Classes do not always leave a lasting impression on you. However, taking a course that not only makes you evaluate your leadership skills but also those of beloved characters from young adult fantasy novels can leave you questioning the impression your leadership has on others. Throughout this course, I have learned about the two most prevalent styles of leadership: autonomous and interdependent. Those who lead autonomously tend to call the shots and choose the roles and responsibilities of their peers. Interdependent leaders prefer to work on the same level as their peers and specialize in utilizing their strengths. Evaluating these two types of leaders in the context of gender roles gave me incredibly valuable insight into the mechanics of our society.
From this course, I gained a more profound understanding of what effective leadership is through the articles, essays, and novels we read. At the start of the semester, I knew that I preferred to work alongside others to understand and learn from them. I also knew that a stereotypical leader is more likely to dictate others through actions and decisions. Because of this, I didn’t consider myself a very commanding and authoritative leader. However, by reading and analyzing books and articles, and through completing the essays and projects in this class, I have come to a better understanding of how I can be an influential leader without having to look down on others. Being an effective leader is not about gaining status. It’s about inspiring others to act, which I do best when collaborating with others and not while working autonomously.
Based on the two modes of leadership, one can infer that leaders perform in various ways. However, when defining what qualifies as leadership, we tend to set standards. One of the critical essays for this class was about our response to William Cronan’s “Only Connect…” The Goals of a Liberal Education. This article focuses on how being educated in liberal arts should produce certain qualities in those who experience it. While analyzing this article for the assignment, I agreed that many of Cronan’s listed characteristics could apply to effective leaders as well; they should inspire change, practice empathy and humility, and communicate effectively. However, some traits did not seem necessary to be an effective leader. Cronan’s idea that being able to solve problems, as useful as this may be, is unnecessary if you’re trying to lead people towards a common goal. These are good things to know if you’re trying to define what leaders should be able to do, but they are not very helpful if you’re trying to analyze your influence on others. I did not gain much understanding of leadership in context to myself or my peers through his list of favored qualities found in liberally educated people. Instead, I developed my views on leadership with the help of other assignments that were unique to this class.
A particularly striking concept I realized in this course was that a person’s preferred leadership method often correlates with their gender. Alternatively, we often label the two types of leadership as masculine or feminine. For this course, we read several articles that covered a broad spectrum of related issues, including a study performed at an all-girls school concerning their leadership methods. In this particular study discussed in Making Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School, it was revealed how these young girls almost always resorted to interdependent leadership. These girls also avoided roles such as class president because they felt as though their method of leading was better suited in other (less authoritative) positions, and perhaps they were. However, in the book In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, Carol Gilligan explains how the idea that women belong in more caring and neutral roles is instilled in females all of their lives. With this in mind, perhaps an interdependent leader would be very well suited for class president, but they have just never associated their ability to integrate opinions with people in a position of power. Shortly after reading these articles, our class wrote a reflective essay on our modes of leadership. In this essay, I had the opportunity to evaluate why leading autonomously is preferred to leading interdependently in our society. In summary, it’s because recognizing a strong leader whom people look up to for guidance is much easier than acknowledging one who works on the same level as others.
Leaders do not always have to be authoritative to lead effectively. With this knowledge, I was able to approach the novels we read with a new perspective. On several occasions, our group discussions on the books challenged me to analyze characters and their actions. Suddenly, I was noticing that even minor characters were exhibiting forms of leadership. For example, Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone leads autonomously by guiding Harry into the Wizarding World. Using characters to distinguish modes of leadership considerably helped to not only understand them properly but to understand leaders in their entirety.
Applying this extensive understanding of leadership (especially when analyzing its relation to gender) is what guided us the most in our final project: the making of a young adult fantasy film. It was clear that my team members also preferred to work interdependently because none of us became the team leader. Being an interdependent group helped us to feel free to add contributions without the pressure of one decision-maker. I would engage in communication, complete my decided parts of the project, and reach out for ideas and opinions from others. I see myself as interdependent because that’s how I feel most comfortable. At the beginning of the semester, I assumed that ideal leaders only acted autonomously, but now I can recognize that effective leaders can communicate alongside their peers and accomplish just as much.
