Life Stream
Bruce Avolio describes a person’s “life stream” as it “represent[ing] events you accumulate from birth to the present that shape how you choose to influence others and yourself” (Avolio, 2005, p.11).  I have my own life stream, my own series of events and stories, which have coalesced to make me who I am today.  I am a senior at Virginia Tech, one who has invested much of my time in others and my community.  I have been a Resident Advisor, a Teaching Assistant, an Orientation Leader, and more.   I say this not to list my credentials, but to offer some insight into my own life stream, into what may be, and probably is, informing my beliefs about myself, people, and life. 





My Definition of Leadership
My philosophy of leadership is rooted in relationships because my experience in college, which has been the biggest transformative event for me, has been rooted in relationships.  To me, leadership is understood, in Keith Grint’s terms, as a person and as a process.  In other words, it is “WHO ‘leaders’ are that makes them leaders” as well as “HOW ‘leaders’ get things done that makes them leaders” (Jackson & Parry, 2011, p.13).  Indeed, my definition focuses on who the leader is as a person and how she treats her followers.  This concern for people over results does not exist in isolation.  Fry talks of how “leader values, attitudes and behaviours […] will generate outcomes via the intrinsic motivation of followers” and how “needs are met through being understood and appreciated, and by a feeling that life has meaning for them and that they can make a difference” (Jackson & Parry, 2011, p.120).  Indeed, this is echoed by The Leadership Grid.  Though not quite a 1,9, my philosophy on leadership is concerned with “the attitudes and feelings of people,” making sure they feel they belong and are valued (Northouse, 2013, pp.79-80). 

To me, leadership means building community, fostering identity development, and acting with love.   Leadership is not a one-dimensional process, but instead is a symbiotic one whereby the “leader” and “followers” both benefit and rarely are the two groups mutually exclusive.  Indeed, one must only believe in the three pillars listed previously to claim the title of leader, and one might argue that those least willing to claim a title are the best fitted for the position.  Rooted in the idea of servant leadership, I believe leadership is putting followers before results, and knowing that when followers are nourished, results will sprout. 





The Three Pillars
Building community means developing a space where members feel welcomed and valued.  They develop a sense of belonging, which entails “membership, the experience of being at home in the broadest sense” (Block, 2009, xii).  Belonging also deals with ownership and the idea that ownership can, and perhaps should, drift from an individual to the community and vice versa (Block, 2009).

In servant leadership, building community is also one of the key components.  Robert Greenleaf was a huge proponent of a place where “people can feel safe and connected with others, but are still allowed to express their own individuality” (Northouse, 2013, p.223).  Building community is so important to leadership because when people feel a part of something larger than themselves and that they are valued, they are being satisfied on one of the most basic levels.  Fry has completed a “comprehensive examination” on fulfilling follower’s spiritual needs, all of which are being addressed by building community, and has found that it “foster[s] higher levels of employee well-being, organizational commitment, financial performance, and social responsibility” (Jackson & Parry, 2011, pp.120-121). 

I was a Resident Advisor for the SERVE living-learning community, and at the beginning of each year, we had a first year retreat.  The goal is to begin this process of building community.  People meet each other, play silly games, and start the process of belonging.  Through these retreats, I have seen incredible conversations take place, conversations that have truly shown our “relatedness” (Northouse, 2013, p.223).  I have seen that when people feel they are known, feel that they belong like we try to create at the SERVE retreat, they end up reinvesting themselves in our organization.  





Fostering identity development is critically important to the leadership process, too.  When people are a part of a community, they develop two different identities:  their personal identities as well as the identity that is tied to the group.  A powerful identity is represented by a strong relationship between the self and the group, where each flows into one another.  One feels like he or she is a part of the group, but he or she also identifies parts of the group that are parts of him or herself. 

One who practices leadership is concerned with fostering identity development because he or she knows that it is related to sensemaking.  Jackson and Parry (2011) write that sensemaking is “when people understand the vision and are not just following a plan […] It also enables them to take risks, […] to initiate change and not just to accommodate it” (p. 126).  When a powerful identity is formed, both in relation to one’s self as well as to the group, one is encouraged to co-create the organization.  Members are able to make sense out of themselves and their organization by being active citizens of it.  This sensemaking and identity development process is normally a messy one, full of feelings of tension, but a leader fosters the idea of holding this tension in a “heart-opening way [that] may open us to new ways of understanding ourselves and the world, enhancing our lives and allowing us to enhance the lives of others” (Palmer, 2010)

Jake Grohs, is the Coordinator for the SERVE Living Learning Community, and he has been instrumental in my identity development and sensemaking process.  He has encouraged us to evaluate who we are as individuals and who we are in the context of a community.  Sometimes, this has forced me out of my comfort zone; other times, it has forced me out of existing relationships.  I discovered that I valued different things than I thought; it’s hard, confusing, and as Wheatley (2002) writes, “disturbing.”  Holding this tension within and then projecting my life onto others has been incredibly powerful, and I believe it was due to his leadership and fostering my identity development.   





Acting with love relates to how a leader approaches every interaction with his or her followers.  Love, in this sense, is not familial or romantic.  It is what Adam Kahane writes as “unity of the separated” (Kahane, 2010, p.2).  Each decision should be carefully thought out, always enacted out of a desire to “reconnect and make whole that which has become or appears fragmented,” whether that is a group or a person (Kahane, 2010, p.2) .  In this definition of love, people are receiving more than just care and compassion, but are also being invited back into the fold.

     
Gabriel writes of four fantasies about leaders, the first of which being “the leader as someone who cares for his or her followers” (Jackson & Parry, 2011, p.55).  I don’t believe this to be a fantasy, though.  Similar to the idea of transformational leadership, I believe leaders should “spend time treating each employee in a caring and unique way,” a way in which the follower is being made more whole.  In addition to the follower being made more whole as a human person through this care and love, he or she is being consistently invited into the in-group.  Recognizing that there will always be people who are less engaged in an activity, a leader will offer his or her love to all members, hoping that there will be an exodus from the out-group to the in-group, where people are “more dependable, more highly involved, and more communicative” (Northouse, 2013, p.164). 

Aaron Reed, who was one of the Resident Advisors in my building, consistently acted with love.  He invested so much time into his residents, always making sure they felt welcome, warm, and invited.  He did this with the intention of having everyone feel a sense of belonging, a sense of unity within the group.  This constant invitation extended to his residents did not, and could not, go unnoticed to other Resident Advisors like myself.  Aaron was what all Resident Advisors should aspire to be. 





Conclusion
Through my experience thus far, this is how my leadership philosophy stands.  It is perfect in no way, and there are many gaps, especially when concerned with results.  That being said, based on my own self-knowledge and concepts, I know I lead best when I lead by these three pillars.  It is my thought that, in the work I’m involved with, work that primarily deals with people and relationships, the three pillars I have set forth are quite fitting.  Indeed, I feel that I have been accepted as a leader in multiple situations because my beliefs and actions regarding leadership match those around me (Jackson and Parry, 2011, p.57).





“You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others.”​​

― Gordon B. Hinckley