Ryan Kwapniowski's FLP Portfolio

Leadership Theories

 

Creighton University Leadership: Exploring Our Values:

        Creighton University puts a lot of emphasis on leadership, core Jesuit values, and how they relate and coexist within each other. We embody six important principles of the Jesuit philosophy and teachings that allow us to reflect upon transcendent values, including our relationship with God, freedom of inquiry, belief , service to others, importance of family worth, and the inalienable worth of each individual. Taking each of these we can illustrate the leader we all aspire to one day become. In his speech, Father Timothy Lannon talks about how everything he achieves somehow relates to the mission but then takes a step back and looks at the bigger picture and tries to make sure each promise he made is kept. He gives these helpful tips when leading through values: be clear about your role, make sure you externalize yourself from the conflict, listen to your partners but also listen to yourself, find a sanctuary where you can alway come back to your sense of self, and preserve a sense of purpose in everything that you do.

 

Heroic Leadership:

        Leaders are figures that people can look up to and who better than our personal heroes. These people can be any thing from our famous athletes, to our parents, siblings, and friends. It is because we idolize and respect the decisions they make and the character they possess. There are four different principles within heroic leadership, they are self-awareness, ingenuity, love, and heroism. Being self aware is to be able to discover who you are, what you believe in, and understand your strengths and weaknesses. A person who is genuine has the ability to keep an open mind and adapt to new situations and ideas. Love gives others the sense of engaging others with positive attitudes that helps promote their potential. Everyone contains heroism, although we many not realize it, we are all a hero to someone. Dr. Dornsife came and spoke during seminar and stressed the importance of doing what you love and the rest will follow. It's time for us humans to live the dream and take the world with us.

 

Followership:

        Followership is a role held by individuals actively following a leader. Followers, although not usually in charge, have a strong position in a group or on a team. People would be surprised to find out that even if not placed in a rank, others still end up following a fellow follower because of they way they look up to them. It is how the individual responds to different situation that followers forget to actively examine. They must watch their gossip and notice different situations and attempt to diagnose them to determine how to best continue on for the betterment of the group. If the leader of the group doesn't respond to error than it is the followers job to help change the pack response and lead the group in a different direction. Followers have to have active care and concern for others feeling and well beings. The leader trust them and rely on them to get the task done so one must keep their promise and use honesty when approaching the leader. Dr. Wayne Young spoke to us in seminar about how our generation is adapting from a critical task force to a engaged follower group.

 

Servant Leadership:

        Servant leaders focus primarily on  the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. Regular leaders us the power of the individual on the top of the pyramid while servant leadership is different in that they shares power and puts the needs of others first and helps people. Servant leaders use listening, empathy, persuasion, and building communities. We see this in the example of Grandma Verna from Precious Memories Daycare, she listened to the community, saw the need for assistance. She had empathy for families that need help and accepted and recognized the importance of her actions within the community. Grandma Verna strives to create a community that fosters love and brings a sense of belonging that aims to give everyone a brighter future.

 

Ethical Leadership:

        Ethical leadership is about knowing your core values and having the courage to live them in all parts of your life in service of the common good. This is all about consideration of those all around us. This allows leaders to draw on their own experiences and what they believe in. Leaders can base how they run the framework of their program with the 4-V model. This is completely based on values, vision, voice, and virtue with a balance on renewal, service, and polls. Ethical leadership begins with a inner journey where one needs to claim their core values and develop a plan on how the world could be changed. They use their personal voice to convey this message and often enables all members of society to fulfill their  needs, dreams, and potentials. 

 

Integrity Leadership:

        Integrity builds valuable trust between people thus can be proven to be a very critical piece of character that a leader can have. Integrity often is referred to as "doing the right thing when no one is watching", but while this is true, it is also habit for most people to be trained in a certain manner to where they have discipline and respect for others. Leaders with integrity adheres to a moral and ethical principle that implies a philosophical understanding to everything they do. This is not about being perfect, but instead realizing that everybody makes mistakes at some point you don't need to be completely committed to you moral belief to have integrity. These types of leaders have four simple rules: to seek the best for others, they understand others needs and often ignore the needs of yourself, they practice good stewardship, they never forget their purpose or goal, and they ultimately strive to be the best leader they can be.

 

Visionary and Transformational Leadership:

        Visionary leaders use imagination, insight, and creativity to bring people together and share in a sense of purpose. This group works with the power of desire and intentionality and along side a higher purpose. Visionary leaders search from within to find inner resources to take initiative and stand for something they believe passionately in. Living an breathing by who they truly are and their inner core values, these leaders take criticism lightly and filter it in and apply it to helpful growth. Visionary leaders have several different aspects about them, but they typically stand true to their core spiritual values, have a clear and inspirational vision, use respectful and empowering relationships with others, and has creative, innovative, and courageous approaches to everything they do in life.

 

 

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

                    -John Quincy Adams