Running

head: LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

Leadership Philosophy

Alexa Forster
March 19, 2014
EDAD 570: Leadership in Education I
Monica Nixon

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The term leadership encompasses a plethora of meanings. It is crucial to understand the

purpose of leadership in order to discover how it manifests and how one can become and
maintain leadership status. I believe that leaderships overarching purpose is to provide a guiding
light for an organization. Leadership is necessary for institutions of higher education to motivate
employees towards a common goal and to ensure the shared goals are achieved. According to
Witherspoon (1996), leadership is an interaction process in which an individual, usually through
the medium of speech, influences the behavior of others towards a particular end.
Ideally, as stated above, leadership should be rooted in the ability to influence a group of
people to pursue shared objectives that are held by a majority, but leadership often becomes the
process of persuasion by a leader or leadership team to induce employees to achieve goals held
by just the leader or minority group (Gardner, 2000).
I believe that influencing others to pursue a shared goal is the purpose of leadership not
only because of literature that supports this definition, but also because of how I have
experienced leadership firsthand. I always looked to leaders to provide a vision that would
provide guidance for me to achieve end goals. Without leadership, employees and more broadly
people would wander aimlessly. Most feel they need leadership in order to be productive and
stay on task to work towards shared objectives.
Leadership can look different depending on what an institution needs from the leader at a
particular time and depending on which hat the leader is wearing on any given day (Heifertz,
Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). Leadership may show up very authoritative one day and the next be
quiet. An example of leadership appearing very stoic and presidential, so to speak, would be how
leadership is displayed when a tragedy strikes a campus. When such an event happens, often
leaders step into the spotlight to deliver a message, answer questions and comfort a grieving

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population. During stressful times, the demand for leadership and the risk of failure are greatest
(Brown, 2006). Other times, leadership may look far less visible. An example of this is when
leaders take on the role of an anthropological sleuth. As leadership manifests in this role, leaders
are on the ground trying to soak up as much culture as possible to gain a better understanding of
the traditions and rituals that are built into an institutions history (Deal & Peterson, 2000).
It is easy to be a self-proclaimed leader, but far more difficult to be an effective leader.
One thing that effective leaders do is to provide oversight to an organization, while limiting the
control that they have over their employees. [One] cannot direct people into perfection; [they]
can only engage them enough so that they want to do perfect work (Wheatley, 2000, p.344).
Effective leaders understand the intricacies of an organization and know what is going on, but
also trust their employees to find solutions to problems and move the institution forward. Control
mechanisms only stifle employees ability to do quality work so leaders need to trust their
subordinates and give them the freedom to do so without the controlling and overbearing
management of a leader (Wheatley, 2000).
Effective leaders also labor to meld [the] past, present, and future into a coherent
cultural tapestry (Deal & Peterson, 2000, p.202). They are able to do this through assuming
several symbolic roles in their work to shape features of the culture (Deal & Peterson, 2000,
p.202). Symbolic leadership plays an important role in a leaders effectiveness. Leaders who are
most effective immerse themselves into institutional culture in order to learn and know the innate
workings of the organization. They also tap in to resources to begin to mold an institution.
Another thing that effective leaders can do is possess a clear set of ethical standards
which can be communicated and understood (Brown, 2006, p.8) to their constituents. Having
expectations and values that are transparent will aid in a leaders ability to gain the trust of their

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employees. It is important that if a leader articulates a set of ethical standards, that they model
the use of those through their actions. Words and images invoked from the heart convey
powerful sentiments (Deal & Peterson, 2000) but mean nothing if a leader does not back those
words up with actions that convey the same message.
In my opinion, leaders are effective if they can motivate their employees to work together
towards a common goal. Leadership, as discussed above, is the ability to articulate a vision that
members of an organization can then follow to achieve a shared goal. Whether it is motivating
constituents to do something that they do not necessarily want to do, or motivating them to do
something that the leader does not want to do, effective leaders can use influence and persuasion
to get work accomplished in a quick and efficient way.
In identifying myself as a leader, I show up as a leader in certain roles that I play in my
life, and in other areas, I do not see myself as much of a leader. Although I wear many different
hats, I examine my role as a leader in three different contexts below.
With regard to my job as a Program Assistant for Residential Life at UW, I have been
able to embody a leadership mentality through adaptive leadership. I have worked to develop
informal authority by creating and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with my
colleagues. I also work to increase my informal authority by modeling reliability and exchanging
favors and support with colleagues (Heifertz, et al, 2009). Reading the Heifertz, et al. (2009)
article was quite validating because I was able to put a name to the type of leadership style I
embrace as a Program Assistant, that of adaptive leadership. Something I find so unique and
refreshing about adaptive leadership is that it is leadership that can exist in employees in entry
and mid-level positions. You do not have to be at the top of an organizational hierarchy to be a
leader (Witherspoon, 1996) and this is why adaptive leadership resonates with me so well. With

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regard to the Leadership Identity Development Model, I would say in the context of work, that I
am somewhere in Stage 4 of leadership. I think this because I understand that I can be a leader
without a title and am able to see the big picture goals of our organization. I enjoy working with
others to accomplish tasks and am working to practice leadership in peer relationships (Komives,
Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2006).
I do not consider myself a leader, however, in the context of being a student at Seattle
University. I feel as though I am still trying to establish my identity as a full time graduate
student and full time employee and how those roles work together so that I can show up as a
leader as a student in the Student Development Administration program. Part of my inability to
consider myself a student leader is because of the lack of face time, so to speak, that I have had
at with colleagues at SU. I also have found it unique that I am now among many other students
who identify as leaders in one way or another and have come to realize that I have not yet found
my fit in a community of leaders. I have dedicated my energy to becoming a better leader at
work and thus have let slip my potential to be a leader in another area of my life. In the context
of the Leadership Identity Development model, I would categorize myself in Stage 1 and
transitioning to Stage 2 because I currently do not identify as a leader, but want to become more
involved and become active in the SU community (Komives et al., 2006). I have received
affirmation from faculty at school and other influential people in my life who see me as a leader,
but I need to begin engaging in diverse contexts and become more involved in order to see
myself as one in the context of being a student (Komives et al., 2006).
In my personal life, among family and friends, I consider myself a leader. I think of
myself as a leader in my personal life because of the external validation that I have received from
people that I consider my developmental influences (Komives et al., 2006). Those people would

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include my parents and grandparents, teachers and coaches, and even some of my close friends.
The more you get this validation from others, the more you begin to see yourself as such, and
over the years, that is what has happened to me.
It is important that I recognize that I am continuously trying to understand how I am
changing over time and thus how I continue to interact with different systems (work, school,
personal life) that I come into contact with. I need to maintain a diagnostic mindset and
constantly strive to work at my best depending on the organization I am working in (Heifitz,
Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). I am anxious to have the opportunity to further develop as a leader in
the various roles I play. I believe that I can do this through absorbing new literature, taking the
opportunity to participate in professional development opportunities through work and school,
and continuing to learn from my mentors who I consider to be effective leaders.
It is important to identify the intersection of salient identities and leadership as they
mutually influence each other. When exploring my identity and in particular identifying which
aspects show up most in the practice of my leadership, I believe that my racial identity as a
White person, is reflected. I know this identity contributes to my leadership style, even if I do
not intend it to. In order to be an effective leader, I need to be in a position where I am catering
to the needs of all of my constituents. I think it is not only vital to acknowledge the privilege
that being a White person carries, but also work diligently to understand the unique needs of the
people I am trying to lead. This starts with me understanding my self-identity and continues
with my ability to develop a sound multicultural competence consisting of building awareness
and knowledge of diverse others as well as a skillset to work with diverse others (Pope,
Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004). One way I can begin to tap into multicultural competence would
be to build relationships and trust with employees.

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The most effective managers spend time building relationships with key constituents
(Bolman & Gallos, 2011). Taking the time to listen to others and build foundational
relationships will allow me the opportunity to identify needs of people whose salient identities
differ from my own, but will also give me a chance to build trust with the people who I work
with. Building trust will make both me, as a leader, and my employees work harder and more
effectively to achieve a common goal (Bolman & Deal, 2000). Having the ability to trust my
employees and have them trust me will be key in making it possible to be an effective leader.
I engage a variety of resources in my leadership style in order to be as effective as
possible. One resource that I tap into frequently is the garbage can model of decision-making.
The garbage can model is a result of pouring problems, participants, and opportunities into a
mix of possibilities (Witherspoon, 1996, p. 104) and trying to sort it out to find the best
possible solution. I tend to use this decision-making model because I like to have an opportunity
to hear all of the possible voices around the table before making a decision. I would categorize
this as ends-based thinking because I like to make decisions that will produce the best outcome
for the greatest number of people (Kidder, 1995). Although Witherspoon claims the rational
decision-making model is contrary to the garbage can model, I find them similar in that it is
important in both models to gain information from all possible resources (Witherspoon, 1996). I
understand that relying on these decision-making models too heavily though may impede my
ability to make quick and efficient decisions. These models, however, are not the ideal
frameworks to use when a decision needs to be made when limited time is available. Although I
would love to think that time is always on my side, unfortunately, that is not always the case.
Because I enjoy the garbage can model of decision-making, I have come to realize,
particularly when I am under a tight time crunch, that I underutilize my own knowledge to make

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decisions. I tend to be indecisive at times because I am afraid of making a decision that will not
please all parties, often forgetting that I have a wealth of knowledge that can aid me in making
the best decision. I need to take time to remember that it is not possible to make perfect
decisions that will please everyone and I need to use my intuition and knowledge to make what I
feel is the best decision for the greatest good. While it is ideal to not upset people while making a
decision, the reality is that I will have to make decisions throughout my career that are
controversial. I need to trust that I will make the right decision and stand by that through the
implementation of that choice.
Another resource that I enjoy engaging in with my leadership style is my networking
ability. As detailed above, I place heavy emphasis on building relationships with colleagues, and
particularly those outside of my direct unit or department because all of these people will
contribute to success. As a manager, you need friends and allies to get things done (Deal &
Peterson, 2000, p.170). It is necessary to build and maintain relationships with these allies and to
pay it forward in offering assistance and support when able so that other employees know I can
be trusted and also will support me when I need their allegiance. I feel as though this relates to
the importance of increasing my formal authority in the workplace as well. Fostering mutually
beneficial relationships and exchanging favors and support with others will go a long way in
developing my leadership identity (Heifitz et al., 2009).
Speaking of building relationships, one area that I would like to engage more in would be
building relationships with mentors. It is crucial that I have developmental influences that can
support and encourage me throughout my leadership journey. These mentors will aid in my
ability to develop and become a better leader (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, &
Osteen, 2006). I think that I have observed and learned a lot of colleagues and peers, but have

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not developed formal mentor/mentee relationships with any of these people. I hope that this is
an area that I can continue to tap in to as I develop and engage in my leadership skills.
The last resource that I heavily rely on when engaging in leadership is my practical
knowledge. I have found, particularly so since becoming a student, that I love to use practical
knowledge gained in the student affairs field to guide my leadership style. I am an observer of
my work so I like to look for information or knowledge that I can gain not only from my own
experiences at work, but my colleagues interactions as well. I have noticed when I am in class
or talking with peers that I most often contribute with knowledge gained at work versus
information obtained through reading or theoretical frameworks.
On the other side of the knowledge coin, I think I underutilize classroom knowledge in
my leadership style. I am continuing my education to gain insight into how to be a successful
professional, and I think part of that learning comes from taking theory and frameworks and
being able to put them in to practice in the workplace. I think I can better tap in to this area by
making concentrated efforts to use theoretical frameworks to guide conversations I am having
with students. For example, the leadership identity development model is one that I can use to
aid student leaders in their own personal leadership development (Komives et al., 2006), but I
often forget to utilize this classroom knowledge. As I continue through school, it is my hope to
become more comfortable with a more natural incorporation of theoretical frameworks.
In the spirit of utilizing theoretical frameworks to inform my leadership practice, I
undoubtedly feel as though I best embody leader as a politician. This framework speaks to my
strengths, and thus within it would come most natural to me. I feel like my skillset is particularly
strong in setting an agenda, networking and building coalitions, and bargaining and negotiating.
Mapping the political terrain is something that will be harder to achieve because it is

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contextually rooted in specific institutions. Knowing whom the players are, what the interests of
each player are, and how much power each player is likely to wield will take time to discover
and understand. I think I would be able to map the political terrain by embodying the
anthropological sleuth role that is discussed in Deal & Peterson (2000). It would be beneficial to
spend a year soaking up the culture of an institution in order to understand the key players and
their particular agendas, and that is something I would do when coming in to a new institution.
This may have been a contributing factor to President Quixotes demise (Bolman & Gallos,
2011). Quixote came into his presidency with a hot agenda and took no time to learn or
appreciate existing structures and processes. Thus, he struggled to achieve buy-in from his
constituents and ended up eventually being removed from office after a series of no-confidence
votes (Bolman & Gallos, 2011).
I think a benefit of the political leadership framework is that it begins with setting a
strong agenda that articulates a clear vision of the purpose and long-term goals of an
organization. It has been articulated in many different texts that establishing a clear vision is
important to any leadership style (Deal & Peterson, 2000; Heifitz et al., 2009). In my opinion,
setting an agenda and always having the lens to see the big picture will aid in any leaders ability
to go far in their leadership ventures.
A potentially negative aspect of this framework is that, on the surface, it lacks the ethic of
care and encouraging of the heart. As a leader who likes to work within the political leadership
frame, if I do not find the time and space to participate in recognition and care and compassion
of my constituents, I will lose their loyalty very quickly (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). A leader as a
politician and a caring leader must be one and the same and must work in concert with one
another in order to produce the most effective leadership style.

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One situation that exemplifies my leadership was the development of a process for Spring
Quarter housing tours at the University of Washington. In a given three week span each year,
our department hosts 7,000 visitors including prospective students and their families who come
to tour the on-campus residential hall and apartment communities that we offer. Historically, we
have provided traditional tours, in which two tour guides lead a large group through our spaces,
three times a week for guests, but with the exponential growth of our residential communities
and influx in the number of people touring campus during the spring time, the demand to see
spaces far outweighed our capacity to provide them. Because I had prior experience with
facilitating tours as a student at the University of Washington, I was tasked to work with a
colleague in our Student Services Office to develop a completely new tour process that would
allow us to accommodate the large volumes of customers we were expecting to campus. We
were given this project in October of 2012 and had until the middle of March 2013 to solidify
plans for this new tour structure. The two of us met weekly to brainstorm, plan and eventually
execute a new process. This new structure included providing open house tours to visitors in
which we had a central hub where we provided information and had promotional videos running.
We offered tours of a residence hall and an apartment complex and tours left every ten minutes.
We held open houses for four hours every weekday during the three-week period. My colleague
and I also hired 50 student staff to serve as tour guides.
A leadership frame that I utilized while engaging in this process was the political frame.
The director of our Housing & Food Services department always says that filling beds is
everyones responsibility, meaning that even though only two of us developed this new process,
every unit within housing had a stake in ensuring the tours were successful. This caused the
need to navigate bureaucracy throughout my entire experience building this tour structure. I had

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to set a strong agenda and then negotiate with stakeholders in order to secure space, funding, and
staff for the open house tours (Bolman & Gallos, 2011). In order to negotiate, it was imperative
to first map the political terrain in order to mobilize enough power to move our initiative
forward (Bolman & Gallos, 2011). I needed to present our agenda and plan to the correct
people in power who had the authority to approve our ideas and move our plan toward action.
In large part, my approach in developing this process was successful. Our department
was able to accommodate the most visitors during the three-week spring period in our history.
This was due to the implementation of the new structure that my colleague and myself created.
Working in a department that is very driven by data and results, as is evident in many
bureaucratic organizations (Manning, 2013), from the perspective of management, this was our
most successful tour season. While I believe that using the political frame allowed me to
develop a sound tour process that accommodated the needs of the prospective students and
guests visiting the University of Washington, those were not the only people who deserved my
attention.
After the tour season ended and I had time to reflect on the process, I knew that I did not
provide the best leadership to our student employees who needed direction as tour guides, during
this time. This is where I should have used the human resources frame of leadership to facilitate
better communication and support to our students who were volunteering their time to ensure the
success of the tour process. Our students often felt confused about the expectations that the
department had of them and, at times, did not feel like I was providing them with clear
instructions. I had assumed that they had received all necessary information through our training
sessions prior to the start of tour season, and disregarded that I should have periodically checked
in with them to make sure that they were comfortable in their role as tour guides. I should have

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used my leadership to encourage people to bring their best talents and selves to work (Bolman
& Gallos, 2011). I should have spent time building trust with my employees and given them the
resources and space they needed to make them as successful as possible in their role as tour
guides (Bolman & Gallos, 2011). Lastly, I should have provided the support, coaching, and care
that my staff needed throughout the tour season (Bolman & Gallos, 2011). By doing this, the
staff would have felt more confident in their abilities to lead tours effectively. One aspect of the
human resources model of leadership that I did utilize, however, was hiring the right people who
had the experience and knowledge to be successful as a tour guide.
Throughout the process of developing the open house tour process at the University of
Washington, I learned that most likely, to be successful as a leader, that it is necessary to
simultaneously utilize multiple frameworks of leadership. I would have been more successful as
a leader in this particular situation if I could have used aspects from both the political frame and
the human resources frame to establish my leadership. I get caught up in thinking using one
frame of mind and I need to work to expand my way of thinking so that I am able to incorporate
a multitude of frameworks in my day-to-day work. The best way, in my opinion, to develop the
skills to think in different leadership frames is through practice in the student affairs field. I will
continue to challenge my way of thinking with the hope of growing as a practitioner to become
the most successful leader I can be.

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Brown, D.G. (Ed.). (2006). University presidents as moral leaders. Westport, CT: American
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Deal, T.E., & Peterson, K.D. (2000) Eight roles of symbolic leadership. In Jossey-Bass, The
Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (pp. 202-214). San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass.
Gardner, J. (2000). The nature of leadership. In Jossey-Bass, The Jossey-Bass reader on
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Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and
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Kidder, R.M. (1995). How good people make tough choices: Resolving the dilemmas of ethical
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Komives, S.R., Longerbeam, S.D., Owen, J.E., Mainella, F.C., & Osteen, L. (2006, July/August).
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Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2003). Encouraging the heart: A leaders guide to rewarding
and recognizing others. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Manning, Kathleen. (2013). Organizational Theory in Higher Education. New York, NY:
Routledge.

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Pope, R.L., Reynolds, A.L., & Mueller, J.A. (2004). Multicultural competence in student
affairs. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wheatley, M. (2000). Good-bye, command and control. In Jossey-Bass, The Jossey-Bass reader
on educational leadership (pp.339-347). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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