A641.1.3.RB - What is Great Leadership? Psimer_Andrea

Potential

            The notable leader who brought out the best in me was a newspaper editor I worked with as a photojournalist intern during college.  This leader saw I had potential and opened several doors for me to pursue opportunities not typical of a novice photojournalist.  Particularly, this leader helped me not only gain real-world experience, but also worked my university to vouch for earned course credit, which was huge as I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Communications. 

Creating Dreams

            The most powerful impact was creating a dream I could not have even imagined.  Within a year, I was a freelance photojournalist for The New York Times, Washington Post and Associated Press.  Never did I purposely work towards those achievements.  The editor saw I had an enormous amount of energy and drove me a direction with a supportive team.  From the get-go, he included me as part of the newsroom with a group of incredibly talented journalists.  He modeled work-life balance which resonates with me today, as I see very few leaders who truly believe in equilibrium despite competing demands. 

Fun!

            Most of all this leader had fun.  Everyday in the newsroom there was a fun vibe in the workplace.  No matter how many deadlines or bad news stories, the editor led with a steadfast dedication to setting a good example.  For nearly 22 years, I have chosen this leader as someone who brought out the best in me.  I have paid forward everything he taught me about bringing out the best in other people.

Breakdown

            The notable leader who did not bring out the best in me was a senior officer in my organization.  This leader and I did not communicate well as a primary example of an immediate breakdown in our working relationship.  While I spent the majority of assignment with this officer believing he did not trust me, I realize lack of trust was really not the correct reason for how I perceived his untrusting attitude towards me.  Rather, he is incredibly talented and an intellectual genius. 

Miserable

            At some point, after I was beyond miserable for so long, I thought long and hard about how we approached problems and the reality was, we were coming from two very different places.  In his experience (an engineer), problems have solutions often reached through a series of formulas.

Pendulum Swing

            I on the other hand, love personnel management in which there are no recipes or well-laid out calculations.  I felt frustrated at the fact that for me I carried a significant weight of emotions due to the nature of my role as Commanding Officer of Military Personnel.  Yet, it felt as though that burden was lost with someone who had an incredible amount of other experience but was not in the trenches with me.  The hardest part was the supervisor I had before him empowered me since day one.  My first supervisor said “Andrea, 80 percent of the time I work for you, 20 percent of the time I need you to support my strategic goals.”  I can honestly say I have never worked so hard and devoted so much time, energy and effort to doing well, because that leader encouraged my abilities.  Going from one of the spectrum (abruptly) was like crossing the like line on the columns on my piece of paper.  The contrast was that stark.   


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