Reflection about my narrative...

Before meeting with Lori, I was really confused on what I was going to talk about in my narrative. I knew that I wanted to talk about transformational leadership and what it means to me and how I would like to be a transformational leader but I didn't know how I was going to talk about it for 5 minutes. Lori really helped me put it into perspective. She told me to break it into parts and show what type of person I am through it. Give my audience examples of how I will be and how I wont be. It doesn't have to be very specific and detail oriented it just has to give my audience some idea of what to expect from me. I am still not sure what I am going to say and hope that when it is finished it will make sense to people. I have been brainstorming some ideas and still do not have a concrete idea as of yet. So...ill see you all in class and hopefully you are inspired by what I have to say.  

My leadership map

My leadership map begins during my childhood. It has been always reinforced throughout my life from my parents and family that I am a natural born leader. After hearing that s many times it became embedded in my brain. They praised the behaviors that displayed my leadership abilities and never doubted that it came natural to me. Since my childhood, I have aways thought that I was a natural born leader. I was born with the traits that made me this way and noticed within my peers that some of them didn't have he desires I did to lead the group. Since embarking on this journey I souly believed that people were either born with or without these qualities. As I went through college I surrounded my self with other leaders and pushed my self to learn the skills and competencies that would separate me from mediocre leaders to superb leaders that made a difference. Along with my parents, family, brothers in my fraternity, I was my coach and number one fan on my path to becoming a leader that transformed not only my life but every ones life I was in. My favorite leader is Coach Boone from Remember the Titan. He has a frequent presence within this blog because of his abilities to have a positive affect on others' lives. I enjoy watching leaders that can change the lives of those that follow them. As I tried more to be like this I realized it wasn't the traits that I possessed or the behaviors I learned from my parents that made an individual an inspirational leader, it was the passion within the person that enabled them to be how they were. You donut have to be born a certain way to have a positive affect on and individuals lives you have to have the inspiration, motivation and true desire to lead people towards the end goal. I feel that because of my path that I have been on, I am able to become the leader I need to be in certain situations in order to be effective. Because of this class I can portray in words and through my actions to prospective employers and followers that it is a benefit to them to choose me. It has allowed me to leave a lasting impression on the lives that I enter.

Servant Leadership

While searching for different types of leadership that I have not studied before, I kept coming across a very unique theory called servant leadership. The name by itself intrigued me to learn a little bit more of what it is about. My first impression was that this type of leader treats his followers as servants, not as human beings. I imagined someone barking out orders and micromanaging. Right away I felt that it wasn't the type of leadership I possessed or intend to convey in any type of leadership role, however, after studying more of what it consists of, I might have more of this style than I thought.  

Servant leadership was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in his essay written in 1970 called The Servant as Leader. His definition of servant leadership is

"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first; perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."

I found it very inspirational while reading experts from his essay because I very easily identify with transformational leadership. I feel that servant leadership is in essence is as empowering and revolutionary as transformational leadership. Greenleaf says the best test in deciphering whether a servant leader is successful is in the outcomes of their followers. One must ask themselves the following questions: does the follower grow? Become wiser, freer, healthier, and in turn able to become servant leaders themselves?  Displaying servant hood is "a person who has the power to order and dictate people’s actions chooses instead to put himself at the service of his people. Servant hood respect from followers because they know that instead of serving your own agenda, you truly have their interests and success at heart. Once you adopt this attitude, you begin to draw a team of passionate people willing to take your cause all the way to the top.

"Principles of servant leadership defined by the Alliance for Servant Leadership are:

• Transformation as a vehicle for personal and institutional growth.
• Personal growth as a route to better serve others.
• Enabling environments that empower and encourage service.
• Service as a fundamental goal.
• Trusting relationships as a basic platform for collaboration and service.
• Creating commitment as a way to collaborative activity.
• Community building as a way to create environments in which people can trust each other and work together.
• Nurturing the spirit as a way to provide joy and fulfillment in meaningful work."

The following are characteristics of a servant leader: calling, listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community.

After going more in depth about Servant Leadership Theory, I find my attitude changing about my personal leadership goals and thoughts. I feel that I am very strongly connected to this theory. I and anyone else who share this trait have to be weary of how much they put people before themselves because there is a fine line between developing others to their full potential and completely losing your own vision in goals. With this type of leadership it seems easy to lose sight of what your trying to accomplish and get caught up in what the followers are doing and how they are progression. The following are links that go more in depth with Servant Leadership and how to develop this skill.

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1481/build/g1481.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership

http://www.greenleaf.org/whatissl/

http://www.leadersdirect.com/servant-leadership