Hayes Leadership Philosophy

                                            "Applying Management and Leadership to my Life"

                                                                       Emily Hayes

My experience: GBN has provided me with so many opportunities to grow upon my leadership skills. Whether it is making a game plan on the field as captain of my team, or planning an event for my class as class secretary. Being in this class has helped me to add on to my skills of being a leader. 

On the Field: Working with a team in many situations can be difficult. Being a leader of a team is even harder. It is learning the balance of trying to help out teammates in need but not over stepping your boundaries. After this class I learned that it is more important to listen than to speak in many situations. Hearing out what my fellow teammates have to say and actually listening to them is key to being a good communicator and therefore a good leader. In order to have a successful outcome it is important to be able to strongly communicate with your teammates. 

Off the Field: Being on class board has provided me with multiple opportunities. It has given me a chance to be able to become more independent as a leader. Through having to work with my fellow classmates to come to an overall idea I have been provided with the opportunity to be able to strengthen my abilities to work with others. The main idea that I took away from this class was the Win Win situations. I had to look at my experiences at school and view them as Win Win. During board, no matter how stressful it became, I started to realize why my fellow board members and I were working so hard. We are working for one common goal to bring unity and fun to our class. Win Win situations started to become more apparent  to me in my every day life especially through board. 

Conclusion: After this semester, I feel as though not only did I grow as a leader but I also developed a new outlook on certain things like clubs and sports. Being a leader isn't something that happens, it takes dedication and effort. I took away the idea that there is a distinct difference between a good and bad leader and it all relates back to the idea of communication. Communication is the base and if it isn't solid, everything else will fall apart. Listening is a key factor in being a good leader and is something that, after taking this class, I have definitely been working on to become a better leader.

David Barry - My Leadership Philosophy

My leadership philosophy took a lot of thinking so I decided to start with why I wanted to be a leader in the first place. The reason I always wanted to become a leader was so that I could guide people, I wanted to be able to help them and together we could be able to achieve success. It took a surprising amount of work, nobody is born a leader and I was no exception but I learned over time exactly what kind of leader I wanted to be. The most important thing I have learned to date is that leadership and management are two completely different things.

When it comes to my leadership style I take three main things into account: positive or negative motivation, decision making styles and task or employee motivation.  I believe that positive motivation is the best way to motivate people. Motivation not through rewards like bonuses or extrinsic motivators, but instead through the three intrinsic motivators: autonomy, mastery and purpose. The reason I believe this to be the case is because instead of lowering employee morale through fear or threats it raises it and creates better job satisfaction. Secondly when it comes to my decision making style I believe in being a democratic or participative leader.  My reasoning for this is that everyone's voice, everyone's input has equal value and they should be involved in the decision making process. It also allows people to think on their own and to really feel like they have been apart of something bigger. Finally when it comes to how I want to influence people I prefer employee motivation because it can increase teamwork, positive relationships and trust while at the same time decreasing turnover and absenteeism. This really does go hand in hand with positive motivation and democratic leadership because they all help build and atmosphere of trust and teamwork.

In summary as a leader I want to create an environment where the people I am leading feel important and part of the team, they have good employee morale and work satisfaction. They should be comfortable with their job and feel safe.