The first blog entry for the course states that we can write about anything leadership related in our life and how it relates to the course material. Having been in the military when I was younger and afterwards working in the corporate world for the past fifteen years I have seen many different types of leaders and the characteristics and traits that they posses. This is my first formal leadership class but I can say after reading the first two chapters of the text many of the concepts and definitions pop out and I can see how they relate to the people and situations I have encountered over the past twenty years.
In the beginning of chapter two Northouse (2013) discusses a review conducted by Stogdill in 1948 where he “questioned the universality of leadership traits” (p. 19). Northouse (2013) explained that Stogdill’s research found that “leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in another situation” (p. 20). I can attest to this from personal experience.
Having been in the military and in the civilian workforce I have seen people that have made excellent leaders in one place but not the other. One glaring example that comes to mind is my former manager at the company I work for now. His name is Ray and he had a long career in the military. His enlisted career spanned almost 30 years and during the first Gulf War he held the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the highest enlisted rank there is and was responsible for thousands of men. However at our current company he has struggled with being a leader in the civilian world. One of the funniest comments I heard from him while he was my manager was that “no one listens to you when you yell at them in the civilian workforce.” At the time he said this to me I was still in the Marine Corps Reserve and I found it very amusing because I could definitely see how both situations differed greatly and how he could find it hard fitting in at our current employer.
One thing I did notice in the text is that Northouse (2013) states that researchers didn’t start looking at what they define as “social intelligence” until the 1990’s. This research studies leadership traits and how they relate to social situations (p. 22). I think this is one of the major factors that differentiates good leaders in the military workforce and the civilian workforce. When Ray joined the military in the 1960’s they were not worried about being politically correct like they are today. You didn’t need to be worried about other people’s feelings. I think that is one of the problems people like Ray have in their leadership approaches in the civilian workforce.
I believe this first blog post is a good way to get ideas flowing about leadership and how it relates to ones everyday life. I have began to relate theories and definitions in the text with situations I have run into over the course of my working life. I look forward to learning more during the course of the semester.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Nathan,
I enjoyed reading your blog as I have experienced the same thing throughout the various jobs I have held. The situation you describe is one that I am sure occurs in many fields. Being prior military myself, I have experience both sides of the coin. I have worked for a boss who was very direct, straightforward and did not beat around the bush. I enjoyed working for this person because even though he was tough and let you know when you screwed up, he let you learn from mistakes. In another job I held I had to opposite scenario. The boss would never say anything negative to you, he would smile, shake your hand and ask you how your day was. Even though it seemed like everything was OK, employees would get summoned to his office. Instead of being open about what was happening and allowing people to correct mistakes, he would reprimand employees through “paperwork” and eventually fire them. This created a very uneasy environment which I eventually had to leave. It is due to this that it is important for leaders to be both flexible and able to adapt to the various situations that they have to deal. A single solution does not work for every problem.