Tim Kemper

4-13-2015
Exploring Leadership
Philosophy of Leadership

When I began to think about my philosophy of leadership, I started writing down

different leadership qualities that I find important and admirable in leaders that I have viewed
from a distance, leaders that I have personally worked with, and through my own personal
experiences as a leader. While my leadership philosophy does not encompass everything there is
to know about leadership, I feel that it accurately describes my style of leadership and some of
the ideals that I hold closest as a leader. I made up an acronym to describe my leadership
philosophy D.A.R.E. This stands for Dynamic, Achieving, Responsible, and Ethical. With
these values, I believe that a leader can truly succeed.

Dynamic
No two leaders are the same. No two situations are the same. I think that this is an
important lesson to learn early on in ones leadership training. Different personality types,
extra/introversion, situations, and willingness of followers are just some of the factors that a
good leader has to adjust to, meaning that a good and effective leader wont always be the same.
As Shankman and Allen say in their book on emotionally intelligent leadership, the right level
of being in balance is dynamic (Shankman & Allen, 8). Depending on many outside factors, a
leader has to be dynamic, learning from his or her successes and failures and applying those
lessons into their leadership styles.

I have experienced this aspect of leadership in the past when I attended a national youth
leadership conference in Michigan. We learned how to take our strengths as leaders to bring out
the strengths of others that we are leading. One of my strengths that one of the advisors pointed
out to me was my ability to get stuff done. When I put my mind to something, I have a
tendency to just go all in and get it done. When this advisor pointed this out to me, he told me
that I need to figure out how to translate that into a good leadership skill. So for the next group
activity that we did, we had an hour to invent a product and sell it to a panel of judges. In this
exercise, the team leader was not actually part of the group but was coordinating what the group
did. I was selected as the team leader and immediately got to work by dividing up the team into
groups of two or three people as different departments of the company. Then, I had the design,
marketing, and finance teams meet to decide on a product and then the three different
departments made their own plans for the product. No other group had decided to break apart
like this and the end result was a much more thoroughly thought out design, marketing plan, and
finance plan for our made up company.
What I took away from this the most was that delegation one of the keys to success and
you have to be dynamic as a leader and learn to go with the flow. I distinctly remember listening
in on the marketing group and thinking that I didnt like the way they were working, but decided
to leave it alone and we turned out to have the best plan. When Lt. Col. Moore came to class on
behalf of the Air Force ROTC, we learned a lot about how important delegation and planning is.
As a leader, you wont always have complete control over the situations, so being a dynamic
leader is important in order to be able to adjust on the run and keep the project focused even if it
goes in a slightly different direction.

Achieving
One of the most important qualities that I see in a leader is a proven track record. When I
have interviewed people for leadership positions in both the high school and college level, one
thing I looked for the most is that they have demonstrated initiative and passion for the position
of which they are interviewing. I dont find it necessary for a person to have direct experience in
the position in which they are looking to attain, but I more find it important that they have shown
passion for something in the past and that they show how theyll relate that experience to their
future position. I feel that a way I have developed and shown this in my leadership was by
becoming career fair coordinator for Fall 2015 for the CEAS Tribunal. I showed a passion for the
organization early on this year and took the initiative to coordinate an event in the spring of this
year, which I was told later was basically a tryout for the career fair this fall.
Another important part about being an achieving leader is being ambitious but realistic. It
does no one any good to have many extravagant plans or ideas but no way of actually achieving
them does no one any good. A good leader will have ideas that are ambitious and challenging but
they also have a plan of attack to get them completed in a timely manner. It is so important for
leaders to have coherent plans and for them to be transparent with their followers to let them
know where they are and what theyre doing to deliver on their initiatives.

Responsible
A responsible leader holds him/herself accountable and in turn holds others accountable
to them. In return, a good leader expects others to hold them accountable. One example I see of
this on campus is when I attended a Senate meeting last week. Andrew Naab, student
government present, was talking about accountability with members of Senate and the executive

staff. I have also seen this in my job coordinating the Resume Review Day. While working on
this event, I had to set deadlines for myself and for those who had specific jobs on the Resume
Review Day team. One thing that I learned pretty quickly was that one great way to get those on
your team to buy in to whatever youre trying to get done by meeting and exceeding the
deadlines you set for yourself. If those working for you can see that you are meeting deadlines
just like they are and they are aware of everything you are doing, they will often feel more
compelled to pull their own weight. It makes a huge difference when you go in with a mindset
that you are working with others as opposed to having others work for you. A better way of
putting this is what Nair says about Ghandi, that you must feel and not intellectualize the needs
of the people that you serve (Nair, 84). This is so important as a leader because a google survey
can only tell you so much. If as a leader you remove yourself from the situation its impossible to
know whats really going on in the organization or company and how to improve the
organization. When you are in touch with the people you serve, they know that you care and are
comfortable to approach you with their problems and also more willing to work with you to
accomplish a common goal.
Another important part of being a responsible leader is not getting in over your head. As a
student on a campus like the University of Cincinnati, there are so many different organizations
here to get involved in and for some it is a struggle to balance it all. For me personally, it is
important to remember that I am a student first. While there are many student organizations here
that really strike my interest, I have learned this year that I need to only take part in the things
that I actually have time for and that I can give 100% to. Another aspect of not getting in over
your head is learning to ask for help. I know that I will be doing this in the fall when I take over
as career fair coordinator. The same two students have done this job for many years and I know

that there is going to be a huge learning curve for me to pick up on this summer and fall, so I
know I will need to meet with the past chairs a few times to learn what they know and use their
knowledge, experiences, successes, and failures as learning opportunities for myself.

Ethical
While fairly obvious, being an honest and ethical leader is arguably the most important
aspect of being a great leader. Although obvious, its not always easy to be ethical. Often times
the hardest option is the right choice, but we can often get caught up in what is easier and try to
choose that route. One particular situation that was new to me in leadership positions in college
was being in charge of money. In high school leadership positions, we never had any control
over money of any sort, but many college leadership positions are responsible for spending funds
that are either from the University or funds that are raised by the organization. This spring when
I coordinated the Resume Review Day for the CEAS, I had a specific budget and I also had to
document all of the expenses I made, no matter how small. I learned pretty quickly that every
cent matters when the money youre dealing with isnt yours. Often as a leader you are
responsible for the spending the money of other people, so it is imperative that you choose the
best ways to spend it and spend it in the interest of the group as a whole.
Another aspect of ethical leadership that becomes difficult is that it sometimes becomes
hard to stay ethical. In situations that everyone else is doing it and it seems that the unethical
way is the only way to get ahead or even just stay afloat, it is important to remember that as a
leader you are not only representing yourself but also the team members and organization to
which you are affiliated. I have found personally that when I keep this in mind, it makes decision
making a lot easier. If you are hold an elected position in a group especially, your actions are all

on behalf of the entire organization, not all about your personal agenda. It is imperative that as an
elected official you choose to do what best benefits the group as a whole, not just yourself or
other executive positions.
By leading in an ethical fashion, not only are you doing the right thing, but youre setting
the example for others. The President of Common Cause, John Gardner, once said that it is the
responsibility of leaders to keep values fresh and to prevent the hypocrisy that proclaims
values at the same time that it violates them (Exploring Leadership, 129).

Symbol
The symbol I chose to represent my philosophy of leadership is a lioness. I would imagine that
most would choose a lion over a lioness, but there are many reasons that I chose a lioness. A
lioness isnt the first thing thought of when most people hear about a lion one of the first things
that comes to mind is the mane. This characteristic of a lioness shows that a great leader doesnt
have to be flashy and in the front of everyones mind at all times. The lionesses are also the ones
in the pride who go out and hunt. A good leader, like a lioness, isnt afraid to get down and
dirty and do the grunt work of a project. There generally isnt any glory that goes with doing the
ground level work in most organizations or activities and there are often leaders who jump in to
take credit even when they dont really deserve it. A good leader, though, will lift up those on the
bottom to give praise to them instead of taking it for themselves.

A leader has to be DARE-ing. Leading certainly isnt easy and thats why not everyone
does it. I have illustrated to you what I feel is a very sufficient and thorough philosophy on good
leadership. By no means, however, is my philosophy the only correct one or the only one to

become a successful leader. I feel that my philosophy incorporates a good balance of many
different important facets of leadership that I have personally experienced in good leaders that I
know and that I have tried to put into action in my life as a leader. I fully believe that my
leadership philosophy will change over the years as I begin to enter the work-force through coop and become a more involved member of the UC community and get the chance to experience
many different forms of effective and ineffective leadership. But until then, Im going to
continue to be DARE-ing.

References
Komives, Lucas, and McMahon -- Exploring Leadership 3rd Edition.

Nair A Higher Standard of Leadership

Shankman and Allen -- Emotionally Intelligent Leadership