top of page

Leadership

Leadership is a fluid process that calls for a professional to wear many different hats to meet the ever-evolving needs of our students, our colleagues, and even our stakeholders. Some situations call for more direct, assertive leadership, while others require great patience, care, and caution. Some leaders excel in their oratory skills and have a piece of advice for every tricky situation, while others assert their leadership capabilities by listening first (Bolman & Deal, 2013). This being said, there is no one correct form of leadership; rather, there are different styles and theories that have evolved over the years (Komives, 2011). Through years of working for different types of leaders, I recently found a style that works best for me. I seek to motivate my colleagues and subordinates in a transformative manner; goals can be achieved through establishment of a clear, concise vision that simultaneously challenges others to embrace innovative practices and creative ideas whenever possible and keeps in mind institutional context. In addition, I place a heavy emphasis on the development of working relationships and institutional collaboration. I seek to harness an environment where all actions are grounded in the assumption that students are intelligent, capable, motivated, and worthwhile beings who require the best delivery of services to meet their maximum potential. I have found Northouse (2015) to be a great resource on the impactful styles of leadership; specifically, their emphasis on successful partnerships yielding exemplary work resonates with my current working style. 

 

As a professional who oversees the operations and daily happenings in a residential hall setting of 550+ first year students, I have been offered a crash-course in leadership since arriving in June 2015. In EDU 803B, Helping Skills for Student Affairs Professionals II, I was tasked with assessing my supervisor’s skill as a leader, in addition to assessing my own leadership style with my subordinates. This came at a perfect time, as I was beginning to feel disconnected from my staff as the newness of my position wore off and relationships turned strained. Instead of surmising how my staff felt about my leadership style and any areas of improvement, I opted to issue this survey to them. According to the NASPA/ACPA competencies (2010), an effective leader is able to identify their strengths and weaknesses as a leader and seek opportunities to develop one’s leadership skills, and also use technology to support the leadership process. I issued this anonymous survey to my staff and asked them to be open and honest about how they were feeling; as a result, I was able to hold a mirror up to my style and self and adjust as necessary. As a new professional and leader, this proved that being adaptable and open to criticism is pivotal in leadership development (Northouse, 2015). Attached you will find the results of this assessment that I used to revamp my style in areas that were not working effectively.

 

My staff agreed that my attention to detail and dedication to organization and transparency was an area in which I excel. I frequently concern myself with the logistics behind any event, program, or task I am charged with spearheading. Oftentimes, this ensures I have all the correct information, which I then relay as appropriate to my team. This was greatly appreciated and I was commended on my ability to think critically and creatively, while imagining areas of possible issue or trouble (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). My staff, however, also noticed that I often relied too heavily on harmonious relationships and failed to challenge anyone when they were in the wrong or not living up to their job responsibilities. Any effective leader will share appropriate feedback to colleagues and students on skills they may seek to become more effective leaders (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). Afraid of disrupting or compromising important relationships with my staff, I was ignoring one of the key tenets of a successful leader. Since then, I have remained hyper-vigilant and have worked on offering feedback while simultaneously respecting relationships with students and colleagues. This has led to improved relationships and increased performance on my team.

 

I was fortunate to be able to take the StrengthQuest evaluation in July 2015, as part of my role at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Here, I learned where my individual traits as a leader could impact my work and relationships with others. I have carried my strengths of relation, discipline, communication, empathy, and harmony with me this academic year, while also working to ensure I am not limited or defined by five characteristics! It was not until EDS 988: Capstone in Student Affairs, that I learned more about my traits and the possible pitfalls that come with these strengths. For example, my relationship-oriented tendency is certainly a strength, but failing to take into account points of resistance or obstacles in place when attempting to build those relationships could be detrimental to my success in the leadership competency (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). Attached you'll find a presentation that captures my strengths while also acknowledging that they, too, have areas that require further consideration and should not be taken too literally. 

 

EDU 803B, Helping Skills for Student Affairs Professionals II, focused heavily on the idea of professionals serving as mentors for students and colleagues; for those who work in Residence Life, an obvious window of opportunity is through training Resident Assistants (RAs) on related skills. As such, my group members and I chose to do a mock workshop on incident response for RAs. Attached you will find that presentation. This training could be conducted over the course of one day of training, and would train new and returning RAs on how to best respond to incidents. The activity we chose to lead with was “Behind Closed Doors”, which required students to act out incidents and respond in accordance with institutional, divisional, and office guidelines and policies. Various situations such as vandalism, intoxication, sexual assault, and medical transports were explored and unpacked; although a mock plan, we were able to plan and organize a unit’s resources in the support of unit goals, while also harnessing environments where students could view themselves as leaders with the power and autonomy to make meaningful contributions to the surrounding residential community (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). As a professional with experience working with emergency response protocol, I am able to work with my students (in a mock setting and in my professional position) to mentor them and support their decisions when navigating the murky waters of incident response. As leaders on the front line of these various issues, it is critical we lead by example and offer that crucial feedback, identify areas of improvement, and empower our students and colleagues to take that next step in their leadership potential (ACPA & NASPA, 2010).

 

References:

 

ACPA & NASPA. (2010). Professional competency areas for student affairs practitioners. Washington, DC: Authors.

 

Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (5th edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 

Komives, S.R. (2011). Leadership. In J. H. Schuh, S. R. Jones, S. R. Harper, et al. (Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (pp. 353-371). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.


Northouse, PG (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

bottom of page