Who was the leader you most enjoyed working with? Who was the leader you least enjoyed working with?
What was the impact of their leadership on how you lead today? That is the focus of lesson 3.
Review
You built a timeline starting with your first professional position through your current position and identified each stop on your journey.
At each spot you have identified the following elements of your leadership:
- Your Role
- How you got to that position
- How you led
- How effective you were
You followed that short analysis with insights about yourself at each stop. Then you ventured to write your definition of leadership at the beginning of your journey and what it is now.
In lesson 2 you went deeper by adding more detail on your leadership. You assessed four elements of your leadership:
- Transactional – How much of your leadership was as a transactional leader?
- Transformational – How much of your leadership was transformational?
- Power/Authority – Where did you get your power and authority from in each position?
- Relationships – What were your key relationships at each stop?
Today’s Activity
Up to this point this has been about you. Now let’s examine how your leaders impacted you. Who was your leader at each stop? You may have had several leaders depending on your longevity at each position.
For each leader assess them on the following:
- Transactional – What portion of their leadership was transactional?
- Transformational – What portion of their leadership was transformational?
- Power/Authority – Where did they get their power and authority?
- Relationships – What were their key relationships?
You may want to document an example for each item to solidify the behavior you observed. This is all from your perspective. On Power/Authority think about how much came from those being led.
Reflection and Insights
What insights can you draw from the leaders who led you?
Some considerations. How did you feel when you were around that leader? Did they invoke certain emotions such as inspiration or stress? Maybe you were not around them very much or avoided them. Those insights may mean something.
What about values? How aligned were your values with those of your leaders? How did you know the leaders’ values?
Are you still in touch with them or how would a chance meeting with them feel?
Last insight. Reflecting on your leadership today, how did the leader impact your current leadership today?
You may want to have a single page for each stop on your journey.
