Running head: LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW/LEADER PROFILE

Leadership Interview/Leader Profile

Lindsay Gove
EDLD 6020 - Western Michigan University

LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW/LEADER PROFILE

Leadership Interview/Leader Profile

I decided to interview Katie Fox, who has given me permission to use her name in this
paper. Katie is currently my supervisor at WMUs College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
This is a fairly new occurrence, as Katie never thought she would be in charge of three graduate
assistants and running all of orientation. As a little background, we currently have two advisors
out on maternity leave. Both advisors were above Katie in hierarchy, which left her as the
advisor with the most experience at two years. I chose to interview Katie because she came into
this new role pretty suddenly, and her fresh take on things would hopefully give me insight into
what I could be expecting in the coming years.
The first thing I wanted to know was whether or not Katie viewed herself as a leader.
Because this was such a new phenomena, I wanted her point of view. She gave me a quick yes
and said that she is now doing more decision making and getting more respect from supervisors.
Supervisors from the departments are also looking to her as a point person. Because of this, she
is receiving a lot more information than she is used to on the political standpoint. This gives her a
broader picture of what the college needs, not just what our office may want or need. When
listening to her talk about these changes, I had a feeling that she didnt see herself as a leader
before taking on this new role. She quickly confirmed my thought, saying that she felt as if she
was a leader with students, but in the office she was a follower just like the rest of us. Before
coming over to the College of Engineering as an advisor, Katie was a residence hall director. She
had total autonomy with their budget, staff, facilities, etc., and because of this, felt like a leader
in that position.
Katies previous leadership position affirmed my interesting in interviewing her. Not only
would she be able to pull from her sudden rise to leadership in advising, but she could also

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reference her previous experience from residence life. Katies approach to leading greatly
reminds me of the behavioral approach (Northouse, 2016, ch. 4). Specifically, I think of
relationship behaviors (p. 71). Some of the attributes of being a leader that Katie mentioned were
transparency, communication, and a willingness to do anything you are asking your team to do.
She specifically mentioned that a leader should be able to do the tasks or jobs that they are
asking of their team. She explained that it was not fair to ask people to do work that you would
not be willing to do yourself. The way Katie measures success of herself as a leader is also
connected to her relationship behaviors. If the job gets done well to expectation, and the team is
still happy and healthy, thats success (K. Fox, personal communication, June 7, 2016).
The common theme I found throughout this interview, was that Katie truly cared about
people. She was constantly talking about people, whether it was superiors she recently started
coming in contact with, students, or graduate students who she suddenly became in charge of. In
Northouses book, on page 196, he talks about authentic leadership and the different viewpoints
the definition can come from. One of these is the interpersonal process. This is a relational
leadership process which is defined by both the leader and his/her followers. As one of Katies
followers, it is clear that she looks for cues from us as to how the team should proceed.
Ultimately, the decision needs to be made by her, but our opinions affect the situation.
Seeing as we are a team, I decided to reference back to Yukis chapter, Leadership in
Teams and Decision Groups, to compare our work environment (2002). I would consider our
advising team as a functional team. We are all working in relatively similar ways, and yet we all
specialize in something slightly different. For example, Katie advises for computer science,
graphic and printing science, civil engineering, and construction engineering. I specialize in and
advise for mechanical and aerospace engineering. Yuki mentions that motivation is critical to

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functional teams (p. 307). Without all of the members working toward a common goal, things
can not run smoothly. We see this right now during orientation month. Each advisor needs to be
committed to the college in order to be displayed in the most favorable light.
The section of Yukis chapter that I saw permeate through my interview with Katie was
that there needs to be mutual trust and cooperation between a leader and his/her followers in a
functional team. During orientation, each member of the team has a different job. Each members
job also affect the job of another member. For example, if our leader, Katie, does not give me the
names of registered students, I can not make the sign in sheets. Without the sign in sheets, we
will not know which students came and which were a no show. Then, we do not know which
students to pre-register. The sequence would continue on down the line. It is obvious that we are
all trusted to do our jobs, and so far it has made us a productive team.
One of the final questions I asked Katie had to do with her education. Katie has a
masters degree in higher education, similar to the HESA program that I am working on. When I
asked her if her education prepared her for a leadership role, she mulled it over and gave me a
yes and no, answer. When Katie said that her graduate program was a theory to practice
program, my mind quickly went to the textbook for this class, Leadership: Theory and Practice.
In Katies program, each student had to have an assistantship which aided in their learning by
giving them hands on experience. Katie did, however, mention that most educational experiences
were the ideal scenario. They were a sheltered experience, lacking much of the political aspects
that may be encountered after graduate school. Her words were that theory was often too
idealistic. It gives the framework, but there is no substitute for in person interactions. This is
one of the challenges that Katie mentioned in regards to leading. She also said she has been
challenged with making decisions and owning up to them, being OK with delegating jobs, saying

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no to things and team members, and getting a deeper understanding of political nature/culture of
the institution. She mentioned how it was easy to question things when you are not in a
leadership role, but once you know the inside information, many of the decisions make more
sense.
Digging deeper into Katies recent leadership experience gave me a tangible look into
what I may be a part of in the future. Although she mentioned that theory is sometimes hard to
apply to life outside of education without forcing it, themes clearly showed me part of Katies
leadership style and why it has been working so well.

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Reference List
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. (7th ed.), Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage. ISBN: 978-1-4833-1753-3.
Yukl, G. A. (2002). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.