Prior to enrolling in Agricultural Education 260 – Intro to Leadership Studies, I expected to learn the one best way to lead. I also hoped to learn ways to improve my leadership style and methods to use in different leadership situations.
What I learned in AGED 260 was so much more. I immediately learned that there is not one perfect way to lead that has a 100% success rate. Each person and each situation is different and therefore different methods work for different people and different scenarios. During the course, one leadership approach we learned about was the Trait Approach. This approach requires a leader to have a set of specific personality characteristics to be viewed and accepted as a leader. Relating this trait to the real world is a Leadership Trait Questionnaire. As determined by the LTQ, my leadership strength lies in Determination and my weakness lies in Sociability.
This Trait Approach module focused on the skill of self-awareness. Once I was aware of my leadership strength and weakness, I began making small adjustments to my leadership style. I realized I was focused on the task at hand as opposed to the people completing the tasks. The people completing the tasks are just as important if not more important than the task. Without the people, the task would not get accomplished! Flipping the situation, I know I need to learn more about being a follower under different types of leaders who are strong in Sociability and weak in Determination. Following someone that does things completely opposite as me is a great learning experience because I can see what works well for them and how I can incorporate those methods into my leadership repertoire. Understanding and applying the Trait Approach to leadership helped in obtaining my learning goal of developing small group interpersonal skills. In addition to the Trait Approach we learned about seven other major leadership approaches.
The second leadership approach I feel I learned the most about and that can help me after graduation is the Path-Goal Theory or PGT. PGT is a complex approach/process to leadership that takes into account how leaders motivate subordinates to reach set goals. This process is made up of the leader’s style, the subordinates characteristics, task characteristics and task obstacles. The PGT can be compared to the Fidelity commercials with the Green Line. This green line shows the path to take to a happy retirement. This applies to the PGT in that the leader guides the subordinates to the end goal by assisting in removing or working through barriers, all while motivating the subordinates.
Enhancing employee performance and satisfaction by focusing on employee motivation is the stated goal of the PGT. Motivation is achieved through activation, persistence, and intensity. Subordinates will be motivated if they believe they are capable of performing their work, their efforts will result in a predicted outcome, and there are worthwhile payoffs for doing their work. To lead the subordinates on the Green Line, the PGT emphasizes the relationship between the leader’s style, the characteristics of the subordinates and the work setting.
The skills that the PGT focuses on are sustaining leadership, self-management and team development. Sustaining leadership in that a great leader is created when under the guidance of a great leader. Meaning, lead as if you are a teacher. With this mentality, a follower may one day become a great leader because of the example set by their leader. For self-management and PGT, if one does not know how to manage their time, resources, or tasks then they will make a poor Path-Goal leader because they are not on top of the requirements. As far as team development, this is one area that I need to work on. A team in PGT can achieve great things but need to have roughly the same strengths and hurdles. With just as many different strengths and obstacles as there are group members, it would be hard for a leader to assist every follower while still trying to achieve the goal of the group.
I can apply the PGT process to my job as a student-athlete tutor. This relates because I have one-on-one sessions in which I guide the students through the material and remove obstacles by explaining concepts they many not fully understand. This PGT approach to leadership helped me to improve upon my goal of leading change one person at a time.
