Having most of the Hubert H. Humphrey program finished and behind me, I have unique opportunity to reflect this year where I was exposed to all kinds of leadership styles and persons, and to try to discover what kind of leader is growing inside of me?
During this Humphrey year I have worked with many leaders, tested my leadership skills in completely different situations. Observing different leaders thorugh books and conferences. First book which I choose to read was pocket guide for a leaders “Developing The Leader Within You” by John C. Maxwell. One of the best citations from this book is for a sure a Chinese proverb which says, “ If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for twenty years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men” (pg. 181.)
Because I love to take different perspectives, for second book I choose to dig into the early years of growing artistic New York City, reading biography of Patti Smith in the book “Just Kids”.
I will share two of most significant quotes from this book : “Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves” pg. 79; and “I didn’t feel for Warhol the way Robert did. His work reflected a culture I wanted to avoid. I hated the soup and felt a little for the can. I preferred artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it.” pg. 69.
For the final part of my professional year at Walter Cronkite School journalism and communication, I had to do several interviews with different professionals and try to dig into their perspectives discovering their opinions about what leadership is and how do they see their personal leadership style?
Some of the answers were:
“Collaborative Leadership – I prefer to work as part of a group or team to achieve goals.”
Casidy- bussines woman, owner of Vineyeard, USA
“I like creative leadership style because creativity only, I think, leaves the necessary openness that is often synonymous with the birth of something truly new and revolutionary.”
Giulia – working in branch of assistance, integrating, education of foreigners in Italy.
“My favorite leadership style is a mix of Democratic and People-Oriented Leadership. Because I believe that people are the key of success and if they are involved and responsible they will be more efficient, satisfied and whole business more successful.”
Tomislava-Regional Brand Manager for Deborah, B&H
“My favorite leadership style would be to lead with wisdom and love. It seems this would be the absolute best way to inspire people to bring out the best leaders within themselves. By using wisdom and love, one helps people rise to higher levels of understanding not only about the circumstances we might face as the leader and the led, but also about how decision-making defines who we are.” –
Mat – Safari guide in Africa.
Well, for sure I confirmed through this experience things, which I was feeling before and believing in them. Creativity, collaboration, non-judgmental style of leadership must be the one, which will create health community ready to work together, improve and learn new things. If I have to define in any way my leadership style it must be in some way creative, influential and collaborative. I believe that more of our love patience and time more we invest – more we get back and while we are leading others we are, at the same time, learning new things about ourselves. But also I don’t want to close, define and limit my leadership style inside of any form, just like art work, as creativity is something, which makes us, always go over our limits and try new approaches and that should include infinite possibilities of learning and creating better life for community.
