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Kaiya Reeves

COMS 3356-D01

Professor Liz McNaughtan

Final Leadership Analysis Paper

Introduction:

The leader I chose to discuss for my final paper is my grandmother is a preacher at her

Pentecostal church in Florida. She has been ministering for more than 50 years and was

influenced heavily by both of her parents who were also a part of church and ministered their

church and passed all the teachings and knowledge they gained from their time preaching to their

daughter, my grandmother. Throughout most of her life, she has continued to stay strong and

show remarkable courage and wisdom in times when it seems unthinkable and keeps the family

together and guides us through the hardships in our lives even when she is dealing with so much.

My grandmother not only is the leader of her church because she is the preacher, but also

because she exemplifies leadership skills and qualities by using the gift God gave her to share

with the world, the greatness of the truth and how faith can a strength and not a weakness. She

leads the members of church and our family as well because she is the glue that keeps everyone

together when it feels like our world is falling apart at times.

She became a leader by emerging into the role and learning what all is required to possess

in order to be a good leader, but in order to receive this role she had to be appointed as the

preacher of the congregation based off the dedication and potential that those of the church saw

in her when they saw and still see in her to lead them through the word and prayer every

Wednesday and Sunday, even when she is outside of church, she is still leading others and using
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her leadership qualities. According to the textbook, an emergent leader is described as “a natural

leader, who is placed in the leadership position by the group eliminating leader contenders until

only one person is left” (Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p. 203). Rather than being picked by people

high in the church, the members of the church who do not have the authority to appoint people to

be leaders of the church, eliminated and picked out all the unfit leaders because they did not have

any relation with the group and their qualifications did not match up with what the group was

looking for and thought we would be best for the group that they eliminated them and she was

left to be the head of the church.

Leadership Communication Principle 1:

Transformational leadership, which is described in the textbook as, “an attempt to satisfy

the basic needs of followers, but they go beyond mere exchange by engaging the total person in

an attempt to satisfy higher-level needs of self-esteem and self-actualization,” is the best

leadership style that fits my leader because instead of expecting something in return when

helping and leading people through their hardships by listening and incorporating the word in to

her sermons and at times when speaking to people she may or may not know and hoping to leave

that person with a sense of peace and motivation to do better and elevate themselves to higher

understanding and level that will allow them to be successful (Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p.

101). My leader always wants the best for themselves, but also for others and she believes that

by being a better version of herself, she can continue to become a better leader and motivate and

encourage those who listen and follow her to do better and becomes the best person they can be

and exceed in their life and become a great leader for themselves and others as well some day or

even in certain situations. My leader is able to inspire people and invoke something within them

that gives them a new perspective on things and allows them to transform and morph into
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something that is unique and open to new ways that can help them to have impacts in their own

life and those around them by experiencing and receiving this knowledge and guidance from her.

Leadership Communication Principle 2:

When it comes to conversing with people, especially those that follow someone who they

perceive as their leader, they want to feel and believe that their thoughts and opinions matter and

are taking into account when they vocalize with them with others and their leader. Democratic

leadership exceeds at this because that is how the leadership style that is used the united states to

show that people have the right to discuss what they believe is right for them and share ways that

things can be created or changed for the better to help enhance their lives and the lives of others

and most followers want to be able to decide who they are going to follow and understand why

they are following them and that is because the leader exemplifies many things they agree with

and want in a leader, which is why this leadership style works the best for my leader. The

textbook states that this leadership style and form of communication “contributes to relatively

high productivity (whether or not the leader directly supervises followers) and to increased

satisfaction, commitment, and cohesiveness” (Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p. 44). Striving to

include everyone in the conversation whether it is work-related, school-related or even personal,

my leader always makes sure to never make someone feel left out or alone with the decisions

they face especially if she seems them struggling but rather than telling them what to do and

demanding them to do it, she offers suggestions and ideas on what would work well for them and

allows them to gain a different outlook on things going on around them and helps them to reach

that next step in life and do whatever they believe is right without judgment or force.

Leadership Communication Principle 3:

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Leader as sense maker is a communication principle that best suits my leader and the type

of leadership style she portrays because she does her best to be the sensible and realistic person

in any circumstance. Especially in more family settings like if there is an altercation between two

family members, she will do what she can to alleviate the situation and feel the behavior and

mood of each person to allow the event to unfold in a way that will be contained and not

becoming bigger than it is. My grandmother is able to keep the peace not only as a minister but

in the family as well by finding the root of the problem and trying to attend to each side before

coming to an agreement that makes the most sense to everyone involved and even though she

may not know all the answers and at times the event can remain unresolved, she accepts that she

doesn’t know everything and cannot fix everything, but she can learn to help others and provide

them with the best answer and suggestions she can give. Johnson & Hackman says that “leader

as sense makers have to interpret conditions while on the go, making adjustments as events

unfold because of the organizational or in this case, family dynamics environment that rapidly

changes” (Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p. 254).

Leadership Communication Principle 4:

Another leadership principle that my leader represents in a respectable and well manner

is theory y. Theory Y as described in the textbook is “managers that work to integrate

organizational and individual goals; Theory Y assumes that work is as natural as play or rest”

(Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p. 52). This style of leadership fits her best because she is around

people most of the time and is a people person, which means she is more people-oriented and

doing what is best for those around her and taking in their concerns and considerations while also

making time to see what ways she can improve herself to help others to be influenced by this

behavior and the improvement that she is displaying for them to see and input and adapt to in
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their own lives. Everyone has a purpose and searches for what they believe will show them or

give them their purpose in life and with my leader she believes that this is true and that most, if

not all people, seek some form of responsibility and satisfaction in their lives that they can fulfill

by being lead and placed in that direction. By her doing this, it not only shows them, but allows

for them to do that face that obstacle or reach that goal on their own and see their uniqueness and

individuality that without a good leader, they would not even know they have or would want to

find out what it is, and my grandmother is able to bring this out of those who follow her and

willingly want insight from her because of the trust and communication that is built between her

and others.

Leadership Communication Principle 5:

The final leadership style that fits my leader and highlights who she is as a leader, and as

a person is leader development. This specific leadership principle is fascinating and inspiring to

me because it emphasizes that even if an individual is already in a leadership position whether

they are an emergent or appointed leader, more improvement can be acquired, and it is a

continuous process in order to remain an effective and successful leader for the group they lead

and advise in any setting and leadership role whether formal or informal. The textbook explains

that leader development “helps to make a person effective in a variety of formal and informal

leadership roles, so while obtaining and developing leader abilities can improve leadership

effectiveness among those who serve in formal leadership roles such as supervisors, managers,

and project leaders, it can be equally as important in developing competencies for those who play

informal leadership roles un their campus, community, workplace, or religious organization”

(Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p. 374). My grandmother falls under the informal leadership role

which is why she is considered more of an emergent leader with appointed leader tendencies
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mainly because in a way she was still appointed to that position, but it was a selective vote, and

she was the last one standing. She understands that just because you are placed in the position

that allows you to lead others and gain followers and people who come to you for advice and

insights on life and general issues, there is always room for improvement and there is more than

one way to approach different topics and ideas when it comes to leadership styles and what

makes someone capable of being a great leader.

Conclusion & Suggestions for Improvement:

My grandmother has done many wonderful things throughout her life and has had a

powerful impact on many people’s lives in ways that I cannot even begin to imagine and I hope

to gain and exemplify many of the leadership styles that I discussed in this paper in my own life

so that I can become an effective leader and feel confident in what I am doing and that I am

leading others if placed in a position or pushed into a position that requires me to do so. I do

understand that there are also things that can be improved and worked on because not everything

is always going to go perfectly on the first try and there are still many things that can be fixed

and done better, the main two forms of leadership communications that my leader could improve

would be cultural synergy and credibility. Cultural synergy as specified by Johnson and

Hackman is “the ultimate goal of recognizing and responding to cultural variations; decision

makers draw on the diversity of the group to produce a new, better-than-expected solution”

(Johnson & Hackman, 2013, p. 310 – 311).

My leader is surrounded by new perspectives and fresh ideas from different people who

can add something to the group and her church, but sometimes it can be hard to accept change

and looking at things from a perspective that is different than their own, but by challenging

herself to do this and trying to continue to develop into a better leader and a more sufficient
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version of herself, drawing off of the ideas of others and incorporating them into something that

is not only beneficial to her and her church, but to others outside of the church, she can see what

people really are looking for and are in need of at this moment and bring that to the community.

The textbook discusses credibility, it states that “there are certain sets of behaviors that

particularly effective in managing perceptions of credibility which are self-presentation

behaviors, language, and physical appearance and other nonverbal behaviors” (Johnson &

Hackman, 2013, p. 168-169). By gaining more credibility and understanding the amount of

credibility she already has obtained will help her to see where she is at with her followers and

people she converses with on a daily basis, how they perceive her and rely on her for certain

things and how she can improve that even more by understanding what behaviors she can

strengthen that are more nonverbal which will help change certain aspects of her leadership

methods so she can evolve into a more successful and inspiring leader.