¶ … Leadership Philosophy of Leadership

The leadership philosophy that I strive to adhere to is best summed up by the time-honored adage that an effective group is more than the sum of its parts. The primary means that such a situation as this one may occur is through an effective form of decentralized leadership (Thomas 2008) in which all of the parts (or in this case, the subordinates) are encouraged to add their input and their experiences. The job that I take on as the leader is to evaluate these experiences and their worth to whatever the current task at hand is, and then to proceed with the course of action I believe would benefit the group as a whole. For someone in my position, this decentralized, sympathetic form of leaderships is all-inclusive and is projected to evolve based upon the amount and the degree of experience that is gained while traveling up the ranks of the military. Essentially, the progression will evolve in a manner where, due to increased experience, the input of others should ideally become less necessary.

However, the mere fact that the input of others is expected to be less necessary does not necessarily mean that my leadership style will change. In fact, what this evolution actually signals is a progression of my ability as a leader. Due to the style of leadership I have outlined above as the principle thesis of this document, my decentralized approach that encourages the input of others will still...

But early on, during the formative stages of my career, the actual need for that input will more than likely be greater than towards the final stages of my career when, due to the luxury of experience, I anticipate being a more able leader. The reason why this leadership philosophy is certain to work for me and for any others whose beliefs are aligned with mine is largely due to the fact that this particular form of leadership allows one to learn from others. Any effective leader must be able to consider his or her options from a variety of angles before choosing a course of action. By utilizing a leadership style that encourages input from one's subordinates and their resources, one cannot help but become a better leader.
Therefore, one of the primary characteristics of this inclusive style of leadership is to actively promote an atmosphere in which subordinates can feel comfortable to share their opinions in what must be an organized fashion. The best way of going about doing this is to actually post my leadership style in a place in which others will have ample opportunity to review it, so that they are aware of the responsibility I place on them as chief components in the organizations that I am involved in. The efficacy of this course of action can be seen from the following quotation from Gerard Sewell.

Later that evening, I took time to gather my thoughts, reflect on the day's discussion, and put my philosophy on paper. I…