Leadership
Traits: A Blog
Alvin C. York may or may not be a name that you
know. He was portrayed in the Warner
Brothers 1941 film, Sergeant York by Gary Cooper as Alvin York. (Warner
Brothers, 1941)
Alvin had been a young renegade who lived on the
Kentucky-Tennessee border in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Alvin been drafted during World War I. He began his life as a hell raiser and drunk
moving into the twentieth century. He
was a drunk rabble-rouser who was far from religious. His mother prayed for him continuously. His mother’s pastor told Alvin that the Christian
belief would someday come to him like a “bolt of lightning”.
In the Warner
Brother’s movie, he had actually been struck by lightning while riding his
horse back from a Kentucky-Tennessee line bar.
This was the point that he heard the echoes of his mother and her pastor’s
claims…he decided to become a Christian.
After being drafted, he stated that he was a conscientious
objector. His Company Commander, a
Christian himself, offered him a 10-day furlough and when Alvin returned to
Camp (Fort) Gordon, he believed that God wanted him to fight. Alvin was sent to Europe and began his career
as a combat Soldier in France.
What is most
spectacular is that Alvin York was ordered to charge machine guns and he and
several others charged the German guns and York killed at least twenty Germans
and took approximately 132 German Soldiers captive. For his selfless bravery, Alvin York received
the Medal of Honor (MOH) along with multiple U.S. and foreign awards. This is what is said on his MOH
citation: “After
his platoon suffered heavy casualties and 3 other noncommissioned officers had
become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading seven men, he charged with
great daring a machine gun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon
his platoon. In this heroic feat the
machine gun nest was taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several
guns.” (Wikipedia, n.d.)
Alvin York embodied the finest of
leadership traits and skills. His traits
came naturally but his skills were developed over time.
According to Dr. Gary Yukl’s text,
Dr. Yukl states, “One of the earliest approaches to studying leadership was the
trait approach, which involved a search for traits and skills that predict
whether a person will attain positions of leadership and be effective in these
positions.” (Yukl, 2013)
According to Dr. Yukl, there are
eight specific traits related to leadership effectiveness. Those eight traits are:
- High energy level and stress tolerance
- Internal locus of control orientation
- Emotional maturity
- Personal integrity
- Socialized power motivation
- Moderately high achievement orientation
- Moderately high self-confidence
- Moderately low need for affiliation
(Yukl, 2013)
Alvin York brought his natural traits
to being a Soldier but spent time to develop his skills before his MOH moment.
I believe that I am in the same boat
as Alvin York. I learned how to turn my
traits into skills.
I believe that I brought traits to my
Army career but it took years to develop the skills of a true leader.
I have always been a “people person”. I also know that have a “Type-A”
personality. I have always been a
forward thinker and very analytical.
These are some of the traits that I brought to my Army career. However, I had no idea of how to harness
these traits. It wasn’t until several
years and intense leadership training that I turned these traits into
skills.
I am very empathetic. I believe that this is my strongest
leadership trait. I believe that you
should feel or be able to feel what your subordinates are feeling. If they are having a hard time, comfort
them. If they are having great
experiences, praise them genuinely. Know
them personally and professionally. I
know their names. I know the names of
their spouses and children. I know their
needs. I know their strengths and
weaknesses.
As a school teacher, I know my Cadet’s
strengths and weaknesses. I am able to
leverage my leadership traits and skills to best serve their needs. I know how to reach them to help them
grow.
I believe that my employer sees this
and knows that, because of my leadership, I am able to do exactly as I have
said. I believe that I improve the
abilities of my students because of the leadership skills that I impart. My students get better grades in their
classes and standardized tests. This is
a direct reflection of how I teach them and the leadership that I impart.
Being a forward thinker, I know how
to adapt and overcome. Dr. Gary Yukl
lays out six learning objective for contingency theories and adaptive
leadership. These objectives are:
- Understand how aspects of the situation can enhance or diminish effects of leader behavior.
- Understand key features of the early contingency theories of effective leadership.
- Understand the benefits and limitations of contingency theories.
- Understand the findings from empirical research on contingency theories.
- Understand how to adapt leader behavior to the situation.
- Understand how to manage disruptions and other crises.
(Yukl, 2013)
Alvin York was also a forward thinker
and was very adaptive to his situations.
He overcame his desire to be a pacifist to go down in history as a great
leader. His command of contingency
theory and adaptive leadership allowed him to do just that.
References
Warner Brothers. (September 27, 1941).
Sergeant York. [IMDb]. Retrieved on February 7, 2016 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/?ref_=ttco_co_tt
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Alvin C. York. Retrieved on February 7, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York
Yukl, G. A. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment