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In your reflection blog, consider how difficult it must be for a leader to grow into a person who can lead a system-wide change effectively. Perhaps you remember leaders who attempted system wide interventions but failed because they were not capable of pulling it all together. On the other hand, you may know leaders who were able to do what you thought would be impossible. From your point of view now, what is required for a leader to be successful?

From a personal standpoint, a great example of this comes to mind quickly. At my first air traffic control facility (in the U.S. Navy), we had a very hands off, passive leader who in short, did not have any of the traits I would now look for in a good leader. His personal approach was to let things run themselves and to let people under him do all of the work. Not long after being there however, we got a new leader. He was the complete opposite of the first leader. He was very aggressive, hands on (although he did not micromanage), and he made sure things were done correctly. He was very intense and he wanted to make sure everything was corrected from the previous leader. He did have a hard time maintain certain relationships due to his role though. People began to fear him which in turn led to no one wanting to be around him or ask for his guidance. He had fixed the issues we were having but in turn he basically became ostracized for it.  Brown states “in solving problems in the learning organization, collaboration occurs between people throughout the organization: vertically, horizontally, and diagonally” (Brown, 2011). In the case of this leader, that communication failed to exist after a small amount of time there.

I thought a lot about what it takes to be a successful leader this week. I found that trust, hard work, caring about coworkers (regardless of up or down), and perspective are the most important factors when becoming a good leader. A good leader has to be able to understand the environment they’re in, figure out what changes need to happen and then apply their skill set to help fix any issues. In doing that, a good leader also needs to let other people shine, not just themselves. When you get other people involved in successful situations, they perform at a higher level. In this week’s class discussion, Deborah Burke stated “Some advantages of flat organizational structure include increased responsibility for the employee, removal of excess layers of management which results in more effective collaboration, communication, and an easier decision-making process among employees, eliminating middle managers’ salaries resulting in organizational cost savings, and innovation and creativity are encouraged in such structure” (Burke, 2015). I bring that observation up because I think that flat organizations are working now. To be a good leader, you need to keep communication lines open and you need to share knowledge and insight. Let you employees in on the leadership action while direction their course.

I find it interesting that people often times want to be the leader but they don’t to put in the time or hard work that comes with being the leader. What I’ve come to learn is that leaders have a hard job and they have a lot to think about everyday. Sometime leaders make mistakes but the good leaders will forget about the mistakes and move forward in a positive direction. People who work under someone who dwell on past mistakes cannot have a very optimistic vision of the organizational future. A good leader needs to be a leader while maintaining composure and perspective. My last source is from Richard Branson, he states “"A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren't proud of what you're doing, why should anybody else be?" (Feloni, 2014). What a great way to look at things. A good leader will believe in their cause and believe in their subordinates.

Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development (8^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Burke, D. (2015, January 1). Class Discussion [Online].

Feloni, R. (2014, October 17). Richard Branson's 10 rules for being a great leader. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-bransons-leadership-rules-2014-10