David Cummings

Leadership Philosophy

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” —Warren Bennis

My leadership philosophy is based upon leading by example. I believe it is important for

a leader to be able to share their vision with followers to prosper in reality. In each leadership

position I have held, I try to use a combination of democratic and autocratic leadership style.

Some decisions need to be set in stone and there are some decisions that have more openness and

can be a group decision. My leadership positions have included being captain for my alpine ski

team and tennis team in high school. Once I got to college I soon became the president of the

tennis club at Coastal Carolina University, which I have held office until present day and most

recently I was elected president of Delta Sigma Pi’s Coastal Carolina University colony. In these

positions I have found having more followers is not always best. Having dedicated support is a

good base to making vision a reality. Having a few dedicated members is far more valuable than

having a ton of non-dedicated followers. If followers have no stake in what you are trying to lead

them through it can be extremely difficult to motivate and grow. Showing followers you are

dedicated and can relate to them is extremely powerful as a leader. This is similar to

transactional and transformation leadership.

The early leadership positions I held were more transactional where I was a leader voted

by my team. The team expected me to be able to lead them with the ability to reward and punish

for good and bad behavior respectively. As well as good and bad performance being rewarded or

punished. Once I got to college my leadership positions required more transformation, because

the club and fraternity both needed significant expansion and recognition. These positions

required an outside the box approach to expanding and becoming recognized on campus. Finding

common grounds for a leader is key; because once you have initiated this you can more easily

motivate people to become followers.

Reference

Kruse, K. (Oct. 16, 2012). 100 Best Quotes on Leadership. Forbes. Retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/10/16/quotes-on-leadership/