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Running Head: LEADERSHIP CAPSTONE 1
Running Head: LEADERSHIP CAPSTONE 1
Introduction
The first motivation that I had for pursuing the leadership communication track was
that I wanted to be able to become a leader who could use his intelligence as a tool to lead his
followers well. With my intelligence, I believe that I could create a vision and be able to
effectively communicate this vision to the people that follow me. I think intelligence or even
just being knowledgeable is a key to be a leader who leads well and gives practical solutions
to specific problems. I believe that not only being intelligent when it comes to handling
knowledge is useful when it comes to be a leader but being emotionally intelligent is useful
as well because it allows you to build better relationships with your followers. Based upon
this first motivation, my professional and life goals were informed through my studies
because I learned that intelligence and emotional intelligence are both useful and influential
The second motivation that I had for pursuing the leadership communication track
was that I intended to become a leader who was seen as trustworthy to all the people that he
surrounded himself with and everyone who followed him. I think that it is necessary to be
trustworthy as a leader because if you can trust your followers and believe the best in them
then the relationships tend to be stronger. I believe that trustworthiness is one of my values
when it comes to be a leader because I have found that not only in my career but in my
personal relationships that people tend to connect with people they can trust. When it comes
to believing the best in people you intend to lead or work alongside you must be truthful to
each other so that communication is improved, while creativity and productivity is increased
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the context of a work environment or personal relationships, it is best to believe the best and
trust those you want to lead in pursuit of your vision and their dreams.
The third motivation that I had for pursuing the leadership communication track was
that I wanted to become a leader who is grounded in the value of honesty. The reason that I
want to become a leader grounded in honesty because as a leader you must be honest about
your vision and with honesty comes integrity, inspiration, and the encouragement of your
followers. With integrity, I believe that as a leader you should always do the right thing in
every situation for the right reason. I also believe that as a leader you should inspire and
encourage the people you lead because if you do it will promote trust within the relationship
between a leader and his followers. In the end, I believe honesty is one of the most valuable
The fourth motivation that I had for pursuing the leadership communication track was
that I wanted to become a leader who learned how to care for my followers and motivate
them to become better leaders themselves. When it comes to caring and motivating people
trustworthiness, and honesty. With all of these, I have the ability build strong relationships
and networks with my followers within both the professional and life context. I believe that
being able to care for and motivate your followers is beneficial to an effective and productive
environment. Overall, when it comes to caring for and motivating your followers as a leader
you need to be trustworthy, honest, and emotionally intelligent so that you can lead people
well.
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The other things that motivated me to pursue the leadership communication track was
communicating as a leader. The strengths that I have as a leader are that I am a active
listener, mediator, and compassionate which are some skills and values that I believe has
made me become the leader that I aspire to be. As an active listener, I have learned that the
people that follow me just need someone to listen to understand and not just listen to respond
while also knowing when someone needs a response. As a mediator, I have learned that I can
bring conflict resolution into situations that my followers need help in and show them a
better way to deal with hard situations. As a compassionate leader, I have learned that when I
When it comes to my weaknesses that I believe I have strengthened are that I can
communicate effectively, take charge, and convey the message of my vision as a leader. I
have learned how to effectively communicate all throughout this leadership communication
track. The class that was beneficial to me learning how to effectively communicate was
Leadership Theory and Practice which showed me how leaders communicate and what things
that I need to practice to effectively communicate. The class that was beneficial to me
learning about taking charge and conveying the message of my vision as leader was
organization which means sometimes you have to take charge to achieve your vision and
your ability to convey your vision effectively will dictate whether or not your desired goal
will be accomplished. After discussing my motivations and the influence of my studies that
have impacted my professional and life goals, now I will discuss the different definitions of
leadership.
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There are so many different definitions of leadership, but the definitions that I will be
Communication Perspective it states that, “The transactional leader is most concerned with
the satisfaction of physiological, safety, and belonging needs” [ CITATION Joh13 \l 1033 ].
With this definition, I have come to understand that transactional leaders use rewards to meet
their followers needs which can be seen as a passive way to lead. Transactional leaders come
up with a specific criterion that constitutes them to provide a reward to their followers if the
follower provides the desired outcome. Now after providing a definition of transactional
empowering and inspirational; it elevates leaders and followers to higher levels of motivation
they tend to want to lead followers to become leaders themselves through motivation,
inspiration, and empowerment. As a leader, you trying to instill confidence and hope into
your followers that one day their vision and dreams would come to fruition while getting
them to accomplish your vision and dreams in the process. Transformational leaders intend to
help the people they lead to live better lives by believing the best in them and motivating
them to achieve their greatest desires. Now after providing a definition of both transactional
transactional or they are transformational”[ CITATION Joh13 \l 1033 ]. This is one of the big
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contrasts when it comes to deciding what kind of leader you want to be because you cannot
(inspirational and supportive). Transactional leaders tend to focus more on providing rewards
for performance over the well -being of the person whereas transformational leaders tend to
focus more on the well-being of the person over providing rewards for performance.
Transactional leaders focus more on providing rewards for performance because they are
driven to make sure that their followers provide acceptable performance and if not, they take
more on the well-being of the person because they know if they support, encourage, and
motivate their followers that it would build trust, comradery, and that performance would not
be much of an issue.
The only comparison that I could find between transactional leaders and
transformational leaders is the title “leader” because they are quite different in that
transactional leaders focus more on the structure of the environment and the guidelines they
expect for the followers to abide by whereas transformational leaders focus more on the
vision of the organization as a whole and attempt to instill motivation within their followers
so they can keep improving their own lives. In Leadership: A Communication Perspective it
says that transactional leaders “maintain the status quo” within their organization which is
give guidance and support, inspiration to make sure that their expectations and goals are
solve and make their own decisions. In the end, transformational leaders are seen as creative
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(inventive when coming up with new ideas), interactive (effective when explaining new
ideas), visionary (provide a vision that followers want to get behind), empowering (empower
followers by delegating ownership of work), and passionate (enthusiastic about their vision
comparing and contrasting them now I will discuss which definition most resonates with the
leader that I desire to become. The definition provided of a transformational leader is the one
that I believe resonates with me based on two reasons. The first reason is that I see myself as
context. I believe that over my time studying in this leadership communication track that I
have seen my ability to empower and inspire others begin to improve while also finding the
confidence in my vision and getting others to commit to follow me in my vision. The second
reason is that I see myself as a leader who motivates and creates an environment of high
expectations so that as a leader I can elevate to the next level and bring my followers along
with me.
environment in which there is trust, encouragement, and support. I would think that my
followers would not only just see me as leader because of a title, but that they would see me
leader because I can be creative, interactive, visionary, empowering, and passionate when it
comes to leading my followers well. I am very self-aware that I need to work on being more
passionate and interactive as a leader, but I still believe that I am a transformational leader.
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compared and contrasted them, and given an idea of what type of leader I deem myself to be
which now leads me into discussing the knowledge that I have gained during this time in the
When it comes to discussing the knowledge that I gained during this time in the
leadership communication track, four courses that provide information that was most
Change. They influenced my perception of what a leader is how different things can
determine what type of leader a person is and could become if they desired.
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Conclusion
Works Cited
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Johnson, C. E. (2018). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow.
Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters. Boston:
Harvard Business School Press and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard
Kelley, R. (1988, November). In Praise of Followers. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review:
https://hbr.org/1988/11/in-praise-of-followers
Leroy, H. (2020, March 3). Love Makes You Blind: So Does Leadership. Retrieved from Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2020/03/03/love-makes-you-blind-so-does-
leadership/#72866823bd4d
Smith, W. K., & W, L. M. (n.d.). Leadership Skills for Managing Paradoxes. Retrieved from
file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/leadership_skills_for_managing_paradoxes.pdf
Smith, W. K., Lewis, M. W., & Tushman, M. L. (2016, May). "Both/And" Leadership. Retrieved
Varner, I., & Beamer, L. (2011). Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace. New
York: McGraw-Hill.