Process Theory

Knowing, being, and doing. What does that make you think of? To me, it makes me think of someone going through life experiencing it to its fullest. Someone that takes every opportunity they can to go through and experience everything they can to become the person they are truly supposed to be.

According to the relational leadership model knowing is having knowledge and understanding of the principle. I feel that everyone can have knowledge about something. Everyone is great in at least one thing. When I think about knowledgeable people, the first person that comes to mind is my dad. If I have question about life, school, homework, or education, my dad is the person I go to. My dad is the most inspiring and intellectual person I know. He is the one I go to whenever I have questions about homework or the world. He never seems to fail as an educator in my life. My dad has taught me from right and wrong and has also guided me to make the decisions that have altered my life.

Being is having attitudes and beliefs related to the principle. If there is anyone who I would consider being, it would be the president of the United States, President Obama. I feel that President Obama has so many qualities that would make him being. He has different opinions and altered decisions about his commitments to the United States and the people that he has inspired everyday. President Barack Obama has given a face of change and hope. He has given people of the United States confidence that everything will turn out the right way and that we will change together.

Doing is described as acting in accordance with the principle. When one grows up and goes through preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school, there are rules and regulations that one must follow. Each grade level there are different procedures that one must follow. For example, during kindergarten you have to follow the leader. There is a rule and by doing, one is obeying the law. Each state and country has different rules and the people that live in these areas are the ones that have to do act in accordance with these principles.

Knowing: having knowledge and understanding of the principle. Being: having attitudes and beliefs related to the principle. Doing: acting in accordance with the principle. These words that are in the relational leadership model, all outline and leadership model and all shape a human beings mindset in order to be an organized and well thought out role model.

Great Man Theory and Trait Theory

Leaders are born. Everyday, many new leaders are brought into this world by different families, cultures or backgrounds. Martin Luther King Jr. was born into a highly religious family, Rosa Parks lived in a segregated community, and George Washington had a highly decorated military background. However, the great man theory is not based off of what you did to become a leader it is if you were born into a family of royalty or wealth.

Traditional Great Man theory suggests that leaders are preserved through their offspring. Powerful men are to marry the daughters of other powerful men because women were not traditionally leaders. This concept is based off of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Traditionally powerful men were born into the right families, white, wealthy, educated, and privileged. By marrying the right women, these families thought that they were creating future leaders. Their sons were expected to be models of their fathers during this time. This theory expanded over time, it was too narrow as society changed. It slowly changed into a new phase called Modern Great Man Theory.

Great leaders become heroic. They were known to stand up for what they believed in. Their family backgrounds no longer mattered as much as their actions. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was noted specifically for his actions of April 28^th, 1967 when he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech. Nobody cared who his father was or who he had married, but people did care about his words, which inspired unity. Martin Luther King Jr., is an example of modern great man theory because of his influence on America. People today pick up aspects of his leadership and use it in a new theory known as trait theory.

Trait Theory focuses on the leader and not the followers or situations. The difference between this theory and the modern form of Great Man Theory is that leaders are formed primarily around their physical makeup, such as height or strength. Though their parents matter from a hereditary point of view, they do not play a key part in the leader’s assumption as leader. Current President Barack Obama, for example, has a Kenyan father. Though he gets his height and darkened skin from this man, the father does not play any real role in how people perceive of President Obama’s leadership. President Obama is the first black president of the United States and that is how future generations will remember him.

No matter what kind of theory a leader subscribes to, they all overlap in terms of being strong and heroic. In America, leaders are admired most when they stand up for their principles in a cause. What other factors might have influenced that leader’s ascent to power (family connection, social recognition, or appealing features) do not matter as much as what that leader does with his position. Whenever the nation is thrust into a period of national mourning (most recently being the Tucson shootings) President Obama has always stepped up to offer words of comfort and strength through his position, and that is what I admire most about him as a leader.