Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

Kailinda Moreno

Northern Arizona University

CCHE 600

August 6, 2019

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

I have found Professor Guerriero’s description of leadership to be the most concise and

practical definition of leadership. It reads, “Leadership is the process of moving people in the

direction of the organization’s vision” (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1. p.3). The timing for this course

on leadership is impeccable because in late July of this year I began supervising two front desk

coordinators in Graduate Housing at Stanford University. This is my first experience as a

supervisor and this summer course on leadership has helped prepare me for leading my first team

in higher education.

While I recognize the role of a leader in higher education is dynamic and encompasses

more than working with people, the driving force for my philosophy will be relationship

orientated. The leadership philosophy I am developing consists of the behavioral approach of

team management, a situational approach to leadership, and the theory of authentic leadership.

(Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1; Guerriero, 2019. Unit 2). I completed my undergraduate degree in

psychology because I have an innate draw and interest in human relationships and behaviors,

which has been influential in my ideas on leadership. By completing the questionnaires provided

by the instructor I found that I have both strengths and areas of development in the approach and

theories I’ve selected. As a new leader in higher education I am committed to continuing

research on leadership styles and supporting my team to the best of my ability. However, I feel

the theory and approaches of leadership I’ve outlined best fit the role I am in now.

During my interview with Mako Ushihara, the Assistant Director of Graduate Housing at

Stanford University, I found myself aligning with his team orientated leadership style. As a

member of Mako’s team in housing I greatly appreciate that my task strengths are recognized.

For example, I am the go-to person when event flyers need to made or building wide notices

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need to be drafted. When Mako or another supervisor trusts me to complete tasks outside of my

general work duties this makes me feel like a valued member of the department and helps foster

positive work relationships. Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid (as cited in Guerriero, 2019.

Unit 1. p.15-17) helps explain a leaders levels of concern for tasks and relationships. Upon

examination of the grid I feel Mako along with other leaders in my department exhibit a team

management behavioral approach. This approach is defined as an ideal behavioral approach for

leaders because it encompasses high concern for both relationships and tasks (Guerriero, 2019.

Unit 1. p.17). This is an approach that I want to use with my new team. Practicing the team

management approach will help me to develop a high performing team because the balance of

people and production will mean that my followers will have a work environment where their

skills and personalities pair well (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1. p.17).

While maintaining a well-balanced team is a good start in the development of my

leadership philosophy, I must also consider that my staff may need me to adjust my leadership

approach based on their varying levels of development. This is why I find the situational

approach to leadership imperative to incorporate in my philosophy. The situational approach to

leadership according to Hersey and Blanchard (as cited in Guerriero, 2019. Unit 2. p.1) is

essentially when different levels of competence and commitment from followers requires

specific support and directive from the leader. Therefore, different situations require different

types of leadership styles. Hersey and Blanchard developed four leadership styles, which

correspond with four development levels. The styles they outlined move from directing, to

coaching, to supporting, and finally to delegating (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 2. p.3). I believe

incorporating these outlined styles can help me to support my staff during their different levels of

development. When a leadership style does not properly correspond with the right level of

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

development this can create gaps. An example of this can be seen in Hui Zhang’s (2014) case

study on leadership styles at vocational colleges in China. Zhang suggests that when a leader

does not provide the appropriate leadership style there can be a lapse in development and that

leaders should not use a “one size fits all” approach to leadership (Zhang, 2014. p.30).

The theory of authentic leadership is important to me because of the emphasis on

character traits and behaviors of a leader (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1. p.18). I think it is much easier

to train someone to complete a task, than it is to change a person’s character or distinct

behaviors. I am in the early stages of becoming a leader in higher education and as I build my

philosophy on leadership I want to ensure that I can “practice what I preach”. I think that starts

by being able to implement the components of authentic leadership, which is defined by

Northouse (as cited in Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1. p.18) as identifying strengths and weakness as a

leader, being as transparent as possible with staff, being open and objective when making

decisions, and strongly following one’s moral compass. Using this theory to lead my team will

show them that I can be trusted and have good intentions as a leader.

When I step back and review the basis of my personal leadership philosophy on team

management, situational leadership, and the theory of authentic leadership I need to question

why. The answer I have come up with is these approaches allow for a strong foundation for me

to grow on. It is my opinion that other approaches to leadership, such as Adaptive Leadership

and Transformational Leadership, take a great amount of experience working in higher education

to develop.

Heifetz and Laurie (as cited in Guerriero, 2019, Unit 3, p.8) define adaptive leaders to be

people who can inspire organizational change during times of great complex challenges with no

simple solutions. Northouse (as cited in Guerriero, 2019, Unit 3, p.8) defines transformational

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

leaders as individuals who are visionaries, they have the capacity to charismatically inspire

followers to achieve optimal performance and bring about positive change to an organization. I

want to be intentional and practical as a new leader. I agree that the styles of adaptive and

transformational leadership are positive approaches, however they are long term goals to my

leadership style and do not best serve me now. In the hierarchy of the university I work for now,

I am quite low on the totem pole. While I believe great change can certainly develop at local

levels, this is not my directive. My responsibility is to lead my new team to complete the high

volume of tasks we have now, developing positive work relationships with them, and to provide

the necessary support and training they require as newly employed staff with great integrity.

Maintaining a balance between task behaviors and relationship behaviors is important in

practicing the team management approach. By completing the leadership behavior questionnaire

provided by the instructor I discovered that I rate moderately high in relationship behaviors

(score of 39/50) and moderately low in task behaviors (score of 33/50) (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1.

p.32). These results are not shocking, as I’m very aware that fostering task behaviors is an area

of development for me. In order to illicit more positive task behaviors I need to begin by

providing my staff with clear criteria for task expectations. I’ve noticed that I’ll verbally or

through email ask my staff to complete a task, but do not provide a hard deadline or more

detailed parameters for the completion of a task frequently. I am going to create an

individualized document for each of my staff members that outlines the next three months of

work they need to complete. Once I have finalized the proposed document I am going to meet

with my staff members individually to go over the document and to allow them time to add

suggestions or ask for clarity. This is merely a starting point to support an increase in task

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

completion, but I think this will create an open dialogue on the importance of maintaining a

balance of tasks and relationships.

On the scale of leadership styles in the situational approach I rate very high in coaching

and rate lowest in delegating (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 2. p.19). I believe there are two main

contributing factors in these results. The first is I am a brand new supervisor and have only been

leading a two person team for about two weeks. The second is delegating tasks is a known area

of opportunity for me. At this stage of developing my team I am more comfortable being very

involved in their day to day tasks and providing as much support as I can. That being said, my

staff is most likely at the S1 level of supportive behavior. They are brand new to my institution

and lack the skills and competencies to accomplish goals, but have a high commitment level

(Guerriero, 2019. Unit 2. p.4). To appropriately practice situational leadership I need to apply the

D1 style of Directing, meaning I need to communicate the importance of goals and provide clear

instructions on tasks to my team and back off on high support (Guerriero, 2019. Unit 2. p.4). To

complete this I am going to provide the aforementioned document for goals and task criteria and

allow my staff time to run with the directions I’ve given them. I am also going to back off on my

tendency to check-in with them so frequently.

I was humbled by the results of my authentic leadership self-assessment results. I had

more areas of “opportunity for improvement” then I had anticipated. I rated high in relational

transparency and low in self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, and balanced processing

(Guerriero, 2019. Unit 1. p.34). As a millennial I often here my peers talk about vibes and

energies. When we feel a person or leader is being genuine with their intentions we might say

that that person gives us good vibes. When we feel someone is communicating with ill intentions

we might say they have a bad energy or vibe. It is my hope to bring a positive energy to my

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

current and future roles. I want to be as transparent as possible and have obvious good intentions

with my language and actions toward my current team and future teams. Taking this course and

completing this assignment on developing my philosophy has been the first step for me to

become an authentic leader. Really digging deep and asking myself, “What kind of leader do you

want to be?” has truthfully been challenging. However, outlining my intentions for my view on

leadership has helped me to reflect on the importance of self-awareness and is something I need

to continue doing for as long as I plan to work in higher education. By continuing my education

and continuing to work in higher education I think I will be able to learn more about myself and

my intentions as a leader.

Crafting and maintaining an environment of inclusion is something I expect from any

institution I am a part of and is of high importance to me as a growing leader. I feel it is my

responsibility to create a climate of valued staff by honoring diversity and actively practicing

inclusion in all fields of my assigned responsibilities. Inclusion is seen as engaging people of

diverse backgrounds into the culture and work of an organization using informal and formal

efforts (Guerriero, 2019, Unit 4, p.2). While diversity can be generally defined as the levels of

differences that exist among people (Guerriero, 2019, Unit 4, p.2). This summer I took an

overview course on American community colleges and something that really resonated with me

was that the genesis of community colleges was inclusion. These intuitions were created to

enable people of diverse backgrounds to have access to education. The mission statements of

higher education institutions now almost always include a blurb on the importance of diverse

student populations. The idea of inclusion should also be true of faculty and staff that support

students.

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

In the next few weeks I have the opportunity to be on an interview panel that is searching

for an additional supervisor for the area of graduate housing that I oversee. I am currently

fulfilling the duties of two supervisors, so I am very excited to no longer be short staffed.

Something I need to be mindful of while I am an interviewer is unconscious bias. This type of

bias can be present without intent (Guerriero, 2019, Unit 4, p.2). I attended a training put on by

our human resources department about two months ago specifically on unconscious bias and the

trainer shared with us a great example of identifying unconscious bias that really resonated with

me. She told us a quick story about a boy and his father driving down the road. The boy and his

father get into a car accident and the boy gets rushed to the hospital and when he is on the

operating table, the surgeon exclaims, “That’s my son!” The trainer then asked the group, “Who

is the surgeon?” Everyone in my group was stumped, people suggested that maybe the surgeon

was a step dad. The trainer then shared with us that the surgeon was the boy’s mother. Everyone

in the group, including myself, was so embarrassed that we did not consider the mom to be a

surgeon because of gender stereotypes in the medical field. With this training in mind I plan to

diligently try to keep bias out of my evaluation of the upcoming interviews in my department.

As a front desk supervisor in housing I have high levels of access to thousands of student

records, have the power to charge student accounts, influence where students live during their

graduate program, and have access to medical records. With these high levels of access it is of

the upmost importance that I am an ethical leader and coach my staff to maintain the privacy of

our students. Staying in the parameters of laws like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy

Act (FERPA), which protects the privacy of students’ records at institutions that receive federal

funds, is an example of preserving ethics in my current role (FERPA, 2018). It is my hope that I

can be an altruistic leader, which is an approach to ethics that means the leader acts in the best

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

interest of others, even if it is not in the best interest of the leader personally (Guerriero, 2019,

Unit 4, p.8). I’d like to have a style of leadership like that of Lorraine Hensley, who we read

about in case one. (Guerriro, 2019. Case studies. p.1). I believe the legacy President Hensley left

at Perimeter Community College was that of an altruistic leader. She went above and beyond for

her staff and her students and this is also something I would like to be known for.

My personal leadership philosophy is based on team management, situational leadership,

and the theory of authentic leadership, with an emphasis on inclusion and ethical leadership. As a

novel leader I feel I have complied a philosophy that is a strong leadership foundation within

higher education. I have challenged myself to lead with high regard to task and relationship

development. Since relationship development is a strength of mine I am going to work on task

development. I plan to outline my expectations in writing and provide this to my team, so that

my staff knows my expectations for task completion. I am going to practice flexibility in my

leadership style so that I can adjust to the needs of my staff. I have a tendency to coach, which

can be useful in some situations, but not always. I am going to lean away from coaching and

providing high support. My brand new staff needs me to direct at this point in their development.

Instead of emphasizing support, I am going to provide more task direction in writing. Lastly,

being an inclusive and ethical leader who maintains positive staff relationships is instinctual for

me and is a way I practice authentic leadership now. To continue my development of authentic

leadership I plan to learn more about myself and continuing my studies of higher education.

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Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

References

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). (2018, March 01). Retrieved August 6,

2019, from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

Guerriero, W. (2019). Case studies and online discussion procedures [PDF]. CCHE 600

Leadership Skills. Retrieved 2019, August 6.

Guerriero, William (2019). Unit 1: Traits, skills, and behavioral approaches to leadership [PDF].

CCHE 600 Leadership Skills. Retrieved 2019, August 6.

Guerriero, William (2019). Unit 2: Situational leadership; path-goal and LMX theory;

followership and team leadership [PDF]. CCHE 600 Leadership Skills. Retrieved 2019,

August 6

Guerriero, W. (2019). Unit 3: Transformation and adaptive leadership [PDF]. CCHE 600

Leadership Skills. Retrieved 2019, July 23.

Guerriero, W. (2019). Unit 4: Leadership in Action. [PDF]. CCHE 600 Leadership Skills.

Retrieved 2019, August 1.

Zhang, Hui (2014). Teachers’ Leadership Styles in China’s Higher Vocational Colleges.

International Forum of Teaching & Studies, 10(2), 21–31. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.nau.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=9885

0789&site=ehost-live&scope=site

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