Drew Beaulieu

4/19/20

LD101

Professor McGrath

Drew’s Journal

Over the course of the semester I have taken a deeper look into the building blocks of a

leader, covering topics such as development, trust, direction and learning from mistakes. I’ve

used the material over the course of the year not only to understand leaders and what they do,

but to become a leader and replicate the great philosophies of great leaders. Being able to

dissect and form my own leadership style from the experiences and philosophies of others.

First off, the ability to take action is a must for a leader. When a team is faced with a

challenge, they must be able to assess the situation at hand and form a solution from the help

of their teammates and move forward. An example we covered as a class was a scene from

Band of Brothers. In the scene we see an officer who has frozen up in combat. His men are

asking him questions over and over again with no response. Captain Winters, who was

overlooking the battlefield from a distance, sends Lt. Splinters in to replace the frozen officer.

Lt. Splinters is able to assemble his team, formulate a plan, and lead them to success. You could

compare this to management in an organization. If you can’t adapt and make changes on the

fly, you will have a much harder time reaching success.

 Although, while being the leader of a team, you must also teach your teammates what it

takes to be a leader as well. Developing leaders from within your organization is essential for

building the leaders of tomorrow. Jack Welch was a big supporter of this ideology. He was very

upfront about his employee’s position within the company based on performance. This was

used to praise the high-performance workers, motivate the middle-class workers, and

recommend to the low performance workers that it was time to move on and try something

new.

In addition, having direction and giving your team a sense of direction is also essential

for driving you and your team to the right destination. A clip from U-571 covers this perfectly. In

the scene the leader uses the phrase “I don’t know”, which cause a bit of hysteria within the

team. A senior subordinate then has a private conversation with the leader. He says that the

skipper always knows. Even when he doesn’t, he always knows”. This represents the leader’s

ability to give the team direction even when times are tough, or challenges are presented.

Essentially, having trust between you and your teammates is the best way to ensure the

highest efficiency rate for your team. There’s no time to micromanage other team members

when you yourself have an equal responsibility to cover. This was explained by a rowing team

that had to overcome their issues in trust with one another in order to reach success.

Your interactions with your team are very important, but the leader must also grow and

develop just like your team. A leader today may not be suitable to lead the future, which is why

it is important to always be innovating and adapting to the market as it changes. You can find

out a lot of new ways to innovate just by researching other competing companies and see what
they are doing to better themselves. Technology is changing by the minute and if leaders

become complacent with their work and opportunities to innovate, they will fall behind.

Lastly, in order for a leader to grow, they must be able to do two things. Conquer the

fear of failure and learn from their failures. Climbing the ladder of success doesn’t come

without making mistakes along the way. By learning from your mistakes, you can see what’s

working and what isn’t. Leaders must not be afraid to fail because that may lead to the inability

to innovate out of fear of failure, which will cause a company to be lost with the times.

My Philosophy

In my eyes, leadership is about being a role model and making your team as efficient as

possible. A leader is someone who should be looked up to by their subordinates. Setting an

example and maintaining the standard inspires others in your team to do the same. When

everyone is able to maintain standards and work cohesively to achieve their goal is when a

team will encounter success. A leader must also be able to handle and overcome adversity and

challenges that are presented. It is okay to make mistakes as long as you can learn from them

to further your team towards success. This course and experiences from my life have shaped

this idea of a leader for me and are the core of my leadership philosophy.