Philosphy 2016

Claffy Leadership Philosophy
What is leadership? What defines a leader? Well, for many these two questions are
awfully complicated. Coming into Virginia Tech in the residential leadership community, my
past three and a half years have been centered around leadership-focused classes and I have been
using what I learned in those classes to gain real leadership experience in my extra curricular
activities. All leadership classes I have taken are very similar, where they all center on the many
different facets of leadership. The answer to the two questions above becomes more about ones
experiences in a leadership environment and situations where ones personal leadership style
comes to practice. I believe the type of leader one becomes is focused around the characteristics
necessary to be a successful leader.
Leadership can take on many different definitions and every textbook will describe
leadership just a little differently than the last. Being a leader comes with great responsibility and
power. However, when the power is abused, the term leadership vanishes. People often confuse a
leader with a manager, however while a leader can be a manager, not all managers are leaders.
The main difference is a manager, who is not a true leader, delegates tasks and gets things done
without being personal and interacting together with his/her followers. A leader on the other
hand, builds relationships with their followers and with those relationships delegates and along
with their followers succeeds in the tasks set in front of them.
In my opinion, there are mainly two general types of leaders, professional leaders, and
personal leaders, which I will touch of each type later in my paper. Both of these types of leaders
contain certain characteristics that drive their way of leading a person or group. One class that
has helped me clearly define my perspective on leadership was Leadership Effective for
Professionals in the Agricultural Industry. Being a Public Relations major I had nothing in
common with agricultural industries, however I ended up taking the most from this class because
I finally felt that I had fully developed my personal definition. That definition pairs with a
contemporary definition from Elements of Leadership, leadership is a relational process based
on mutual goals toward some action,(Komives, Lucas, McMahon p.51). This definition only
skims the surface of leadership, but lays a foundation.
I believe proper leadership requires values, beliefs and ethics. These characteristics pair
with both professional and personal leaders. Leadership is more about the leader than it is about
the action of acquiring followers. My philosophy behind leadership lies on the grounds that some
persons, but not all persons, have the potential to be a leader.
Many people when asked who a leader is would probably say, the president of the United
States, a CEO of a company, or maybe someone famous such as Martin Luther King Jr. or even
Hitler. You may be thinking, well, those ARE examples of leaders. You are right. These in my
opinion are examples of professional leaders. However, a leader stretches far beyond ones title.
My ideal definition of a leader is a personal leader. This is how i classify my personal
type of leadership and what shaped me to want to lead others rather than follow. When I think of
a leader I think of God, my family and my teachers, the three people that have been through
everything with me. While this is a drastic change from the previous list of professional leaders,
this only shows how a wide range of people can be classified under the term leader. A true leader
is not only someone who can lead you to success, but also someone who can lead you to become

a better you. I look to my family, teachers and faith to lead me to success and happiness. Through
all of the extensive medical obstacles I have had to overcome in my life, including open-heart
surgery, a life long heart condition, a bleeding disorder, and familial tremors in my hands, faith,
family and mentors helped me along the way. They encourage, support, and push me to succeed
in school and in life. They guided me to find my beliefs, not the beliefs of those surrounding me.
I developed my values and ethics that I chose to live by because I was given the opportunity to
grow as an individual and not be a follower. I learned to make my own decisions and stand apart
from the crowd. I learned to look at the bright side of things and be encouraging to others. I try to
help others for my own personal pleasure because seeing someone else accomplish a goal of
theirs makes me happy and happy I could help them achieve that goal.
The most important aspect leaders can have is values, beliefs, and ethical decisionmaking. Without that you are a follower, not a leader. The relational leadership model
emphasizes ethical and moral leadership; meaning leadership is driven by values and standards
and leadership that is moral in nature. According to Shaw and Berry (1989) in the textbook
Elements of Leadership, they define ethics as the social rules that govern and limit our conduct,
especially the ultimate rules concerning right and wrong. Being a personal leader is helping
grow someone as an individual, so they can then become a leader themselves.
A professional leader on the other hand such as the president, a CEO or MLK Jr. and
Hitler, are leaders that delegate and have a defined group of followers. While these leaders
possess the same ethical characteristics as personal leaders, they are also equipped with
characteristics good for a workplace environment. They are motivated to get their group,
company, followers etc. to succeed in whatever task was at hand. They have people skills by
providing coaching and guiding to their followers. Lastly, they have the desire to inspire others.
Professional leaders have a strong self-image, enthusiasm, treating people respectfully,
embracing differences, being honest and showing integrity, involving people in the decisions that
affect them, having career discussions, and asking for input from team members. Professional
leaders leverage their strengths and work on enhancing those complimentary skills that support
those strengths in order to achieve greater results both personally and through the team. It takes
more than a uniform to be a professional leader.
Many leaders have formed the world around us. One leader, Mother Theresa once said,
dont wait for leaders, do it alone, person to person. This quote describes how one becomes a
leader. If someone waits around for another person to tell him or her what to do, they will never
become a leader themselves. Lastly, I would like to end with one of my favorite quotes written by
Harry S. Truman, Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no
leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the
opportunity to change things for the better. I could not say it any better than that. We are the future
and if we dont stand up and become leaders, there will be no history to learn and our country will
not thrive. Without out striving to become great leaders of the next generation, our future will be
empty. Whether you are leading through faith, being a mother/father, a teacher to the next
generation, or running a Forbes top 100 businesses, a leader is within the one who helps others
succeed. Whether they are succeeding in completing tasks and goals, finding faith from within

themselves, or becoming one with their own personal values and beliefs, the leader is the person
who helps that person or persons get there.
In conclusion, I believe there are two main types of leaders, personal leaders and
professional leaders. Both of these leaders are developed through certain characteristics and
these characteristics are sculpted by values, belief and ethics. Both types of leaders focus on
working together with their follower/s to succeed, but in different ways. A personal leader helps
the follower grow. This leader allows the follower to grow at his/her own pace and become an
independent person who makes decisions based on their own personal values as opposed to
following a crowd. A professional leader delegates a larger group. This leader is involved in
performing certain tactics and characteristics to help their team or group complete a task
successfully. Leaders come in all different shapes and sizes and no one definition clearly defines
who makes a good leader. Nor does one definition define what leadership means. However, I
believe a leader is formed, not born and it takes a special person to be able to gain the
characteristics necessary to make a good leader.

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Claffy Leadership Philosophy

Claffy Leadership Philosophy

Claffy Leadership Philosophy

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