This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership exists in many forms, and different styles often lead to different outcomes, both positive and negative. Leadership requires the flexibility to adjust to a constantly changing environment while staying true to values. A person's values should be reflected in his or her leadership, and followers respond to humility, good listening, and a servant's attitude from their leader. A leader needs to be aware of his or her group and different contextual differences that exist, especially when communicating digitally. He or she must know how the group adjusts and changes over time and how change can be fostered and encouraged. Overall, a successful leader needs to take risks, motivate and encourage followers, and stay true to his or her values.

I didn't change my definition much for this final week. I appreciate your feedback from last week. Having the definition be concise is definitely improvement, as it really highlights what matters about leadership. I felt like all I needed to add from this week's readings was something about how important context and communication styles are, related to the Saphiere reading. I had already talked about communication is past weeks, so I felt like nothing major needed to be added. As far as the Sessions article, I simply added a piece about digital communication being important. Again, with that article I didn't see much that needed to be added from a high-level, "What does leadership mean?" perspective, though I did think the findings of the article were very interesting and not necessarily 100% intuitive, which is why research can be so great. That's all for my leadership definition. Thanks for a great semester!

Works Cited

1) Saphiere, D. H., Mikk, B. K., & Devries, B. I. (2005). "Factors Affecting Communication Style: Starring acts in the circus." 47 - 82. Retrieved from http://www.download-it.org/free_files/Pages%20from%20Chapter%2003%20-%20Factors%20Affecting%20Communication%20Style-c2c273a32b32ce590fe42518fa48db05.pdf.

2) Sessions, L. F. (2010). How offline gatherings affect online communities: When virtual community members 'meet up'. Information, Communication & Society, 13(3), 375-395. doi:10.1080/13691180903468954

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership exists in many forms, and different styles often lead to different outcomes, both positive and negative. Leadership requires the flexibility to adjust to a constantly changing environment while staying true to values. A person's values should be reflected in his or her leadership, and followers respond to humility, good listening, and a servant's attitude from their leader. A leader needs to be aware of his or her group, how it adjusts and changes over time, and how change can be fostered and encouraged. Overall, a successful leader needs to take risks, motivate and encourage followers, and stay true to their values.

I worked hard this week to again refine my definition. Thank you for your feedback, as I definitely needed to get out of the details and go more high level. I realize that it's still not perfect, but I think I really thought critically about the definition this time, using my past experiences for reference. Before I was just trying to make sure I included every article we ever read, while I realize now (thanks to your feedback) that that's definitely not necessary. I think I'll look to make a few more changes to shorten the definition next time, but for now, this is a big improvement in my opinion. As far as the Boyatzis article this week, I actually really found a lot of value. While it was very wordy and overly technical in my opinion, the framework they gave made a lot of sense to me. I like the way the author thinks about analyzing yourself, analyzing your gaps, and then getting support and accountability to improve in those areas where there are gaps. Change requires diligence and involving others, and I think this framework encompasses that. In the spirit of being brief, I didn't include much about this article in this week's definition, but I did touch on change just a bit. I hope to think about this more for next week.

Works Cited

1) Boyatzis, R. E. (2006). "An Overview of Intentional Change from a Leadership Perspective." Journal of Management Development, 25(7), 607-623. doi:10.1108/02621710610678445

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Leadership styles are rapidly and dynamically changing, and leaders have to be willing to shift and adjust, especially in the fast-paced environment of the world today.Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. In situations of ethical dilemmas, a leader must ultimately stand by his or her values while breaking down the issue strategically. A leader must be willing to serve through listening, empathy, awareness, and motivating growth. He or she must be a learner and a teacher and can often learn best by taking a step back from the situation at hand and analyzing people's motives and values. A leader needs to be aware of diversity: how he or she unconsciously reacts to it, how those being led are affected by it, and the dynamics of diversity that define leadership styles. Groups will go through many stages, and at many times they'll face conflict; a leader needs to identify the type of conflict, see that it can be helpful, and then as a leader search for a resolution that benefits all parties.

I found the group interaction article to be extremely interesting. It's a topic that I've seen and studied many times before in my Carlson classes. I think it's good to look at groups from a more high-level, analytical perspective like the one presented in the article. Groups can become so tied up in the day-to-day activities that they perform that leaders don't step back and think about what their group is actually going through. Research has found many interesting insights, such as the 'forming, storming, norming, performing' concept, and how conflict can help and hurt groups. So I decided to just include a short note about the usefulness of thinking about group concepts in leadership. I especially highlighted the piece about conflict. I think it's so important that leaders have a correct view of conflict, as conflict is an inevitable part of being a good leader. It will come, and it needs to be confronted - not avoided - as the article mentions. The ability to correctly identify and handle conflict will separate a good leader from a great leader. I thought the virtual leadership article was interesting, but I didn't find a good way to integrate it into my definition. I do think it's a valid concept to consider as a leader, though.

Works Cited

1) Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (1998). "Interacting in Teams and Groups." Exploring Leadership: For college students who want to make a difference (pp. 165 - 194). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

2) Yoon, S., & Johnson, S. (2008). Phases and patterns of group development in virtual learning teams. Educational Technology Research & Development, 56(5), 595-618. doi:10.1007/s11423-007-9078-x (in online sections folder of reading packet)

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Leadership styles are rapidly and dynamically changing, and leaders have to be willing to shift and adjust, especially in the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of the world today.Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. In situations of ethical dilemmas, a leader must ultimately stand by his or her values while breaking down the issue strategically. A leader must be willing to serve. A servant leader will find effective outcomes through listening, empathy, awareness, and motivating growth. A leader must be a learner and a teacher, and he or she can often learn best by taking a step back from the situation at hand and analyzing people's motives and values. A leader needs to be aware of diversity: how he or she unconsciously reacts to it, how those being led are affected by it, and the dynamics of diversity that define leadership styles.

This week I spent a lot of time just paring down my definition. I tried to decide what is most important to a true definition of leadership rather than the bloated version before that had a little piece of everything. I appreciate last week's feedback! After making an attempt at shortening everything - which will undoubtedly continue next week - I tried to briefly incorporate this week's readings. I found this somewhat difficult, since this week's articles didn't necessarily directly relate to leadership in an obvious way. Discussions of diversity are always difficult, and it's often hard to quantify the affects of it. What I took away from the readings - especially the Gladwell (2005) article - is that we as humans are extremely susceptible to unconscious associations. These associations can be helpful, but they often lead us to make hurtful and untrue assumptions about those around us. The more we are aware of these snap decisions and the fact that those different than us have different leadership styles and perspectives, the more effective we can be as leaders (Kezar 2000). I was frustrated by the Tatum (1997) article for a variety of reasons, which I can't fit into this discussion, so I wasn't sure how to incorporate it into the definition. Therefore, I just left the diversity discussion with discussing the other two articles.

Works Cited

1) Gladwell, M. (2005). "The Warren Harding Error: Why we fall for tall, dark, and handsome men." Blink: The power of thinking without thinking (pp. 72 - 98). New York: Pushkin Enterprises.

2) Tatum, B. D. (1997). "Defining Racism: Can we talk?" Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (pp. 3 - 17). New York: Basic Books.

3) Kezar, A. (2000). "Pluralistic Leadership: Incorporating Diverse Voices." The Journal of Higher Education, 71(6), Nov. - Dec., 2000, pp. 722-743. http://z.umn.edu/kezar

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. There are also different qualities that people who follow leaders are drawn to, and these come from a leader's values and vision. These values and vision related to leadership should be grounded in personal values and vision, and a leader must be able to affirmatively decide between right and wrong decisions. In situations of ethical dilemmas ("right vs right"), a leader must ultimately stand by his or her values while breaking down the issue strategically. Leadership styles are rapidly and dynamically changing, and leaders have to be willing to shift and adjust, especially in the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of the business world today. A leader must also not look to rule over followers. A servant leader will find effective outcomes through listening, empathy, awareness, and motivating growth. Additionally, a leader should look to both learn from his group and help teach his group. A leader can very effectively learn group dynamics and empathy by taking a step back from the situation at hand, seeing the whole picture and discovering the real issues and challenges. A leader also needs to look internally and realize that sometimes they will be best-served by focusing on the one largest thing that affects their leadership.

The readings from this week were again really interesting. I'll start by discussing the Kegan and Lahey reading. I actually found some value in this perspective of finding one big thing. I feel that sometimes wide-ranging analyses of strengths and weaknesses don't lead to truly working toward change. Instead, the person just has more awareness. While focusing on just one big thing isn't an end-all strategy that should be used all the time, in my experience focusing on one thing at a time (starting from most important) can lead to a constant awareness that leads to real change. Therefore, I included a little piece about it in my definition. As far as the Heifetz and Linsky article, I also found a lot of value here. I again have really noticed this type of perspective being helpful in my own experience. People (myself included) can get really mixed up and focused on the exact issue at hand, without taking the time to step back and see the big picture of what's really happening and why people think the way they think. I definitely felt the need to explain that a good leader will be able to take this high-level view so that the best decisions are made and the most opinions and feelings are taken into account.

Works Cited

1) Heifetz, R. A., & Linsky, M. (2002). "Get on the balcony." Leadership on the Line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading (pp. 51 - 74). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

2) Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). "Identifying Each Person's One Big Thing" (pp. 63 - 67). Boston: Harvard Business Press.

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. There are also different qualities that people who follow leaders are drawn to, and these come from a leader's values and vision. These values and vision related to leadership should be grounded in personal values and vision, and a leader must be able to affirmatively decide between right and wrong decisions. In situations of ethical dilemmas ("right vs right"), a leader must ultimately stand by his or her values while breaking down the issue strategically. Leadership styles are rapidly and dynamically changing, and leaders have to be willing to shift and adjust, especially in the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of the business world today. A leader must also not look to rule over followers. A servant leader will find effective outcomes through listening, empathy, awareness, and motivating growth; this is a highly important perspective to keep in mind. Leadership is simultaneously individualistic and group-based. The group can help motivate others to strive for individual improvement, and the skills of the group are what make the group what it is.

I really enjoyed the readings from this week. I find that I really map to servant leadership (Barbuto & Wheeler 2007), not as an arrogant way of saying I'm humble though hopefully. I simply am not overbearing in leadership by nature. I prefer to make peace, serve those around me, and set an example of awareness and service. I also tend to feel strong empathy in situations of negative circumstances for others, and I make an effort to show that to those around me. Again, I do not intend to sound arrogant or self-serving in any way. This is just the way that I was raised, and thus the way that I act around those I lead or have relationships with. In fact, I'd say that servant leadership, if unbalanced, can be somewhat negative. Sometimes I wish I had a stronger ability to act reflexively in situations where conflict is occurring and someone needs to be disciplined or pointed in the right direction. I'm working on this ability through the other leadership models we've talked about. As far as the Astin & Astin (1996) article, there was a lot of content there. I decided to just pick the part that was most relevant to me. I thought their discussion about how the group and the individual interact was very interesting, so I included a piece about it, which I think really enhances the definition, considering I don't have a lot of content in the group area yet.

Works Cited

1) Astin, H. S., & Astin, A. W. (1996). A social change model of leadership development: Guidebook (version III) (pp. 4 - 27). Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute.

2) Barbuto, J. E., & Wheeler, D. W. (2007). "Becoming a Servant Leader: Do you have what it takes?" Retrieved from www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1481/build/g1481.pdf

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. There are also different qualities that people who follow leaders are drawn to, and these come from a leader's values and vision. These values and vision related to leadership should be grounded in personal values and vision, and a leader must be able to affirmatively decide between right and wrong decisions. In situations of ethical dilemmas ("right vs right"), a leader must ultimately stand by his or her values while breaking down the issue strategically. Leadership styles are rapidly and dynamically changing, and leaders have to be willing to shift and adjust, especially in the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of the business world today.

This week, my definition remained almost entirely untouched. I feel that based upon everything we've read so far, the definition does a nice job of encompassing what a leader is. I think it's important to talk about leadership styles, values, and decisions in the context of a leadership definition. This week, I felt that the article was really important. As was mentioned in the lecture, leadership is not static, and though the current understanding has come through a breadth of research, that doesn't mean the study of leadership has a finish line. This article focused on the fact that in a volatile and uncertain climate, traditional leadership styles and perspectives can sometimes be too rigid to stand on their own (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky 2009). I feel that this is an important, forward-looking aspect of leadership that should be added into the leadership definition. A leader will be hard-pressed to find a situation where everything is relaxed and fits perfectly into a nice framework. Leadership is inherently dynamic, and that's what makes it such an interesting area to study.

Works Cited

1) Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). "Leadership in a (permanent) crisis." Harvard Business Review, 87(7), 62-69. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=41997981&site=ehost-livee

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. There are also different qualities that people who follow leaders are drawn to, and these come from a leader's values and vision. These values and vision related to leadership should be grounded in personal values and vision, and a leader must be able to affirmatively decide between right and wrong decisions. In situations of ethical dilemmas ("right vs right"), a leader must ultimately stand by his or her values while breaking down the issue strategically. There are also many different perspectives on leadership, and a leader must decide what he or she believes in these many areas.

This week my definition's content didn't change significantly, though I did try to clean up the definition as a whole. I rearranged several areas, and cut out a few things from past iterations that I didn't find necessary. I found the Kidder (2003) article from this week to be extremely interesting, challenging, and enlightening, and I definitely felt the need to include aspects from it. I think what defines a leader is often how he or she responds to difficult circumstances and ethical dilemmas; these responses and decisions often set an average leader apart from a great leader. Kidder's (2003) framework is extremely helpful in assessing what is and is not an ethical dilemma, how to break down these dilemmas into their simpler parts, and then how to make critical decisions on how to respond. I found the Paul and Elder (2006) reading to be sort of interesting, but I didn't find use for it in my definition. I understand their point of overcoming egocentrism, but I was bothered and disagreed that there is no source of truth of any kind for our moral beliefs - just a common need to help society. I find this to be extremely relative in itself, and the evidence to denounce any sort of exterior truth in what is moral was shaky at best. I could go on, but I'll just leave it at that for now.

Works Cited

1) Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). "The Function of Ethics -- and Its Main Impediement." Understanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning (pp. 4 - 36). Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.

2) Kidder, R. M. (2003). "Overview: The ethics of right vs. right." How Good People Make Tough Choices (pp. 13 - 29). New York: Simon & Schuster.

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms, and these styles can be used in different situations. Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. There are also different qualities that people who follow leaders are drawn to. A leader's values and vision related to leadership should be grounded in his or her personal values and vision. This leads to integrity and consistency. There are also many different perspectives on leadership, and a leader must decide what he or she believes in these many areas.

This week, I again stayed true to my most basic definition of leadership. I continued to see this as a good baseline. I also kept elements of last week's definition. What was most important to me was to note that there are several distinct styles of leadership, and effective leaders can switch between them. I also find it very important that there are styles of leadership that lead to negative outcomes. I also kept in the part relating to what draws followers to certain leaders, as this is very important for leaders to be aware of. I really enjoyed the readings this week, especially the Terry article, so I felt very inclined to improve my definition using elements from these articles. First, I mentioned that a leader's vision and values needs to be the basis of his or her leadership vision and values. This is based on Lee and King's (2001) article, and I think this is absolutely true. A leader needs to be transparent and have integrity, and the only way to do this is by basing their leadership on what they believe. I really enjoyed the Terry (2001) article. It made me really think about what I do believe. In fact, I didn't even know about all of these perspectives on leadership before reading this, and I certainly hadn't taken a stand on several of them. It's important for a leader to be grounded, have integrity, and to stick by his or her ethics. Without integrity, a leader will be unable to lead effectively; it's crucially important for leaders to be aware of this.

Works Cited

1) Lee, R. J., & King, S. N. (2001). "Ground your leadership vision in a personal vision." Discovering the Leader in You: A guide to realizing your personal leadership potential (pp. 31 - 54). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

2) Terry, R. (2001). "Deciding what you believe." Seven zones for leadership: Acting authentically in stability and chaos (pp. 20 - 40). Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, Inc.

This Week's Definition: I believe leadership is something that a person does that puts him or her out front to help drive individuals toward specific goals or outcomes. Leadership comes in many forms. Some types of leadership generally cause negative outcomes, while others lead to generally positive outcomes. Different leadership styles can be used in different situations, and the best leaders are able to dynamically switch between styles as needed. There are also different qualities that people who follow leaders are drawn to, including trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

This week, I stayed true to the most basic definition of leadership that I had, as I haven't found reason to modify the basic premise that leadership is something someone does to lead others. However, after the readings this week, I definitely had to improve my definition. This started by getting rid of the last section of my previous week's definition, as it just didn't seem necessary. Then I added reference to Goleman's (2000) research that there are different leadership styles, and some work better than others. Finally, I made reference to the fact that those who follow respond better to certain qualities, based on the Rath and Conchie (2009) reading. Arguably the most important addition I made this week is about the six leadership styles. I think it's so important for leaders to understand the way that they lead, and that sometimes different types of leadership are necessary. I think this analysis will help me to become a better leader; self-understanding is essential to self-improvement.

Works Cited

1) Goleman, Daniel (2000). "Leadership that Gets Results." Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90.

2) Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2009). "Understanding why people follow." Strengths based leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow. (pp. 79 - 85). New York: Gallup Press.