MSLD 511 Reflection Blog: Assignment Prompt
“Northouse indicated that leadership is a process and leaders affect and are affected by followers. Northouse stated that leadership involves influence. Think about a leader you have worked for, whom you have influenced. In what ways did you influence the leader? How did the relationship develop? What was one important way in which you were impacted by your relationship with that leader?”
As the prompt for this reflection blog explains, leaders are sometimes influenced by their followers. This was the case for me a few years ago when I influenced a leader to make a life-altering change and to position herself on a better path professionally. I found myself being a voice of reason for the leader and I encouraged her to consider change as something wonderful, providing new opportunities and creating growth.
I worked for an organization that seemed like a progressive and healthy environment on the surface — to those on the outside looking in. But once I was actually on staff, the toxicity and dysfunction of the workplace became more than I was willing to tolerate daily. Within leadership, there were issues with racism, misogyny, sexism, ageism and more. The way leadership handled day-to-day operations and treated the staff was at times appalling. I’m a survivor of domestic violence and other abuses, and I when I broke free I vowed to never allow anyone to abuse me again.
I decided to leave.
While I worked for the organization, I had influence over one of my supervisors in ways that I did not expect and did not plan. I saw how she was being treated by a person in upper leadership and noticed that she was often overwhelmed. An executive level leader would have meetings with her that could be heard through his closed door, outside his office, into the cubicle areas of staff. His voice was booming as he yelled at her. She would leave his office and burst into tears once she was back in her own office.
“I encouraged her to consider change as something wonderful, providing new opportunities and creating growth.”
My supervisor had been with the organization for over 10 years and her vision built the department she led. She grew it from herself being the only one on her “team” —starting from scratch — to having a team of professionals that handled internal and external communications to thousands of people each week. She has an MBA and is a very savvy when it comes to leadership and organizational development. She may have been a threat to her executive level leader, who did not hold such a degree. For whatever reason, it was clear that she was the target of his abuse.
I would listen to her after she had met with him and became someone with whom she felt free to open up to about the treatment. She considered if she should go above him and I advised her that she should. In hindsight, that made matters worse for her as the executive level leader became angry that she spoke to other leadership. His treatment became worse. It was hard for me to step away from her the day I left, but I knew I could eventually be in her place and would not allow that in my life. I shared with her my personal feelings about how she was being treated and learned that she feared leaving what she had built and starting over. I told her my own story of how I had to rebuild my life and reinvent myself after my business closed.
A few months after I left, so did she and all but one person from the department. I influenced her to leave a toxic work environment that was destroying her and helped her have the courage to do so. This was not anything I expected to happen, but it is the most memorable time for me in influencing someone in a position of leadership. Since all but one from the department left, the organization was forced to take a look at itself and has since implemented change. I suppose I influenced not just my leader, but also others in the department, and the entire organization as it sought to improve.
One important way I was impacted by her leadership was that it helped me recognize my own ability to lead. She was my cheerleader in all areas and helped to rebuild my confidence. After being in abuse, you lose confidence and have thoughts in your mind that you don’t have value anymore. I was able to find a sense of value in helping her break free from abuse and gained an understanding of my ability to influence others to change their lives for better. Since recognizing my own abilities to lead and bring change, I was drawn to this program and am curious how the development of leadership skills will be beneficial as I move forward.
Since the readings for this module, I have also considered how my recognition of my own leadership abilities might be step one in developing as a leader and beginning the process. I don’t think I have leadership “traits” that are natural and easy for me, that I was born with. Rather, I recognize the need for and importance of developing leadership skills. Northouse (2018) explains that as a process, everyone has the ability to become a leader (p.8).
“Focusing on leadership as a trait versus a process really makes quite a bit of difference. Those people that focus on it as a trait really emphasize the person’s personality, and they tend to say, many times, that leadership is something that people are born with. I tend to say that leadership is a process. It’s something that everyone can do. It’s available to everyone” (Northouse, 2018, p. 8).
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice 8th ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publishing.
Cynthia Puckett | MSLD 511 | Dr. Douglas | March 27, 2021 | Module 1: Nature of Leadership and Managerial Work
Cynde Puckett-Valenti 