Description What is a leader? This may seem like a simple question, but an indi …

Description What is a leader? This may seem like a simple question, but an individual’s response to the question may depend on the individual and his or her situation. Leadership contains elements of personality, personal characteristics, skills, and knowledge. Leadership can be demonstrated within human services organizations as well as in the organizations’ interactions with stakeholders in the community.  As you consider all you have explored about leadership in this course, what new perspectives have you gained regarding this topic? Consider how you might apply your discoveries to your career planning and development. BY DAY 4 Post an analysis of how your personal definition of leadership has changed or expanded since you began this course. Explain at least one significant idea or experience from this course that may be of value in preparing you for a future supervisory or administrative role. Discussion Post an analysis of how your personal definition of leadership has changed or expanded since you began this course. Throughout this course, we learned about leadership. The class discussed many aspects of leadership. Also, what it means to be an effective leader. There was familiarity with topics discussed during this course because of previous experiences. It is agreed that being a leader is challenging with many responsibilities but same time exciting and rewarding (Northouse, 2021). During this course, one thing had expanded my perspective of leadership. In the past, leadership was viewed as an ability or action to lead a group of people. However, this course taught me that leadership is also an influential process. Northouse (2021) defined leadership as a mutual influence process, including both leader and followers (Northouse, 2021). I realize that followers are a big part of leadership. Leaders can influence and lead the followers, but followers can also affect the leader’s styles, skills, behavior, and relationships. My leadership perspective had changed from a “one-way street” to a “two-way street” where leadership is defined by an influential process including both leader and followers. Explain at least one significant idea or experience from this course that may be of value in preparing you for a future supervisory or administrative role. As a leader in the present, it is an ongoing learning experience. Currently I am a supervisor at Healthy Families, a home visiting program. I work directly with a few other leaders on an administrative level. As a result, I was able to observe different kinds of styles. I believed then that those styles were based on their personality; however, after learning about McGregor’s theory, leaders need to understand their core assumptions about human nature, which affects their leadership practice (Northouse, 2021). When Theory X and Theory Y were identified and discussed, I reflected on the experience at my current employer. I realized that my and all other leaders’ styles are generally affected by our assumption of staff’s human nature. I recalled few times that other leaders and I disagree on staff’s ability to perform their tasks. McGregor’s theory helps me understand why there were disagreements on our perspective on staff’s capabilities. McGregor’s theory is a new and valuable knowledge that I will carry with me if I assume a leadership role again. Reference Northouse, P. G. (2021). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Sage.