Power and Leadership

We talked about power and leadership in class and I thought to myself, "how is it that I lead people? Does that work well for me?" I want to become a manager someday and I think that it is important that I answer these questions on a reoccurring basis so that I am always aware of how I'm interacting with people

How do I lead people? I think that there are different ways that I am able to lead people and it all depends on what situation I'm in and what people are there to have leadership over. I think that goes along with Fiedler's Contingency Theory that we discussed in class. I can really only identify a couple places where I am able to lead people, at work, fellow students, and family members. This is most likely because I don't really have any major source of actual power.

At work I am sometimes able to lead some of the part-time employees when I am given permission by my boss to train that person on something or if my boss asks me to watch over them for a period of time. When I am given the responsibility over another co-worker I can exact some leadership just because of my power position and because I have more knowledge and experience than they do but that is about it. When this happens I try to be very nice and helpful so that they will like being taught and will listen to what I have to say to them.

When it comes to leading fellow students, I will only do this if I am apart of a group project and the group has asked me to take charge or perhaps no one is stepping up. Most of the time I feel like I wait to see if someone in the group is more knowledgeable than I am so that they can take charge but if I happen to notice that no one else seems to be interested in taking control of the situation then I will speak up. This is to just get things going which usually leads to the group electing me "boss" when we get to role assignments.

And as far as leadership with my family, I don't have much unless we include my sisters. I feel that I lead my sisters a lot because I am the oldest of the three of us and they like to look up to me as their older brother. I try to do my best by giving helpful knowledge, teaching them things, getting involved with their activities, and being their friend. But at the same time, the only power I have over them is my influence through my seniority (my position) because it's not like I can punish them, that's up to my parents.

Another aspect that I feel I am sometimes a leader through is with servant leadership. I feel the characteristics for a servant leader fit me well, listening, empathy, healing, awareness, and persuasion. I think that I use this the most of any leadership style. I just really enjoy it when people feel that I am helpful and have done something to benefit them. In terms of influence too, like my last post, this method of leadership goes along really well with how I influence people. Get to know them well and do something nice for them that they appreciate so that they will do something for me or just respect me in general.

Does it work for me? I think that for right now, how I lead people works. I don't have any high up position in an organization and I don't have some kind of vast knowledge or experience that other people can follow so I think where I'm at right now works. Being a servant leader is something that I can easily do and that has shown to be beneficial with how people form opinions of me. If I ever become a manager or have some kind of position like that then I will have to revisit these questions so I can adjust my leadership style and methods. Until then though, I'll keep on doing what works!