In science class, we were all taught the scientific method as a process to get things accomplished. It is just the steps and process that have to be followed in order to accurately do anything in science. Do this, then that. If you skip a step, your doing it wrong. There isn't a whole lot of innovation. Leadership is quite the opposite! There is no one set way to be a "good" leader, every is different. You could take many many different routes and still make a good leader and develop leadership skills. Context matters - one is good leadership skills to one person may not be the preferred way of going about things to another. Because everyone can be a leader, anyone is able to develop a leadership philosophy. But all good houses need a foundation, and the relational leadership model is a great foundation for any good leadership philosophy.

The relational leadership model, which I went through the pains of putting above here, shows the elements it takes to be a good leader. These are the ingredients, so to say, of a good philosophy of leadership. There has to be a purpose of some sort, and a good leader should be ethical, empowering and inclusive. All of these components are then part of the process of being a leader. When reading our book and going through this chapter that focused on this model, I tried to reflect on how I implement each component of this model and in what ways I could work on strengthening my foundations.

"A vision without a task is but a dream

A task without a vision is drudgery

A vision and a task is the hope of the world"

A vision and a task is a purpose, and a purpose is the first part of the model I read about. One thing leaders have to do is not just know the purpose of their group, but make sure that everyone working with them is working for the same thing. There has to be shared goals of the group and for them to be met, everyone has to know what they are working towards. This also helps so that there isn't any miss-communication. When I was reading, one this really stuck out to me in this section. It was an example of a girl who said "I feel capable but I am more of a maintainer than a builder. I can keep things going more than I am able to think them up in the first place" This really resonated with me because I kind of feel the same way. I have a hard time articulating what my purpose is. I know what I want to achieve, but I'm not all that great at spelling it out without the help of others. And sometimes, I don't know what my purpose is. There is a lot of things I am still figuring out and paths I am still exploring, but I'm ok with that most of the time. One thing for sure is once I know what my purpose and direction is, I put my heart into it and no one can really stop me. I try to stay passionate in what I do.

Inclusiveness is also a key part of leadership. The book says you have to understand, value, and actively engage diversity in views, approaches, styles, and aspects of individuality. So true! You have to make everyone feel a part of the group and that they have a place. Diversity was never something I felt I had a problem with. I am a really open minded person. When I took stengthsquest, some of my top strengths were connectedness, empathy, and developer; all of which I think really help with the inclusive part. I don't have a hard time putting myself in other's shoes and seeing it from their perspective. I want everyone to feel involved and I enjoy it when I am talking to people that are totally different from me. I like hearing all the differences and learning from them, but then at the same time seeing how similar we are and building friendships off of that.

Empowerment is another cornerstone of leadership, although there are many shades of it. Over the past year I have become a lot better at this one I think, I've become more self empowered and felt like I had a reason and the ability to be a good leader if I chose to. If you think it, you can do it - or however that saying goes. I'm not someone who is helpless, I'm able to do a lot of great things if I put my mind to it. This doesn't mean I feel like I can put everything on my shoulders though either. Leaders in a leadership position have to let others share the power too, and those that aren't the "leader" have to be responsible too. I've always felt more comfortable in the latter position I think, I like developing my leadership skills and being a part of things but I was never really one for jumping in to the positional leadership roles. I liked being responsible on my own terms, and felt flustered sometimes if I had to carry the weight of a whole group. I feel better with shared power and everyone just doing their part.

Morals and ethics kind of go hand in hand with good leadership. We need standards to uphold and morals to abide by so that we don't fall into corruption. Sometimes it is hard to say no and stand up for what you believe in, you have to be true to yourself and the purpose of your group. This is something even the participants have to uphold too, especially if a leader seems like he or she is taking power to far. I like to think that I have a good sense of self, and belief was another one of my strengths. I grew up in a private school environment and always had religion classes, I was just always taught that my beliefs and morals should transcend everything I do, and I have carried that over into all aspects of my life. The picture here is a retreat I went on in high school that really helped me to become the person I am today and challenged who I was as a person. It was there that my beliefs and morals became so much stronger.

Leadership isn't without rhyme and reason, there is a process behind it. It puts meaning behind what we do and shows us where we are and where we have to go. There has to be some sort of intention to accomplish change in leadership, without an intention there is so force of action. By using processes to accomplish change, leadership is in action.