A goal-driven Human Resource Professional, I became immensely captured by the topic of transformative leadership during the Military. My ultimate aspiration was to get an in-depth knowledge of the factors that drive individuals to achieve, accomplish something valuable and become better persons in their communities. Having served four years as a leader, and a total of eight years in demanding job environments that required troubleshooting problems, my current aim is to motivate people to such a degree that they predominantly improve in their professional careers. From my all-embracing leadership experience so far, I have acquired wisdom that transformative leadership can be achieved best through enhancing the motivation, and performance of all the team members.
Based on the recent studies by Riggio (2009), an inspirational leader should never request a team member to do anything that he does not do himself. Therefore always, regardless of the challenging situation, it should come natural to inspire your employees. Even more, the whole team that you are leading needs clear-set and achievable goals and each member’s endeavor should be appreciated, and their multiple talents and successes unveiled and appraised. A positive and influential leader like me can effortlessly achieve to be attentive and conscientious to serve the personal needs of all his team members. In my opinion, a cornerstone in management is challenging a team to leave their comfort zones because only then the team work can move from zero to unlimited success. Additionally, I tend to seek and encourage all the team members to question their fundamental way of thinking, and as soon as my employees report to me that keenness and encouraging energy they receive from me is transformative, then I have made the first step towards a winning leadership. These are the most important reasons of my keen interest in learning and applying transformative leadership in practice.
My ultimate aim is to apply the precious knowledge gained from the program to a variety of leadership mechanisms. My current and previous job positions demanded expert organizational, interpersonal knowledge, as well complex technical skills. Currently serving as Departmental Human Resource Officer, I am responsible for supervising twentytwo people. Being in that position for a year, I am using my legal and ethical background committed to superior customer service to a full extent in order to accomplish the specific assignments. As part of my work experience and leadership activities, I tend to be a first-class role model for my employees in order to motivate them and make them attracted to perform their respective duties and assignments. I am also keen at challenging some of my employees to take greater ownership for their jobs, and to understand their particular strengths and weaknesses in an effort to work on them. As a demanding leader for each team member, I am striving to align them with such tasks that have a greater promise of enhancing their routine performance. My diverse business background is not only limited to not-for-profit and government organizations, it also stretches within Fortune 500, where I have demonstrated a proven work record of success. Among others, Full Cycle Recruiting, Training and Performance Management, Workforce Planning and Investigations are my strongest business performance qualifications and assets.
The most important lesson I have learned during my extensive leadership experience is that you need to lead from the front. Be the model. Other noteworthy lessons learned include approval of your employees’ strengths, and pinpointing useful areas for growth and advancement. A research question that I intend to focus on is how a leader can adapt leadership around different types of generations. As Departmental Officer, I am presently ensuring excellent customer service that includes all levels of staff and management. By providing well-mannered quality service to the public, I am personally responding to requests, or directing them accordingly. My previous position of Human Resource Recruiter dealt primarily with constructing a tracking system to monitor the temporary staff that was working for the agency. As manager, I analyzed training needs for the organization in order to come up with specifically-tailored teaching programs to align my long-term development goals with. My best leadership experience is based on Scouller’s (2011) research on Leadership Presence, and I intend to further develop his thesis about behavior of the most excellent leaders, whose distinctive performance undoubtedly wins employees’ trust among generations and enable them to be ultimately successful. This most probably comes from personality characteristics and addresses the traits approach and its effectiveness in leadership. For further investigation, I intend to study adult development to analyze and influence the culture within my work organization.
Currently pursuing Masters of Business Administration at the University of La Verne, I am fully capable and ready to interact with local communities, after my graduation in June 2014. I also hold a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration Human Resources from Portland State University (2011), and Masters of Science in Human Resources Development Assurance of Learning Certificate from Villanova University (2012). I am a regular member of Society for Human Resource Management, International Public Management Association, and Villanova Human Resources Society. Through my participation and endeavor, these organizations strive to form an organic system to respond to the diverse needs of local communities.
For me, learning the principles of leading different generations is paramount. With a changing workforce, I feel it is important to transform the younger generation to be healthier leaders. I definitely seek to gain new knowledge and perspectives in Applied Research through the program. Online Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.) offers a priceless opportunity for research in my organizational setting. Besides, the support of advisors and staff members, not limited to a group of peers, will effectively promote both the qualitative and quantitative study approach.
References
Alimo-Metcalfe, B. & Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2001). The Development of a New Transformational Leadership Questionnaire. The Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 74, 1-27.
Kotlyar, I., & Karakowsky, L. (2007). Falling Over Ourselves to Follow the Leader. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, 38-49.
Riggio , R. E. (2009). Are you a transformational leader? the best in current leadership research and theory, from cultivating charisma to transforming your organization.. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/200903/are-you-transformational-leader
Scouller, J. (2011). The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill. Cirencester: Management Books 2000.
