My Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

Caroline Marie Woody

Department of Education, Northern Arizona University

CCHE 600: Leadership Skills

Dr. William Guerriero

October 11, 2021

 My Leadership Philosophy and Action Plan

Introduction

The term leadership lends itself to a broad interpretation and understanding with each

leader formulating the unique leadership fingerprint that describes them, guides them, and

justifies their actions and choices. The best thing a leader can do is use the knowledge,

experience, and values they gain through their life to inform who they become as a leader.

Leadership Philosophy

As I grow in my career and have more leadership opportunities, I need to develop,

modify, and expand my ideas of leadership. Throughout my life, I have been able to identify key

aspects of myself that I have used to influence my leadership philosophy and to modify and

adapt as my views and interpretations grow. My dedication to relationships and helping others

succeed drives my leadership choices and has directed me to specific leadership theories and

approaches like servant leadership, path-goal theory, and adaptive leadership.

Servant leadership and path-goal theory are founded in relationships and the goals set through

those relationships. In servant leadership, the leader takes on the role of putting their followers

first and helping them achieve their own personal and professional goals (Guerriero, 2021, Unit

1, p. 27). In path-goal theory, the leader assesses follower characteristics, specifically, what

motivates followers, and then helps them meet specific goals. Both leadership approaches put

emphasis on the relationship with the followers and the achievements they make personally and

professionally (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, p. 5). I believe it is important to empower people to

make progress within themselves and the institution. Leadership that focuses on helping,

supporting, and motivating followers not only results in positive experiences among the

followers themselves but in turn, creates better outcomes for the institution because the followers
can give back to their organization and the people they serve. In the end, when you ensure your

followers are supported and happy, the more successful they become and therefore, the more

successful the organization becomes.

Servant leadership is a very demanding approach to leadership because it requires the

leader to think solely of their followers and their needs. There are many characteristics of a

servant leader, but I believe the most influential characteristics are the ability to listen before

acting, validating followers’ feelings through empathy, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight,

and commitment to the personal and professional growth of followers. While certain

characteristics fit well with other approaches, the characteristics more unique to servant

leadership are listening before acting and validating feelings through empathy. The emphasis on

hearing followers’ needs and validating how they feel helps build a strong rapport between the

leader and the follower and helps the leader identify where they can offer the most support.

According to a study conducted in 2017, the implementation of servant leadership had a positive

effect on the overall social climate of the organization. With the direct positive change in the

climate, the study also identified an indirect, positive effect on the overall customer service

performance provided (Linuesa-Langreo, Ruiz-Palomino, & Elche-Hortelano, 2017). One of the

best benefits of servant leadership is that the leader is creating positive experiences for their

followers and then the followers create positive experiences for their students.

The goal of a servant leader is to serve and meet the needs of the followers but to reach the

desired goal, a servant leader needs to be able to focus on macro-issues and be in a place where

quality work is being done. By eliminating interruptions and wasted time, leaders can clear the

path for their followers and help them reach their full potential (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 1, pp. 27-
31). By streamlining roles in the organization, a leader can focus on larger issues and the

followers can focus their time on serving students and their own goals.

While both path-goal theory and servant leadership operate in the scope of follower

outcomes, it is important to note that servant leadership solely focused on followers’ needs while

path-goal theory emphasizes the attainment of organizational goals through the context of

building relationships with followers. Path-goal theory assesses followers’ motivations and

utilizes strong, healthy relationships to help motivate followers to be their best selves and reach

goals that may have been previously out of reach. Leaders can assess motivation levels and help

increase motivation by removing barriers to success, helping followers believe they are capable,

providing clear connections between their task and the desired outcomes, and utilizing rewards

that are worthwhile when tasks are accomplished (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, p. 5).

Path-goal theory and servant leadership are useful paths to follow because they both

encompass other aspects of leadership approaches. For example, path-goal theory utilizes aspects

of situational leadership because it requires the leader to assess the characteristics of their

followers and apply the approach that best fits the needs of the situation. In path-goal theory,

leaders must assess the motivations of their followers and decide where the followers fall on the

path-goal leadership diagram. The techniques utilized by the leader in both approaches are

contingent on the situation and adjust the leadership styles to fit the needs. Both approaches also

utilize similar response behaviors like directive responses when followers need the most

guidance and structure or supportive response behaviors that are more sympathetic and

encouraging (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, pp. 2-6).

Servant leadership embodies many different leadership approaches because servant

leadership is a relatively broad approach. There are many ways in which leaders can serve their
followers and put their needs first. For example, one that truly embraces servant leadership

approaches would also exhibit characteristics of authentic leadership. A truly authentic leader

shows their true selves to their followers, and I believe that through the scope of a servant leader,

I show my true authentic self to my followers. My desire to help followers succeed and boost

them up comes from an authentic place and I hope that the approach of servant leadership feels

authentic and natural to my followers (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 1, pp. 21-28). Along with authentic

leadership, the trait approach and the behavioral approach are all ingrained in servant leadership

and path-goal theory. While the traits approach focuses on innate characteristics and I believe

strong leaders are much more than the traits they are born with, there are specific traits like

determination and integrity that are integral to being a strong leader (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 1, pp.

9-10). It is also crucial to mention the role followership plays in many of these leadership

approaches and theories. My philosophies revolve around serving followers, but a unique way to

serve them is through using collaboration, co-constructed relationships, and communication to

help influence followers towards common goals (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, p. 11).

Lastly, I believe a key aspect of leadership is managing and navigating change. Both

servant leadership and path-goal theory focus on putting the follower first and ensuring the

success of the followers and the organization, but another aspect to serving followers is helping

them manage and adapt to change. I believe incorporating adaptive leadership strategies into my

leadership philosophy will be able to support both elements, of servant leadership and path-goal

theory and help the followers gain the tools and knowledge to weather changes and adapt when

necessary. There are both technical and adaptive challenges, and different responsibilities

adaptive leaders can take to help followers manage, work through, and identify challenges.

Change is a never-ending aspect of higher education organizations and I believe leaders need to
be able to regulate, manage, and adapt to changes to not only meet the needs of their followers

but also meet the needs of the students. Adaptive challenges are often met with conflict as many

different perspective’s values are brought to the table and it is the role of the leader to help shift

perspectives and gain confidence in choices by intervening when necessary and stepping back

when needed as well (Fiscus, Lenarz, & Downs, 2018). In the scope of adaptive leadership, I

hope to implement the six principles in overcoming adaptive change, but I specifically would

like to focus on the principles of getting on the balcony, regulate distress, and protect voices of

leadership below. These principles are grounded in helping followers through motivation,

problem-solving, and advocation and I believe that these key aspects lend very well to my

determination to creating positive working relationships with my followers (Guerriero, 2021,

Unit 3, pp. 12-14).

Leadership Action Plan

My action plan is surrounded by creating solid and meaningful relationships with my

followers. I intend to do this in many ways, but the most useful tool I will bring into my action

plan will be an urgent/important matrix. I believe that the sweet spot for a servant leader is

quadrant two, quality and focus. When a leader can focus on the quality of their role and manage

macro issues like building relationships, strategic planning, and goal attainment, they can be a

servant to their followers in a meaningful way. However, it is important to note that a leader

cannot focus on those bigger tasks while other aspects are pulling the leader’s time that can be

wasteful and deceptively demanding. I plan on streamlining the leadership role, delegate when

necessary, and eliminating unnecessary tasks when applicable to allow for more availability on

my part to focus on macro issues located in quadrant two (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 1, pp. 30-31).
To implement path-goal theory into my leadership action plan, I intend to utilize the Path-Goal

Leader Behavior table and diagram to inform my leadership approaches and behaviors. I can

observe the dynamics of the followers, the organizational settings, and the characteristics of the

goals and then use those observations to identify the best leader behavior to meet the needs of the

followers and help them succeed. In addition to the Path-Goal Leader Behavior Table, I intend to

bring in pieces of transformational and transactional actions into my plan to help build

motivation for my followers. According to Evans, path-goal theory and transactional leadership

go hand in hand because rewards can be a very strong motivator and I intend to provide

meaningful, worthwhile rewards to build motivation. To go even further, it was suggested that

path-goal is a wonderful informant and guide to other theories like transformational leadership

(Evans, 1996). With these strong connections, I plan to bring in many aspects of transformational

leadership to help meet the needs of my leadership philosophy.

Along with the path-goal theory, I intend to bring in parts of Leader-member exchange

(LMX) theory into my action plan to specifically focus on building relationships, in the

beginning, moving from the stranger phase to the acquaintance phase and then eventually

moving towards the mature relationship stage and utilize the structure of reciprocal relationships.

By empowering my followers, they empower themselves and the organization, which also then

empowers me as a leader (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, pp. 9-10).

Lastly, I want to bring in strategic partnerships to help build my leadership experiences

and network. One way to build a network is to create strategic partnerships with like-minded

individuals and organizations (Valeras and Cordes, 2020). I also want to note that it is useful to

learn from others that think differently from you, and will you all the information I gather

through networking to inform my leadership style.

Gap analysis

In the analysis of my leadership, the leadership behaviors questionnaire indicated that I

am very high in relationship behaviors with a score of 41 and moderately low in task behaviors

with a 31. Based on those scores, I may fall in the country club management behavior style.

While my concern for relationships is very high, I also want to maintain growth and goal

attainment within my position because that helps build up my followers and help them reach

their goals. I had a score of 3 or lower on specific task-oriented scenarios like developing plans

of action and defining roles and responsibilities for team members. With that in mind, I plan on

creating a quarterly “touch base” session with my followers that can address misconceptions

about roles and responsibilities and can hear from the followers about their thoughts on the

current trajectory of the accomplishments and their knowledge and understanding of

organizational goals and the actions taken to meet said goals. Through the scope of servant

leadership, my priority is to hear from the followers and help meet their needs, but the “touch

base” action plan allows me to also ensure that the specific task-oriented behaviors are being

met, utilized and analyzed to maintain growth and progress (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 1, pp. 18-21,

28-29).

Through the situational leadership and path-goal theory questionnaires, I was able to

identify areas where I scored very high and where I could use more improvement. Both

leadership approaches are used in my philosophy and because of that, I want to identify where

my strengths and weaknesses lie. In path-goal theory, I scored high in achievement-oriented,

participative, and supportive styles with scores of 26 and 27. My score for the directive style was

a 24 indicating that I may struggle with operating in a directive style of leadership when needed

(Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, p. 28). Similarly, in situational leadership, I responded to six scenarios
with participative action and five scenarios with selling actions. I, however, only scored one in

the telling or directing category (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 2, pp. 25-27). I can now identify that I

have a gap in knowledge and skill on implementing directive leadership styles. While

authoritarian leadership is not what I gravitate towards, there are times where leaders need to

take a more hands-on approach with very specific actions, goals, and responsibilities for leaders

and followers to guide the organization functionally.

Lastly, a crucial part of my leadership action plan and leadership goals is to always keep

growing and learning from other leaders, new theories and approaches, and the experiences and

knowledge I will gain over my career. In this regard, the skills approach to leadership provides

the context for my desire to always be learning. In the scope of technical, human, and conceptual

skills, I believe I have strong attributes for all of those, but I am most skilled in the human area. I

plan to spend just as much time learning and growing in the areas of conceptual and technical

skills to then be able to serve my followers even better (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 1, p. 14). In the

terms of adaptive leadership, some of the conceptual aspects like identifying adaptive challenges

and giving work back to the people are two areas I plan to work on to help build up my

competency in those areas. I want to be able to analyze adaptive challenges, examine the big

picture, and help create solutions that include and incorporate all individuals in the organization

(Guerriero, 2021, Unit 3, pp. 12-14).

Discussion of Diversity and Ethical Issues

Diversity, inclusion, and equity in education are all very close to my heart and I intend to

be dedicated to taking an active role in creating a safe, welcoming, and open environment for all

people. Table 4.1.1 of leader’s practices to improve inclusiveness is a great tool I plan to use

throughout my career and in my personal life. By asking myself the questions presented in the
table, I can reflect on my practices as a leader and develop the self-awareness I have with my

views on inclusivity and diversity (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 4, p. 3). In my previous work as a high

school science teacher, I specifically tended to high populations of students with specific

learning disabilities and have always been incredibly passionate about advocating and preparing

students with disabilities for college. Many students with disabilities feel that college is

unattainable for them, and it has always been a personal goal of mine to hire and work with

people with specific learning disabilities and help create an inclusive and diverse environment

that incorporates modifications and accommodations when needs to create equitable work

environments for all people. Based on observations gathered from educational leadership in

England, Professor Erica Joslyn commented on the progress made for women in leadership

positions, but there is much to be done to make progress on getting individuals of unique races,

ethnicities, sexual orientations, and disabilities (Joslyn, 2018). I always want to lift women and

other minority groups, but I want to focus specifically on racial disparities and disability

disparities within educational leadership to help those individuals meet their career aspirations.

My leadership philosophy is grounded in building strong, healthy, and supportive

relationships and that cannot happen without a clear code of ethics and values that I need to

follow. In the Ethical Leadership Style Questionnaire, I scored very high in duty ethics with

choosing that scenario five times and I also never chose egoism. This indicated that I use my

moral compass to guide my decisions and follow an expected ethical path. In contrast, I did not

select the egoism answer which feeds into my servant leadership philosophy as I do not put my

own needs ahead of others (Guerriero, 2021, Unit 4, pp. 26-27). One of the biggest challenges

facing leaders in higher education right now is the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Valeras and Cordes, the pandemic has brought many adaptive challenges to the
forefront of higher education and a way to work through these adaptive challenges is to diversify

leadership. Along with COVID-19, many instances of systematic racism have been identified

and offer another ethical challenge that should be addressed with diverse people. Diversity is

adaptability and by hearing more diverse voices, solutions to adaptive challenges may be more

available (2020).

Conclusion

Beyond all the research, experience, and education I can obtain, one thing remains the

same and that is who I am as a person. I want to bring in the best parts of myself into my career

as a leader and hope that all the information I have gathered along the way will only help to

better my understanding of leadership and what makes a good leader.

 References

Evans, M. G. (1996). R.J. House’s “a path-goal theory of leader effectiveness”.

Leadership Quarterly. 7(3), 305-309.

Fiscus, L., Lenarz, L., & Downs, L. (2018). Field Report: adaptive leadership in practice

expansion. Physician Leadership Journal.

Joslyn, E. (2018). Leadership and diversity in education in England: progress in the new

millennium. Management in Education. 32(4) 149-151. DOI:

10.1177/0892020618788713

Linuesa-Langreo, J., Ruiz-Palomino, P., & Elche-Hortelano, D. (2017). New strategies in

the new millennium: servant leadership as enhancer of service climate and

customer service performance. Front Psychology. DOI: 0.3389/fpsyg.2017.00786

Valeras, A. S., and Cordes, C. C. (2020). Adaptive leadership: becoming the change.

American Psychological Association. 38(4) 495-497.