Music is My Metaphor

To me, leadership is like the journey of a musician. Some people are drawn to it, some have a natural aptitude for it, and some stumble into it without notice.

Leadership theories range from direct to supporting, task to relationship, active to passive, and everywhere in between. And those are just the academic theories. A leader then makes it their own. Their personality, ethics, and passion shape the way they perform as a leader. In the same way that each musician has their own sound, even when playing the same instrument.

Starting at San Diego State University, in the Hospitality & Tourism Management program is like starting Piano Lessons: Book 1.

Lesson 1:


The first step is learning your major scales. You learn to identify the note both by its sound and how it is played on the piano.

The focus is on the task. You play the right key; you hear the right note; the task is completed. At this step you are still a stranger to the music and the notes. Perhaps you are only doing this because it is a class assignment, not enjoyable for you. But, path-goal theory was a success and now you know your major scales.

Lesson 2:


Learn to play a song you already know the tune of. By knowing the desired outcome of the situation, you will be able to monitor your playing and adjust as necessary to achieve the proper sound. Let's start with "Mary Had A Little Lamb."

Contingency theories state that an effective leadership style can be determined by the situation. Although it does say that you are not able to adapt your personal leadership style for the situation. If this were the case, you would be unable to play the song, even when you know the situation. Luckily, you've learned situational leadership and know that you can change your style as you play. You as a piano player are gaining experience to makes changes as you grow for improvements. You've moved into an acquaintance phase with the music and are learning what to expect when you play.

Lesson 3:

Now that you have learned the building blocks and understand how they can be combined, you are ready to write your own music. You can transform the once individual sounding notes into a beautiful melody.

Hopefully by now you've started to enjoy the piano and the playing process (or else I'm guessing you would have quit during lesson one.) Your experiences and passion will help you combine notes from the piano, other instruments, and outside influences. You can take inspiration for everywhere around you to coalesce into a melody. The transformational outcome will be greater that the sum of the inputs. You've learned that sometimes you will play the wrong key, but you can fix it, move on, and next time you'll play it right. Music and you have become partners in your journey as a musician; you can trust the notes.  

Throughout this journey, you've learned skills and competencies. You've taken bits and pieces of other musical styles to define your own distinct manner of playing. The traits that people are born with can give them an inclination to play music, but personal practice and the passion are key in becoming a successful musician.

In my journey, I'm still in lesson two. I know the type of leader I want to be, and I know the effect I want to have on the people I work with. Implementing it within the next year as I begin my career as a leader will be my experience playing a song I already know. I've had the chance to observe many leaders, both good and bad. I've learned from them, my classmates, and my teachers.  I can take what I've learned apply it to my leadership career, but I won't know what it sounds like until I play it out loud.

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership theory first evolved in 1970 in Robert Greenleaf’s essay “The Servant as Leader”. Greenleaf says that is was a leader’s job to be a servant to their followers, customers, and the community before they worked for their own personal gain. This type of leadership can have a very positive impact on an organizations success. Instead of dominating and telling employees what should be done, a leader will empower their associates and inspire them to go above and beyond. Servant leadership focuses on team building and relationships. The theory says by having good relationships with your associates and taking care of their needs, they will in turn take care of the guests and give excellent service. This style of leadership is widely seen in a company like Marriott, founded on the principle that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your guests and in turn create loyalty and increased long-term growth. The theory incorporates employees into the decision making process therefore creating “buy-in” from employees and fostering a greater work ethic and job satisfaction. Servant leadership defines a leader through ten major characteristics: listening, empathy, healing relationships, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to human resource development, and commitment to building community. All of these help a leader become a better servant to the needs of their employees. Although servant leadership has only been around 40 years, the theory dates back to 4^th century B.C. Chanakya wrote in his book Arthashastra, “the king shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects, the king is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people.” The leader focuses on pleasing his subjects to create a harmonious society and a productive one at that. I think this style of leadership is helpful because it helps the leaders to be more aware of their environment and surrounding issues. I feel that leaders with this attitude are more likely to succeed as a company because every one has input and participation with the overall goal and accomplishing it. There might be some trouble when it comes to a leader’s personal goals, although if they are successful with their team, it seems logical they would move up through the company. The servant leadership style does not leave opportunity to identify a specific individual either for a success or discipline action. It makes it harder for one person to stand out amongst a group that is more focused on success as a whole rather than individual accomplishment. Overall, I think servant leadership is a good philosophy to lead by, but at times it will be necessary to adapt the leadership style to the situation. A good leader will utilize multiple leadership styles throughout their career, knowing that there is not one best philosophy for all challenges.

further reading: http://www.greenleaf.org/

Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen

This is a powerpoint applying different leadership theories to the characters in Ocean's 11, 12, and 13.

Transformational Leadership

I think the movie School of Rock is a great example of transformational leadership. Jack Black's character really inspires the students to go beyond their expectations and achieve something great. One great rock band can really change the world. The clip I chose was of Jack Black's stick it to the man speech. I feel it lays the foundation for what he will build upon for the rest of the movie.

School of Rock - The Man speech

Bio on James McGregor Burns

James McGregor Burns was born in 1918. Burns attended college at Williams and obtained his doctorate in political science from Harvard. In between his college experiences, he enlisted in the Army and fought in Guam, Saipan, and Okinawa and served as a Combat Historian for the Pacific region. During this time, he was awarded four battle stars and a Bronze star for his service and dedication. Burns was very active in politics and national government during his lifetime. He won his first Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for his political biography, Roosevelt: The Lion and The Fox.  His second award came in 1970for his second political biography, Roosevelt: Solider of Freedom.  In the 1970’s he also published his book Leadership.  This book is still used today and  seen as one of the main tools in leadership study. In this book Burns made a distinction between a transactional leader and a transformational leader. A transactional leader is someone who trades reward in return for good work and loyalty. A transformational leader, a term coined by Burns, is someone who engages their employees to bring everyone together to achieve a greater outcome. This person creates change and excitement for the associates, effecting their work and personal lives in a positive manner. His ideas are still widely used today and are considered one of the best ways to inspire and enact positive outcomes.

Contingency and Situational theories

Behavior-based theories presented us with the idea that leaders are either task or relationship oriented. It wasn't until the 1970's when Fielder determined that a leaders effectiveness is dependent upon the situation.   His theory still accepts the fact that leaders are born and cannot change, but they do differ between task and relationship focused. Fielder postulated that the type of leader most desired is contingent upon the situation. The "least preferred co-worker" is used to determine each persons' leadership orientation. In the method, a person describe the traits and behaviors of their least preferred co-worker and in turn is actually describing their favored type of motivation. It gives insight into the person's values and ethics that they will be likely to follow, helping to determine if they are a relationship or task oriented leader. Fielder's model suggest that because leadership traits are stable and unchanging, it is best to adapt the work environment to the leadership type to achieve the best possible outcome. Following Fielder, Kenneth Blancher coined the term situational leadership. This took into account that yes, leadership effectiveness is contingent upon the situation but a person can learn to adapt their personal leadership style for a variety of situations. Unlike Fielder, Blancher assumed that people had the ability to change and could change their tactics based on specific scenario. Blancher also agreed that leaders were task and relationship focused, but they could also learn to be a blend of both and utilize this to achieve a desired outcome. Blancher also added that the leadership style per situation should that into account the employees' commitment to the job or task and the employees' competency to complete what needs to be done. With that, a leaders can use one of four leadership styles or even a mix of them to effectively lead in a situation. The four styles include selling (low support, low task), supporting (high support, low task), coaching (high support, high task), and directing (low support, high task). Blancher differs from Fielder because he know that employee attributes play a big role in a situation and that leaders have the ability to change their leadership theory. Fielder and Blancher both agree that effective leadership is based on the situation and that leaders have a tendency to be either task or relationship oriented.

Path-Goal Theory and LMX

Behavior-based theories are one-on-one focused relationships; they can be either task- or relationship- oriented. Two major schools of thought are path-goal leadership theory and leader member exchange theory (LMX). Path-goal leadership demonstrates how a leader can motivate their follower to achieve a certain task or end result. The interactions are based on an expected outcome. In this theory, a leader will provide support by clarifying goals, removing potential obstacles, and assisting when necessary. LMX theory is more relationship-focused where the leaders and follower connection evolves through interactions. There are three phases that the relationship can follow starting at Stranger (phase one) where there is low quality interaction, no trust, and followers are motivated by some outside factor. Next, leaders and followers become Acquaintances (phase two). This involves an average quality where they get to know each other and test the boundaries of their relationship. The highest phase of the relationship is Partnership, where each member has mutual influence on each other. Each person is motivated by the other and the exchanges are very high quality. Ideally, all relationships would progress to this phase, but there are many leaders who prefer to stay at lower levels to maintain control and dominance.

The Harry Potter series offered many opportunities to observe both of these theories in action.

Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School, demonstrates a path-goal leadership interaction with the main character, Harry Potter. The overarching goal for the duo, is to find and destroy all of Lord Voldemort's horcruxes. These objects allow Lord Voldemort immortality, therefore in order to defeat him Harry must find and locate all of the horcruxes and destroy them if he wants to conquer Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Professor Dumbledore supports Harry by showing him memories that give hints and clues to objects that Voldemort may have used for a horcrux. He never gives Harry any answers directly. He shows Harry what signs to look for, and how he has found one horcrux himself.  Once, Professor Dumbledore takes Harry with him when he locates on horcrux. His behaviors help give Harry guidance on how he will find future objects. Unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore is killed at the end of the sixth book, shortly after Harry and him return from finding one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Harry is still supported by Professor Dumbledore in his journey through tools left to him and his two friends in Dumbledore's will. Professor Dumbledore has also give tools to other leaders in the Wizarding world who can continue to assist until the final goal is completed. It is only after Professor Dumbledore's death that Harry realizes he never new him on a personal level. A majority of their one-on-one interactions were solely focused on learning about, finding, and destroying horcruxes.

Lord Voldemort, who is the most powerful dark wizard in the series, can be used to observe LMX theory. Due to his lack of relationships, we can see how his leadership is undermined by those he should rely on. Death Eaters are the wizards who support and follow Lord Voldemort, although none of them can be said to have a phase three Partnership with him. However, this is based upon the fact that Lord Voldemort sees use for his Death Eaters, but he would never think any other wizard would be able to provide anything that is mutually beneficial. The only Death Eater who gets close to this phase is Professor Snape. Lord Voldemort trusts him enough to place him among enemy territory as a spy on Harry Potter, Professor Dumbledore, and the Order of the Phoenix*. Professor Snape in Voldemort's informant into everything relating to Harry Potter. Although, Lord Voldemort does use a type of magic called Legilimency to enter Professor Snape's mind to see if he is lying. There is not full trust from Voldemort's side. The interaction between Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew is an example of phase one Stranger interaction. Pettigrew is a weak person who seeks out Lord Voldemort as a source of protection and power. He obeys Lord Voldemort's orders based on fear. Lord Voldemort is merciless to him and exerts his power over him even forcing Pettigrew to cut of his own hand. Lord Voldemort only relies on Pettigrew for a short time, while Pettigrew is helping him to gain his body back which he had lost years ago when he first tried to kill Harry Potter.

I could go on and on with examples but I think that each of these leaders demonstrate how behavior-based theories can be linked to specific actions. Traits are not the only indicator of a good leader.

"It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." 
-Professor Albus Dumbledore