A511.6.3RB Leader from the Past

A leader from the past

This is an exciting blog.  The blog is a reflection about my past leaders and their positive and sometimes negatives qualities of transformations on me and the society around me.  How can one man or woman change a society in two or three years, is that possible or has the system made this not capable?  Can one officer revolutionize and a create a movement, change a new ocean current toward a specific goal?  Did I work harder for the greater good or harder for the individual out of respect of the officer?

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that should result in the follower wanting to become the leader, if expertly executed the follower should reach a higher level of performance and the society as a whole benefits (Kendrick, 2011).  It seeks out to increase the followers motivation and performance through a transformation, leader inspires.  They motivate, the leader should be the followers role model as a cross benefit the society as the whole benefits (Transformational leadership, 2015).  However this can be a negative tasnformation as well.

I have had many leaders in the military some good some bad.  A couple of assignments ago I had a leader who could not inspire.  Northouse (2016) describes this as pseudotransfomational leadership (self-consumed, exploitative  power oriented).  He wrongfully thought that he moved the unit and that he inspired me to do great things.  This was not the case, instead he was moving the imagine for his own power and imagine.  He had a negative approach.  He attempted to transform the unit in his imagine.  This backfired at the lower levels and though he was promoted, it cost my morale, my units morale, the mission, and will continue to haunt the unit for many more years.  

One of the most inspirational leaders that I have worked for has been Col Curtis Herdanez.  His leadership after we saw a unit go through a squadron commander get fired, we needed a leader, we needed inspiration, we needed motivation, we needed to find our way out.  An example was during a convoy, I was the commander driving the convoy back from a mission, when the previous commander was relieved of command; during this return to base he drove to meet us and personally escorted us back to base for no other reason but to show us he was on our side and team.  Scraps demonstrated to me, from the get go that he was willing to go the extra mile under all circumstances to support me and my family.  He inspired me to continue going, during on particular field exercise he came outside to work with me and my team in the pouring rain just to help us setup and then bought lunch and dinner for me and the team just to motivate us.  He found out what moved us and why?  He did this not because he had to but because he wanted to.  He knew what motivated me and why.  He tried it is for those reasons why I worked so hard to move the organization and he society change under his command.  His under current was there the entire time it was up to us to figure how to surf it.  I respected and respect him and the rank not just the rank.

References

• Kendrick, J.  (2011). Transformational leadership. Professional Safety, 56(11), 14.

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership; theory and practice. 7th edition (seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

• Transformational leadership (2015).