Running Head: What is Leadership

2018

What is Leadership?
LDRS 801
CHRIS PAYNE
What is Leadership

What is leadership? While this isn’t my first course on leadership and its accompanying

theories, this course has helped me develop a sharper image; a clearer picture of what leadership

is and brought some of the overlooked detail into focus. When we look at history, leaders are

praised or rebuked based upon our perspectives of their results. Therefore, it would be easy to

look at success through the gilded lens of time and assign values of good or bad to a leader based

upon a multitude of aggregate accounts. It would be easy to judge an individual’s leadership by

their best moments or worst mistakes, but to gain a truly useful perspective on leadership, that

method must be disregarded.

John Maxwell (2001) says that leadership is influence. Max Depree (2004) states that

leaders define reality. James Burns (1978) tells us that all leaders are actual or potential power

holders, but not all power holders are leaders. In order to become an effective leader, influence

becomes the first step. An individual can have influence without having the title of leader. If

that person demonstrates they can be trusted, has a history of success and possesses traits that are

admirable or favorable (Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004), that person is likely to be looked to as

a leader, even among a group of peers.

But that influence must be seasoned by a shared moral and ethical virtue. Stalin was

considered by his countrymen as having the best interests of his country as the guide for his

actions, but the power he wielded led to devastation for those who disagreed with him. As a

power wielder, Stalin only granted the wants and needs of his respondents as it suited the goals

he had set forth (Burns, 1979). Therefore, the leadership that Stalin exercised operated under

coercion and not from a multi-directional influencing (Rost, 1993).

It becomes clear then, that in order to lead well, not from a position of power accrued by

fear of punishment or forced obligation, a leader must exert influence in a positive way that
What is Leadership

considers the wants and needs of the followers. Since exerting influence on followers is a key

component of the definition of a leader, so too is it a key component of destructive leadership.

(Schyns & Shilling, 2012). On the other end of that scale is a leader who puts the wants and

needs of their followers over the wants and needs of the organization in which they exist.

Therefore, leadership must take into account the multiple perspectives of the organization above

them if there is any, and that of the people that they lead. Leadership doesn’t eliminate the

sometimes competing desires of the organization and the people, but manages them in such a

way that the organization succeeds because the people who make up the organization want to see

it successful, but not at any cost.

In order for a leader to define reality for their followers, a healthy understanding of the

mission and vision of the organization must be communicated on a regular basis. When the

mission is understood and communicated, followers begin to understand how they can contribute

to that mission. Transformational Leadership theory states that when leaders instill pride, faith,

and respect, delegate projects in a low-control, high accountability environment, invite followers

to think through issues their way, reward followers who win, and avoids micromanagement, they

actually pass excellent leadership DNA to their followers and create a culture that outlasts their

tenure within that organization (Lowe, Kroeck, and Sivasubramaniam, 1996).

Of course, in order for a leader to be effective, one must have resources. One cannot

reward followers without resources. Products cannot be excellently produced without resources

and the people who are following the mission cannot execute that mission without resources.

Therefore, in order to exhibit good leadership, the conversation around how those resources are

utilized cannot be ignored. A person can exhibit excellent leadership, but without resources, the

impact cannot be realized and is impractical. Good leaders have an understanding of their
What is Leadership

resources and how they interact with people to make them as effective as possible. Good

leadership engages the resources as tools of the people, combined with influence and

transformational leadership to help the people they lead perform as effectively as possible.

One cannot talk about leadership without mentioning history. Poet George Santayana

said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Leadership requires

understanding the roots of the movement or organization both to avoid repeating mistakes and to

learn how to communicate to those who aren’t early adopters. Leadership demands change, not

for change’s sake, but to achieve goals unmet by prior efforts.

Not only does history matter when communicating change and understanding culture, but

the history of the leader matters. History of that leader will dictate how much and how quickly

that leader will gain influence based upon prior actions. If a leader has a history of success, that

will automatically buy that leader the benefit of the doubt when communicating to followers and

will paint a picture of the likelihood of future success.

Leadership, in light of the above, becomes the culmination of influence, history,

resources, communication of reality and a legacy that lives on in the culture created by that

leader and their followers.

Part 2

My perspective of leadership at the beginning of this class could be likened to a

telescope. While I’m not the world’s foremost expert on leadership, I had a general

understanding of the concepts, perhaps without the language or clarity on those concepts. For

instance, I wrote that influence is a key component of leadership. That perspective was further

supported by much of the material from this course. James Burns states “The power holder may

be the person whose private motives are displaced onto public objects and rationalized in terms
What is Leadership

of public interest” (1979). The private motives being displaced onto public objects is the very

definition of influence.

Another concept that was reinforced by this course was the idea of defining reality.

While the language I used was less academic, the concept remains the same. For instance, when

I talk about defining reality or having an “I see in you” conversation, the more well-known idea

is the Transformational Leadership theory (1996). When I help foster a culture that invites

people to make decisions, mutually agree on goals and delegate important elements of projects,

I’m practicing transformational leadership. This course has helped to put language to things I’ve

already done and clarify the process with others.

Within the realm of transformational leadership, however, one element I neglected to

include in my original “What is Leadership” paper was the idea of creating legacy. I mentioned

history as a crucial element, but neglected to include the future. By including transformational

leadership in this paper, I acknowledge that a missing element of my first paper failed to

understand that the legacy that a leader leaves is something that too few leadership accounts take

into consideration. When history talks about empires, rarely is it included the culture that the

leader established to outlive him or herself that is the longest lasting piece of leadership. Burns

states, “leadership…is thus inseparable from followers needs and goals”. When a leader

captures and communicates the needs of their organization in such a way that the followers are

themselves empowered to contribute to those needs and goals, that leader creates a culture that,

outside of an opposing force, should self-perpetuate until those needs and goals change.

Part 03

At the age of 38, I have had the opportunity to lead both staff and volunteers of from

multiple cultures and generations. I would consider myself to be an above average leader. I’ve
What is Leadership

grown ministries to be self-sustaining within churches throughout the Midwest. I still maintain

excellent relationships with those that I’ve led and raised up as leaders. I’ve also been very

fortunate to have mentors who are trend-setters in their areas of expertise. I would consider

myself a visionary leader who does not struggle with communicating mission, having hard

conversations that invite people to grow and I give permission and encouragement to up-and-

coming leaders who take their roles seriously.

With that said, there are certainly areas in which I need to grow for me to consider myself

successful. The primary area that needs my attention is in creating detailed steps and onramps to

execute the vision. I’m not strong administratively and tend to view things from a 30,000 foot

view, and I tend to skip details on how to do the things that I do naturally.

I also struggle to care for people while working on a project. I tend to get focused on the

thing that needs to get done instead of caring for the people who are doing the thing. Because

my thought energy is usually in the future, I have a habit of not celebrating what is happening in

the moment because in my mind, I’ve already dealt with it and moved on. I need to remember

that not everyone thinks the same way that I do, and learn how to encourage and challenge

people in a way that they can receive it.

The first of my goals will be to create a leadership pipeline that clearly provides steps and

celebrates wins. My goal with the pipeline will be to create clearly defined job descriptions that

help people know where they are going and be able to determine when they are successful. By

sitting down with individuals find out where and how they want to grow, I can celebrate when

they achieve their goals and coach them along the way when progress stalls out. Because I likely

won’t be here forever, I want to have the pipeline in place by June of 2019, and communicating

with leaders where I see them and then listen to their goals. With the leadership pipeline, the
What is Leadership

goal would be to prepare at least 7-9 people for new leadership positions in either Bible studies

or LifeGroups.

Another goal will be to attend all of my group leaders’ groups, at least twice a year. I

lead our small groups programming at our church and we’ve currently raised up 11 groups. The

goal will be to first meet with them and ask how they define success within their groups and then

work with the leaders to create a “wellness checkup” for their group that will help them define

and quantify success for their groups. This could be implemented as soon as April of 2019. The

goal will be for group leaders to develop a process that will help keep their groups focused on

their desired mission by inviting an outside source to evaluate it.

A third goal will be to complete my e-Portfolio as a part of my final project for my

Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership. My projected graduation should hopefully be at

the end of the fall semester in 2019, so it needs to be completed by at least November of 2019.

Another goal that will help me address areas I’m weaker in is to find a mentor who is

good at caring for people. Specifically, I’ll find someone who shares my strengths, but is further

along in knowing how to care for people. For people who do it naturally, its kind of a part of

who they are, but I need to find someone who’s had to work at it, like I need to. I will have at

least made contact with this person by the end of December. His name is Kyle and he lives in

Ohio. He would be an excellent resource.

Finally, I want to spend more time studying transformational leadership. This would be

the style I already somewhat utilize, but to really understand the concepts and how they are

applied. I’ve already name at least one resource within this paper, and will attempt to snowball

the resources from that article to glean further understanding.

What is Leadership

References

Burns, J. M. (1979). Leadership. New York, N.Y: Harper & Row.

DePree, M. (2004). Leadership is an art. New York: Dell.

Lowe, K. B., Kroeck, K., & Sivasubramaniam, N. (1996). Effectiveness correlates of

transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the mlq
literature. The Leadership Quarterly,7(3), 385-425. doi:10.1016/s1048-9843(96)90027-2

Maxwell, J. (2001). 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson

Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of
destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly,24(1), 138-158.
doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.09.001