One Singular Model?

I feel that having a singular model for leadership in a culturally pluralistic environment is not possible. First of all, it is hard to comprehend having one model of leadership. There are many different versions of what it means to be a leader. A leader can be as little as speaking up in a group in class. Or, a leader could be as big as stepping up to the plate and being a leader during a huge disaster (ex. 9/11). Therefore, it is hard to have one set of black and white guidelines of what it means to be a leader when there are so many gray areas.
Also, leadership in the 21st century includes living in a culturally pluralistic environment. This type of environment requires individuals to be flexible, and to be able to adapt to the innumerable changes that occur throughout cultures at all times. All cultures are incredibly different, and have completely different norms. Therefore what may be a leader in our culture could be the opposite for someone else’s culture. In order to know how to be a leader for another culture, it would take a great deal of research to understand what is “typical” for that specific culture. This can be done, but I feel it is impossible to have one leadership style for the many cultures of our world today.

If I retook the SLPI today, I feel that many aspects of it would not change. If anything were to change it would be the section for encouraging the heart. This is because this was my weakest section, and I have since put more thought about this into my leadership style. Some plans and goals I have for future leadership endeavors include, being more encouraging to my fellow group members, rather than assuming they feel encouraged on which ever task we are trying to accomplish.
When thinking about the SLPI I noticed that I was not the only one to score low on encouraging the heart, two of my friends who took this also scored low on this section. This made me wonder why this could be, and if this was the weakest component, what was the strongest component? So, I looked up some information on this, and what I found was an article called Leadership Practices and Effectiveness among Greek Student Leaders. Within there college aged population, they found that the SLPI scores showed that the women believed they had the most leadership skill in Enabling Others to Act and the least amount in Challenging the Process.
This gave me a little bit of insight as to what was the norm for college aged women. Also, this information showed me that encouraging the heart was not the strongest among college aged women, and therefore makes me want to further improve this quality.

The Leader

I usually lead by being the organizer. At first, I am not one to take charge of a group. I like to see how a group thinks, works, and performs together. After this, I then organize the main ideas of the group, and from there delegate a way to accomplish a certain task. I enjoy leading a group when I know my skills, and the skills of my fellow team members meet the task that needs to be accomplished. The only time I feel I am not namely the leader of the group is when I know my abilities will not be of use in a certain situation. In these types of situations I do not just walk away, however I do not “step up to the plate” to try to lead the group. However, when these situations occur I try to figure out who in the group seems like they know the most about the task at hand. If this takes place, then I try to encourage that person to inform and lead the group to a possible accomplishment.

I feel as though someone can’t be a leader all of the time. One can encompass leadership qualities at all times, but I feel that it is unrealistic to be the “main” leader in every group and leadership situation. Sometimes it is important to be the one being lead. Every experience helps one grow, and you never know the one experience in which you are not the leader, could possibly help you be the leader in the future.