Leadership
This competency area addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of a leader, with or without positional authority.
Leadership involves both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broad-based constituencies and issues.
This can include working with students, student affairs colleagues, faculty, and community members.
Leadership Frames Presentation: Symbolic
One of the group presentations I co-facilitated as assigned in our Administration in College Student Affairs, introduces and discusses the Symbolic Frame organizational approach. Specifically, I discussed the application of such frames within higher education, and how, from a leadership perspective, one may navigate organizations that hold a strong Symbolic Frames perspective within their culture. As mentioned in Simsek’s work Metaphorical Images of An Organization: The Power of Symbolic Constructs In Reading Change In Higher Education Organizations, the symbolic frame can play a key role in understanding higher education organizations as enacted cultural realistic that bind and hold an entire community and it’s membership (Simsek, 1997). In addition to the Symbolic Frame, gaining a better understanding of the various organizational frames and critically analyzing their implications within higher education continues to influence my perspective and approach when entering new functional areas, institution types, and diverse student populations.
My Leadership Portfolio
Our Administration in College Student Affairs course specifically targeted Leadership within higher education by challenging us to analyze and reflect on our own personal leadership styles, strengths, weaknesses, and which leadership styles influence our own. In my Leadership Portfolio, I identify my own diverse identities and privileges, such as my faith background, race, gender, age, etc., and emphasize how these factors influence my leadership style. In an article by Kate Harrison, she states “There’s an entire generation of leaders who are ready to be uncomfortable, recognize intersectionality, act as accomplices, make daily change, and own their title as ‘the future’” (Lawton, 2018). Through investing in my own skill-building and leadership development, I am challenged to become more equipped in promoting an equitable workplace within the leadership roles that I have achieved thus far, in hopes of leaving a legacy of equitable leadership.
Servant Leadership Presentation
One of the group workshop presentations I co-facilitated as assigned in our Administration in College Student Affairs, introduces our audience to Servant Leadership and challenges them in fully understanding its application within student affairs and higher education. We identified key principles held by servant leaders and engaged our audience with examples and exercises aimed to target servant leadership thinking. This approach allowed us to successfully portray the philosophical and applicable values of the servant leadership approach within student affairs. As stated by the father of Servant Leadership himself, “Servant Leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enrich the lives of individuals, builds better organizations, and ultimately creates a more just and caring world” (Greenleaf, 1977). Through facilitating this leadership workshop, I have attained a greater understanding of not only my own leadership style, but can also recognize key principles from other leadership styles that I hope to continue to incorporate into my leadership approach.