Podcast

Emma Bajoy, a freshman studying psychology, shares her insights from a leadership class. She explains that leadership is a combination of traits and skills and discusses different approaches to leadership. She mentions specific traits and skills that make good leaders effective. Emma also learns about transformational leadership, which involves motivating others, having a clear vision, promoting creativity, and showing individualized consideration. She shares her experience with a transformational leader, her track coach, who focused on individual growth and created an inclusive environment. Emma advises aspiring transformational leaders to be passionate, listen carefully, create a vision, and be a role model. My guest today on the Leadership Stories podcast is Emma Bajoy, who is a freshman studying psychology at the University of Illinois. I understand that you're taking a course on the foundations of leadership. What have you learned in this leadership class? So far in this leadership class, I've learned about various kinds of leaders and how different leaders act to pursue different goals. Leadership is defined as the combination of a set of traits and a set of skills. That being said, there are different approaches to explain how leaders act and what makes a good leader. For example, the trait approach explains that leaders are defined by their innate traits. On the other hand, the skills approach claims that leaders are defined by what they can do. Specifically, leaders are not born, but they can slowly be developed by learning certain skills. I've also learned about specific traits and skills that make good leaders effective. For example, a good leader has intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability. A good leader also has skills like motivating others, fostering potential, thinking strategically, and setting goals. Different leaders also have different values, and some leaders find it important to lead with those values, which is defined as values-based leadership. Knowing areas of strength and weakness as a leader is also so important. Knowing how you are a good leader, as well as learning ways to improve on your shortcomings, guarantees that you can only improve and grow as a leader. It sounds like you've learned a lot of different leadership theories and perspectives in this class. I'm curious to hear about just one of those theories you've learned. One of the theories I've learned about is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is a process where one person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality, not only among the followers and in the group, but also within the leaders themselves. There are various key elements of transformational leadership. Idealized influence is the first important element, which means that leaders motivate others to work towards shared goals. This means that the leader is a good role model and has high standards and expectations for the group. This also means that they are respected and trusted. The next key element is inspirational motivation, which is characterized by a shared vision, emotional appeals, and team spirit. Transformational leaders have a clear vision of the future and they effectively communicate this vision to their followers. They provide direction and purpose, helping to guide the organization towards desired outcomes, and fostering a sense of meaning and belonging. Intellectual stimulation is also an important factor seen in transformational leaders. This means that they promote creativity and innovation among the members of the group. They also build an environment that allows for challenging beliefs and that's open to failure, with the space and support to improve. Finally, transformational leaders demonstrate individualized consideration, which means that they are careful listeners and view each member of the group as their own person, focusing on personal coaching and personal growth, not just overall improvement. Learning about theories is a great foundation, but it's also important to know how to apply these theories in practice. Tell us about an experience you had with a leader and the extent to which you feel they demonstrated this leadership theory. One experience I had with a transformational leader was with my track and field coach, Coach Leibman. He was not only an excellent role model, but he really focused on the individual growth of every single athlete on his team. He helped me grow as an athlete and team player in more ways than I can count, and it's because of his commitment and passion towards our team. He built an environment that allowed for us to speak up when we had disagreements or complaints and he also tried his best to address all of those by creating a space where we all had an equal voice and where our thoughts and opinions mattered. He also challenged me in so many ways, never allowing me or anyone on the team to settle for less than what they were capable of. What advice do you have for a person to grow as a transformational leader? There are so many ways a person can grow as a transformational leader. I'd say the most important way is to make sure you are truly passionate about the cause. Without the passion or commitment, all the other elements become a lot more difficult to enact. Once you ensure that you are truly passionate, it becomes easier to listen carefully to your group, create a detailed vision for the future, and be a good role model for success. Thank you, Emma, for stopping by today for this episode of the Leadership Stories podcast.