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Kelly Schmitz
Erin Alanson
Exploring Leadership
23 November 2015
Philosophy of Leadership
During this Exploring Leadership class, we were presented with
numerous leadership models, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
While none seemed to fit the definition just right on their own, pulling
information from each one and drawing conclusions based on all of them
helps form a broader and more accurate view of leadership. The model that
seemed to be the basis for describing leadership, at least in the book, was
the Relational Leadership Model. Even though the Relational Leadership
Model isnt perfect, it forms the backbone for how I think about leadership,
and it helped me to form a new definition of leadership that can be
understood in terms of a metaphor and applied to real-life situations.
According to the textbook, leadership is defined in the Relational
Leadership Model as, a relational and ethical process of people together
attempting to accomplish positive change (Komives, Lucas, and McMahon
52). There is not much of this statement that I agree with, but the one thing I
do agree with is the statement that leadership is a relational process. No
matter how much a leader wishes, he or she cannot accomplish his or her
societal goals without gaining the trust of prospective followers. This view

that I hold is best summed up in an article in which Wheatley writes,

Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because
it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to
stop pretending we
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are individuals who can go it alone (19). Past experiences have taught me
that the world is just too big of a place to accomplish significant, nonpersonal goals alone. A leader needs followers in order to affect the world
outside of the self, making relationships core to the definition of leadership.
While I agree that relationships are a central part of leadership, the
rest of the textbooks definition leaves me skeptical. For starters, while an
ideal leader should be ethical, the leader does not have to be. Take, for
example, a leader who influences his or her followers to harm another group
of students because it is in the best interest of the group. The leader did
indeed
accomplish his or her goals, but it was in an unethical manner. Therefore,
while being ethical is something that should be encouraged of all leaders,
being ethical does not make a leader. It just makes a good one. Besides the
question of ethics, I also disagree with the statement that leadership
accomplishes positive change. Change can be both positive and negative,
and whether it is one or the other does not determine if one is a leader or
not. Even the word change in the definition of leadership does not sit well
with me. On the Honors Retreat that I attended before college began, each

group was tasked with creating an interpretation of the fight song and
performing it in front of judges to determine the winner. While this project
isnt change in the traditional sense, our group still had leaders that had to
direct the rest of the group to complete this task. If I had to come up with a
definition that summed up what I learned in this course, I would define
leadership as the process of motivating individuals to pursue the goals of the
leader, whether that be one person or a group of people, that extend outside
of the self.

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After this course ends, I hope to use the leadership skills that I have
developed in order to help fix the injustices that are occurring all over the
world. One of the main areas that I am most interested in is the idea of
privilege that we discussed in class. In one of the articles that we read for
class, Johnson writes, It isnt our fault, but now that its ours, its up to us to
decide how were going to deal with it before we pass it along to generations
to come (12). That statement stuck with me because it reflected some of
the core ideas that form the basis of what I want to do after graduation. To
me, fighting privilege means using the privilege that I have been given to
help those who dont have it. Therefore, I plan on using what I learned about
leadership to motivate others to help me accomplish the societal goal that I
hold, which would be starting a

non-profit organization aimed at providing affordable health care to those

living in the poorest neighborhoods. For now, I will use the leaderships skills
that I have developed on campus in some of the clubs that Im in. I have just
applied to be on the leadership team for the Newman Club, and I will use
what I have learned to help plan events and accomplish the goals of this
organization. In addition, I am on the leadership team for a retreat occurring
in December, and I will use what I have learned to help motivate the girls
that I am leading to accomplish the goals of the retreat.
The metaphor that I have created to represent how I view leadership is
one of the human organism. In the human, the control center is the brain,
which represents the leader. The brain motivates the other parts of the
organism via nerves or hormones to accomplish its goal of keeping the
human alive. The brain cannot accomplish this without the other parts, just
like a leader cant accomplish his or her goal without help from his or her
followers. One topic that we
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also covered in class that fits well with the metaphor I have described is one
of essentialism. The text describes the non-essentialist as, unprepared in
part because, for the first time, the preponderance of choice has
overwhelmed our ability to manage it. We have lost our ability to filter what
is important and what isnt (McKeown 15). The brain in a human can receive
incoming information and interpret it without conscious thought, making the
human aware of just the things

considered essential. Without this

mechanism, we would be overwhelmed with all the information or brain is

receiving and wouldnt be able to function. In the same manner, a leader
who is an essentialist must filter the incoming demands and focus his or her
attention on those that bring the group closer to the common goal.
Leadership is something that does not have one static definition. It
depends on the person who interprets it. I view leadership as the process of
motivating individuals to pursue the goals of the leader, whether that be one
person or a group of people, that extend outside of the self. However, that is
just the definition that I developed over the course of this class. Others will
have come up with other definitions and focused on other aspects of the
class, but to me, thats not what matters the most about leadership. While
defining it is important, what the prospective leader does with that definition
is the most important thing. After all, the leaders who stand out the most in
this world are the ones who make a difference.

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Works Cited
Johnson, A.G. "Privilege, Oppression, and Difference." Privilege, Power, and
Difference. 2nd ed.
New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. 12-40. Print.

Komives, Susan, Nance Lucas, and Timothy McMahon. Exploring Leadership

for College Students
Who Want to Make a Difference. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2013. Print.
McKeown. "The Essentialist." Essentialism. 1-27. Print.
Wheatly. "What I Believe at This Time." Turning to One Another. 2002. 18-19.
Print.