairs world? To be more abstract, the more time as professionals we spend on political
theatre and constructing relationships to serve our own departmental interest is less time
spent on serving students. Yet, one could argue that building relationships to make our
programs a success is serving students. For example, the more faculty and staff that I
personally contact via face to face communication assists my leadership program in
attracting the best first-year leaders on campus. However, congruently I am engaging in
micro-politics by

References

Astin, A.W., & Astin, H.S. (2000). Leadership reconsidered: Engaging higher education
in social change. Kellogg Foundation: Battle Creek, MI. The Five Practices of
Exemplary Leadership by James Kouzes and Barry Posner (2007).
Roper
Stringer, J. (2009). The political environment of the student affairs administrator. In G. S.
McClelland & J. Stringer (Eds.),The handbook of student affairs administration (3rd ed.,
pp. 371-387). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Whitt, E. (1996). "Don't Drink the Water?": A Guide to Encountering a New Instuitional
Culture.