I. The learner demonstrates that she has gained breadth and depth of understanding of key leadership concepts.

My artifacts demonstrating mastery of this outcome.

1. Final Exam - LEAD 500 Leadership Styles and Theories

2. A Gap Analysis of the Butler Community College Enrollment Management Team - LEAD 500 Leadership Styles and Theories

3. Final - LEAD 510 Leadership in Context

4. My Leadership Style - LEAD 515 Leadership Communication and Conflict Resolution

5. Organizational and Leadership Change of the Enrollment Management Team at Butler Community College - LEAD 560 Leading Change in Organizations

6. Case Study Analysis of Butler Community College - LEAD 565 Knowledge Based Leadership

7.  Change Initiative:  Employee Performance Evaluation Instrument and Process at Butler Community College - LEAD 570 Leadership for the Future

My reflection on meeting this outcome.

1. The final test for LEAD 500, which I received an A on, clearly demonstrates my understanding of different leadership styles, which are key leadership concepts. In this document I address one of my favorite leadership styles, democratic supervision. Democratic supervision is one of my favorites because, "Democratic supervision...is characterized by the sharing of power and by participative decision making" (Pierce & Newstrom, 2008, p. 286). I believe in empowering employees and one way to do this is to allow input from the group. One example of allowing input from the group is at our admissions monthly meetings. Admissions team members from both campuses meet once a month at alternating campuses. Everyone has the opportunity to submit agenda items, which they lead the discussion on. Team members also have the opportunity to openly discuss topics during the meetings. We listen to all ideas and then make decisions based on results and/or majority. In this document I also address another leadership style that I have not experienced much, if at all, throughout my professional career. “Authoritarian supervision, in general, is characterized by the relatively high degree of power wielded by the supervisor over the work group” (Pierce & Newstrom, 2008, p. 286). The authoritarian leader makes all decisions for the group. Followers are told what to do and how to do it by their leader. This leadership style seems to be commonly used in the military, as well as in manufacturing, which is why I have not experienced this leadership style in my professional career. Both of these leadership styles are used today, democratic and authoritarian. However, I learned in LEAD 500 that the democratic styles seems to be preferred over authoritarian.

2. This paper also shows my understanding of different leadership styles and it demonstrates by ability to analyze the effectiveness of each team members' leadership style. My analysis concluded, "The Director of Advising, Director of Financial Aid, and Registrar positions all have to be authoritative leaders due to the nature of the functions within their offices, and all three of them are authoritative leaders. The Dean of Enrollment Management, Director of Admissions, and Accounts Receivable Manager are all democratic leaders. While all of these people and their staff members work with students, the first three work more directly with policies, regulations, and statistics, and the last three work more directly with our customers." This paper also analyzes the vision of the Strategic Enrollment Management Team, reviews the consultant's report as it relates to the Enrollment Management Team, and compares the vision to where the Enrollment Management Team stood at the time the paper was written.

3. My understanding of the context of leadership for different leaders is demonstrated in this matrix. The demonstration of context is through the demographic, political, social, and economic climate in which they were/are leaders. For example, the context of Queen Elizabeth's leadership includes:
Demographic - She took the throne at a young age when women were not in positions of power. She relied heavily on her aides.
Political - She was determined to preserve domestic peace while maintaining the independence of the Church of England.
Social - Her personal context of determination set her up for success. Along with the help of her aides, she transformed England from chaos to success.
Economic - She did not want worldly goods, but only good for her people. (Hartwick, 2001)

4. Using my understanding of different leadership styles, in this paper I analyze my espoused leadership theories and my own personal leadership style. I believe a good leader is one who leads by example and is able to use different leadership styles that are best suited based on the personalities involved and/or the situation. My belief was confirmed within the text, "Effective leadership requires the ability to size up the situation (and people involved), compare it against prior experiences and practices, and develop an approach that would fit but remain flexible enough to adjust as the situation requires" (De Janasz, Dowd, & Schneider, 2009, p. 385). Knowing there is always room for improvement, I have included a plan to initiate changes where needed within my own leadership style. One of those areas in need of change is dealing with conflict. This is an area that I have resolved to view in a positive manner, rather than in a negative manner as in the past. I am focusing on controlling the process, not the person.

5. This paper gave me the opportunity to show my understanding of how an organizational change took place at Butler Community College of the Enrollment Management Team. The change was based on recommendations from an enrollment management consultant. This organizational change also led to a leadership change. The consultant’s recommendations for organizational change were presented to employees at departmental meetings by the directors and deans, rather than by vice presidents or by the president to the entire staff. This quite possibly was not the best form of communication for the organizational change information. However, according to Lee Roy Beach, “When the vision springs from the existing culture and ongoing activities, or when the need for change and the nature of that change is obvious to most members of the organization, your job is relatively easy” (Beach, 2006, p. 77). This organizational change was just that. It was coming from an existing culture and it was obvious that the current Enrollment Management Department needed to be re-organized and changed to meet the needs of the students. Research on enrollment management was being presented at conferences and resonated with Butler employees so the mind change was an easy one. Once the organizational change was adopted by the administration, the leadership for the new Enrollment Management Team began being formed.

6. This document shows my understanding and ability to analyze a case study, which is an essential skill for leaders to be able to perform. This gives leaders the background necessary to move their organization forward in a positive direction. Analyzing a case study includes evaluating the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Within this case study I evaluate the SWOT analysis, identifying the threat as, "The recent decrease in state funding has significantly reduced Butler's resources for travel to conferences with colleagues. These conferences could be compared to a strategic-group analysis, "...strategic-group analysis involves identifying and charting the business models and business-level strategies that industry rivals are pursuing. Managers can then determine which strategies are successful and unsuccessful and why a certain business model is working or not" (Hill & Jones, 2008, p. 179). Without being able to attend conferences, Butler employees must generate new ideas amongst themselves. Also, they are not able to maintain their competitive advantage without knowing what successful endeavors their competitors are pursuing.

7.  My depth of understanding a specific change initiative theory is demonstrated in this paper by the use of the steps in the theory.  I have related each step of my proposed change initiative to the steps in the Task Alignment Theory.

1. Mobilize commitment to change through joint diagnosis of business problems.  I propose that the human resources department bring together a wide-range of employees to form a change initiate group and get their feedback on the current employee performance evaluation instrument and process.  Just as I have discussed this issue with several employees (deans, directors, and support staff) at different meetings over the past two years, I believe that human resources would find a general consensus that the current evaluation instrument and process is cumbersome, inconsistent, and does not lend itself to a productive face-to-face evaluation meeting between the supervisor and the employee.
2. Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage for competitiveness.  The change initiative group would then be led by human resources to choose a new evaluation instrument and process, and just as our text states, “These new arrangements will coordinate the flow of information and work across interdependent functions at all levels of the organization.  But since they do not change formal structures and systems like titles or compensation, they encounter less resistance” (Jick and Peiperl, 2003, p. 235).
3. Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along.  This is where the president and vice presidents come in to play as they foster consensus for the new evaluation instrument and process.  I believe this will be easy to accomplish since a wide-range of employees would be involved in changing the instrument and process, and the current instrument and process are not well liked.
4. Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top.  Rather than the president and vice presidents guiding supervisors and employees through the new evaluation instrument and process, members of the change initiative group would hold a number of information/training sessions at our various campuses, and human resources could keep track that each employee attended at least one session.  Employees could also attend more than one session if they felt they needed to in order to gain adequate information/training. 
5. Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems, and structures.  Human resources, along with the change initiative group, would re-organize the employee performance evaluation instructions, as well as edit the evaluation policy in the employee handbook.
6. Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process.  Once the new system is in place and supervisors and employees have gone through the process once, the change initiative group and human resources would conduct an evaluation.  If necessary, they would incorporate changes in response to the issues indicated.  The change initiative group would evolve into the employee performance evaluation review team and every two to three years the members of this team would change, involving as many employees as possible on a rotating basis.  This team would continually monitor the employee performance evaluation instrument and process and as our text states, “This learning enhances effectiveness even further and results in an even stronger commitment to change” (Jick and Peiperl, 2003, p. 238).

My future learning goals related to this outcome.

I plan to review my portfolio on an annual basis, at the same time as my annual performance evaluation. Completing both at the same time of year will help keep me on track. I view this reflection as another avenue of checking up on professional goals. I also plan to continue reading material on leadership, as I now understand that leadership is such a varied subject. This will help me to broaden my understanding of key leadership concepts even further.

Beach, Lee Roy (2006). Leadership and the Art of Change. CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

De Janasz, S.C., Dowd, K. O., & Schneider, B.Z. (2009). Interpersonal skills in organization. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

The Hartwick Humanities in Management Institute. (2001). Classic Leadership Cases – Elizabeth I, Queen of England. Oneonta, NY: Hartwick College.

Hill, C. & Jones, G. (2008). Strategic management: An integrated approach, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Jick, T.D. & Peiperl, M.A. (2003). Managing change: cases and concepts (2^nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Pierce, Jon L. & Newstrom, John W. (2008). Leaders & the Leadership Process. (5th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.