Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

During my collegiate career, I was given invaluable lessons in life and leadership by two of my mentors at Sam Houston State University. This paper chronicles the leadership styles that they chose and reasoning why they were successful as mentors and leaders in the department. Without their guidance, I would not have been as successful as I am today in my Agricultural pursuits.

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For my study on leadership styles and its effectiveness, I chose two of the most profound leaders that I have ever had the privelige of knowing in my adult life. Both of these influential men were professors at Sam Houston State University where I received my undergraduate degree. I can honestly say that if neither of them had been involved in my college career I don’t believe I would have come as far in my education. The first professor, who I will identify as Dr. K, was the chair of the Agricultural Sciences department and the advisor for the high school recruitment and retention program that I was a member of. The second professor, who I will refer to as Dr. U, was not only my professor and mentor, was also my boss during a work study program and at times when I needed it, a friend. In the end, both Dr. U and Dr. K had a monumental impacts on my education and my life as a young adult.

Though there were many reasons that I had to choose both of the professors, there were some outstanding similarities between their leadership actions such as having a passion for Agricultural pursuits, having an open door policy for their students, taking student success personally, and both of them had high expectations for themselves and the success of their students. Using Goleman’s Leadership styles to categorize the two professors, both Dr. K and Dr. U had strong coaching tendencies by identifying student’s unique strengths and weaknesses and used them to help students meet their career aspirations by graduation. Dr. U put high emphasis on his affiliative nature with consistent positive feedback mixed with corrective criticisms, while Dr. K employed visionary tactics to inspire his students to dream big (2000). Essentially, I feel strongly that both the professors employed a healthy blend of Goleman’s best leadership traits to maximize their effectiveness with students, and this statement is further proven by Musselwhite’s claim that in order to be a successful leader, one must avoid a ‘one size or style mentality and instead to understand the fit between the situation’ and lead accordingly rather than treating every given situation the same (2014). Without knowing how to balance different styles, I doubt that Dr. U and Dr. K would have been nearly as successful in their careers.

Looking back, I am thankful for the each of the “teachable moments” that I shared with the professors and my classmates. Dr. K used to always tell our recruiting team that ‘No dream is ever too big, no accomplishment is ever too small,” and I will never forget Dr. U’s life advice, “If all else fails, go fishing and try again tomorrow.” Among other things from Dr. K, I also learned that passion is the key to success, learning is a lifelong process, and that investing in the retention of students or associates is money well spent. Dr. U taught me that professional networking is a priceless asset, quality is better than quantity, and that some of the most valuable learning is not always learned in a classroom. Both professors showed me that an open door policy can go a long way, and that they were never too busy to sit and talk with me when I needed advice.

While both professors faced the everyday challenges of teaching courses, they chose to take direct responsibility for educating young agriculturalists. I feel that they were so effective as leaders and teachers because they were experts in their field by years of experience in the industry. Dr. K sought personal success for each student, and because of his high expectations for student success, the Ag department had a 90% graduation rate, a 95% acceptance rate into Veterinary Doctorate programs for the PreVet students in the department, and at least 60% of Ag students sought master’s degrees after their graduation from Sam Houston. Faced with a world filled with technology, Dr. K proceeded to give his lectures entirely by memory and commanded the attention of a classroom simply by walking into it, and to this day is one of the best public speakers I have ever known. Dr. U empathized with the difficulty of school but did not allow for excuses for lacking performance, constantly pushing students to take opportunities and make themselves better. His out of the box teaching style was completely out of the box and made sure to recognize when students worked hard and strongly believed in perks and rewards. Lastly, after passing the rigorous Ag Science teaching methods courses, over 95% of his students receive teaching careers and remain successful to this day. Both Dr. K and Dr. U projected warmth as described by Cuddy, et al, which is the conduit of influence and facilitates trust and the absorption of ideas, seemingly always pleased that they had students in their presence (2011). This seemed to help students gravitate to them for advice and sometimes to vent, and for myself and my classmates, any guidance given by Dr. K or Dr. U was unquestionably respected.

Dr. K and Dr. U’s success could also have been contributed to Maslow’s theory of meeting the eight basic needs of humans by three basic concepts: having a sense of belonging, being recognized for personal significance, and realizing personal growth (Lichtenstein, 2005). The professors made students feel important and included, simply by acknowledging their accomplishments in front of their peers, awarding successes from hard work, and allowing the students to see that they genuinely cared about their personal gains and acheivements, which was stated as a follower motivation by Bjugstad when he said “The follower is driven by the bond with the leader…a follower’s motivation is determined by reflecting on how hard they will work, what type of recognition or reward they might receive, and if it will be worth it,”(2006). In this case, the follower’s reward would be the successful collection of a degree.

The decision to respect their leadership was an easy one for me and my classmates. Dr. K commanded respect of any room he walked into simply by his steady gaze and powerful presentation methods. By showing us how to properly present ourselves in front of a crowd, Dr. K modeled Ulrich’s (et al) statement that “Leadership ultimately begins with the self…individuals who govern themselves will be more able to lead others…(2008).” By being completely genuine and compassionate with their students, Dr. K and Dr. U fostered an environment for growth and learning, which is best described by Bjugstad when he states “Followers and leaders work together better when they are comfortable with each other and value congruence…to achieve common ground, (2006).” The professors made it a point to take student success personally so that students felt like their acheivements truly made an impact on the department. Ulrich also stated that a leader must be an expert in their field, which was evident after carrying on a conversation with either of the professors for a matter of minutes, and the uncommon open door policy that they imposed with their students and advisees was never overlooked. I never felt as though I was being lectured by a superior when I spoke to Dr. K and Dr. U, rather, I felt as though I was being seen as an equal, which had a powerful effect on my desire to succeed.

There is no doubt in my mind that I benefited from my professors’ leadership. In fact, the values that they instilled in me are still important to me to this day and I ‘blame’ them for my college degree. I was given invaluable experiences while working with both Dr. K and Dr. U and value their mentorship that still continues to this day. Lucky does not even begin to describe the way that I feel about the cards that I was dealth with my collegiate education, because with Dr. K and Dr. U as my mentors, failure was never an option.

References

Bjugstad, K., Thach, E. C., Thompson, K. J., & Morris, A. (2006). A fresh look at followership: A model for matching followership and leadership styles. Journal of Behavioral & Applied Management, 7(3), 304–319.

Cuddy, A. C., Kohut, M., & Neffinger, J. (2013). Connect, Then Lead. Harvard Business Review, 91(7/8), 54-61.

Retrieved from the Walden Library Databases.

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review; 78(2), pp. 78–90. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Lichtenstein, S. (2012). The role of values in leadership: How leaders' values shape value creation. Integral Leadership Review, 12(1), pp. 1–18. [18 pages] Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Musselwhite, Chris. Understanding Leadership Styles: Four Important Tips for Leaders. March 2014, Vol. 31 Issue 3, (pp. 15-16).

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Ulrich, D., Smallwood, N., & Sweetman, K. (2008). Defining leadership code: Five rules of effective leadership. In The leadership code: Five rules to lead by (pp. 1–24). Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/pl/product.seam?c=19338696&i=19347519&cs=7e890950904a30731656370e2390c100