Leadership Behaviors

Our leadership blog this week required us to think about these two questions:
• Describe a time when you or someone you know became a leader by communicating like a leader, and then identify the specific behaviors that led to this result. What can you learn from this situation that can be applied to other leadership situation?
• Are theories of leadership culturally bound?
My husband is a member of a group in Anderson called FYMA, which stands for Fine Young Men of Anderson. The group began as sort of a joke when the boys were in high school. They identified each other as friends and gave themselves a name, as many high school cliques do. However, he has been out of high school for 11 years, and the group still exists. A few members have left the group and a few have joined, but the majority of the original “members” are still close friends and still maintain membership. The group has monthly meetings that have been named “First Fridays”, where one member hosts the rest of the group (men and spouses/significant others) for a primarily social function during which, at some point, there is an official meeting called to order and business is discussed. Members (and spouses) bring canned goods to each meeting which are then donated to the local soup kitchen. The organization is also the official adoptee of two roads in Anderson, complete with FYMA printed below the “Adopt-a-highway” sign. Several other ideas for community involvement have been discussed, and there are always ideas being thrown around. They also sponsored a recycling initiative at this year’s soiree. To top it all off, the group has held an annual Christmas party for (I think) the last eight years. Although there is no officially appointed leader, there are two particular members who generally seem to be “the guy in charge”. They are often the ones that questions are directed to, the most heard voice at meetings, and the one’s usually referred to for decision making. Both gentlemen are responsible, intelligent, personable, outgoing, well-liked, and confident. They are also opinionated, hard workers, dedicated and loyal to the group, their families and friends.
What I have learned from this leadership situation is that no matter what the group may be, someone will be appointed the “leader”, either officially or unofficially. The members of FYMA will all tell you that there is no current “official” leadership position, but I bet if you questioned them further, they would identify the same two men as leaders.
We are also asked to assess the question: “Are leadership theories culturally bound?” It would be very ethnocentric of us to think that all leadership theories applied to everyone in the world. There are many, many cultures and communication styles differ throughout these cultures. Some cultures can’t even be understood yet by theorists, much less theorized about regarding their behavior and communication patterns. Also, many cultures value personal relationships, material goods, gender roles, and other aspects of life differently from those of the theorists’ culture, which makes it hard for those theories to be applicable.

Regarding proactivity

This was originally published on PR Open Mic on May 26, 2009 at 8:10 pm.

In his latest blog post, Jon Newman talks about the need to take steps towards building your business in a slow economy.

He talks about how many employees and employers have a tendency to “play defense instead of offense”.

He also outlines steps that PR practitioners and firms can take to break out of this habit and move forward instead of maintaining the status quo.

He raises some important points in this post and, from what I’ve learned so far about the PR world thus far, these points make perfect sense to me. I’m sure these things are easier said than done at times; however, getting out of our comfort zones and challenging ourselves often is easier said than done. I also think that these principles can be applied in other areas of life and not just in the PR world.

I am currently a preschool teacher at a private school in the area, working full time while finishing my last hours at Clemson in pursuance of a BA in Communications. At one of our staff meetings not too long ago, there was a lot of discussion on ways we could stay ahead of these hard times. Several parents have had to pull out their children due to loss of income whether caused by budget cutbacks at work or one, possibly even both parents, losing a job.
In life, whether due to economic hardship, personal setbacks, or other adverse events, I believe it is important to often step out of your comfort zone and take “safe” and sometimes even “scary” risks in order to challenge yourself and be the best you, or your company, can be.

Thanks Jon for the sage advice!