Running Head: A QUEST FOR PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF LEADERSHIP
Alice Chow
Leadership 481-DL
Professor Mark Clare
Northwestern University
August 28, 2013
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Executive Summary
Leadership values and styles vary greatly from one individual to another. Through a process of
self-reflection and systematic analysis, I have come to grasp with my personal philosophy of
leadership (PPL). The first step of the process involves a comprehensive self-reflection of
values, experiences and lessons learned from my past. Second, I compare and contrast my
PPL with the leadership models in the literature as well as gleaning insight from assessment
questionnaires. Complementary and opposing viewpoints from these leadership models further
expand and redefine my PPL. Transformational and servant leadership models emerge to best
complement with my PPL.
Reflection on Leadership Experience
Here are my five stages of self-reflections: early childhood, adolescence, college days, years
raising a family, and years of personal fulfillment.
Early childhood
I had the privilege of growing up in Taipei, Taiwan in the 60’s. My parents came to Taiwan from
mainland China after the Communist took over China. At an early age, we were taught to pay
respect to authority figures, such as parents, teachers, elderly, and government officials.
Therefore, it was natural for me to associate leaders with those in authority, holding power in
politics or in education. In school, we were taught with Confucius ideologies of humility, loyalty,
and family cohesiveness. We studied many leaders throughout Chinese history. Almost all of
them were male figures, with a few exceptions such as Hua Mu Lan. As the youngest of four
siblings in our family, I learned to behave according to the proper pecking order. In addition,
academic achievement was emphasized at a very young age. The implication of academic
achievement went beyond individual success. Studying hard also meant to bring honor for my
parents.
Adolescence
Due to political and economic reasons, my family left Taiwan and immigrated to the United
States in the 70s, during my high school years. Coming to America as a teenager was both
challenging and transformative. Because of my easy going personality, I quickly made many
friends who introduced me to the American culture. Values such as freedom of speech,
creativity, competitiveness and individuality all stood in stark contrast to those I was taught
earlier and believed to be most essential. As a result, I was open to new ideas, while testing and
reformulating my own values. With hindsight, these formative years helped me to become more
adaptable and appreciative of unique perspectives from different cultures and value systems.
Young Adult
I had fond memory of college days studying pharmacy in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The university
had a diverse student population with many international students. Friends from different
countries and religious backgrounds helped me to understand cultural similarities and
differences. On campus, I encountered many personality types of student leaders. The kind of
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leaders that impressed me the most were those who genuinely cared for others and could
articulate their passions. A global leader who deeply affected me was Mother Teresa, the
recipient of 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, who gave selflessly to the people she served in Calcutta.
Years of Raising a Family
Prior to having a family, career advancement was my primary focus. After having children, I
made a conscious choice of putting my children first and career second. My best time and
energy were devoted to nurturing, teaching, and empowering them to live out their full potential.
During those days, I was active at school PTAs and community functions. At first, I started
teaching my own children music. Later on, I began teaching piano to other children and adults.
For community service, I had the privilege of serving on our library board by working closely with
other board members and the library staff.
Years of Personal Fulfillment
Now I have the time and opportunity to pursue personal goals in the area of integrative
medicine. It gives me great joy to engage in online learning through a regular curriculum such
as the MMI program from Northwestern and through free classes offered by Coursera. It is my
passion to study health from different approaches and disciplines, including nutrition, physical
exercise, Chinese herbal medicine and conventional Western medicine. In addition, I look
forward to incorporating the study of genomics into the equation for personalized medicine and
preventive health.
Values, Assumptions and Behaviors
Based on my past experiences, here are my beliefs on leadership values, assumptions and
behaviors. I have also included a section on insights gained from assessment questionnaires,
such as the Leadership Measurement Instruments (LMIs) from this class.
Values
These four categories of leadership values are what I view as most important.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Achievement/level of competency
Collaboration/cooperation
Balance/harmony
Empathy/nurturing/empowering
A leader needs to achieve a certain level of expertise in order to give sound advice to others
and to set examples for the followers to emulate. Since it’s not possible for us to be experts in
everything, it is important to collaborate with others and leverage each other’s strengths. The
concept of balance and harmony is rooted in Eastern philosophy, with the idea that even too
much of a good thing can be deleterious. A leader has to have the wisdom to discern the
dynamics of leader-follower relationship and be adaptable to the changing demands based on
changing circumstances. Finally, a leader genuinely cares for the followers and empowers them
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to achieve their fullest potential. Reaching their full potential, the followers are transformed to be
leaders themselves, ready to empower and transform a new generation of followers.
Assumptions
My assumptions for leaders are as follows.
-
Leaders inspire others to achieve excellence. They know when and how high to set the
bar for the followers to ensure their success.
Leaders build relationships with followers based on trust and respect. Without mutual
trust and respect, followers are not willing to follow wholeheartedly.
Leaders set examples that followers want to emulate. Even though I cannot be like
Mother Teresa, she has inspired me to volunteer my time for the poor and the homeless.
Leaders care for the needs of others, even at the expense of their own. This altruistic
behavior is admirable. However, proper balance must be achieved.
Leaders are not afraid to admit they are wrong, or do not have all the answers. These
qualities promote sincere interactions while fostering trust and respect.
Behaviors
Here are some specific behaviors I have observed in leaders.
Leaders
-
Articulates their visions clearly
Listen tentatively to the needs and viewpoints of others
Provide directions and resources to followers
Talk with enthusiasm and encouragement
Challenge followers to think outside the box and solve problems in a new way
Motivate others to reach their full potential with positive feedback and affirmation
Empower followers in decision making and taking on new responsibilities
Spend time teaching and mentoring others
John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do
more and become more, you are a leader.” I find this quote to be equally applicable to leaders
themselves. Leaders set examples for others as they challenge themselves to dream more,
learn more, do more and become more.
Insights gained from LMIs


The results from several LMIs confirm that I value interpersonal relationships more than
accomplishing tasks. Since having harmonious relationships are important to me, I tend
to dismiss any shortcomings or flaws in people, possibly to avoid direct conflicts or
confrontations. I am now more aware of this tendency and shall try to assess people and
situations more objectively.
Despite my conscious effort to consider both genders as equal, the gender-leadership
implicit association test shows that in a subconscious level, I still associate leadership
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roles more with male than with female. This finding is not surprising since I was brought
up in a male dominant society. This can also explain why I have never considered
myself as a leader. Although I know I can influence and impact others, it is through this
course that I begin to process my PPL and affirm my role as a leader, a female leader.
Complementary Leadership Models with their Strengths and Criticisms
Of all the models discussed in Leadership (Northouse, 2013), transformational and servant
leadership models seem to best complement my personal philosophy of leadership.
According to Northouse, transformational leadership has to do with changing and transforming
people. In this process, leaders are concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and
long-term goals. Leaders have the ability to assess followers’ motives and satisfy their needs.
Both Burns (1978) and Bass (1985) pioneered the concept of transformational leadership. The
four factors listed under transformational leadership are the four “I”s: idealized
influence/charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized
consideration. These four factors correlate well with my experience as a piano teacher. I
recalled that students were excited about learning a new piece of music when they caught on
my enthusiasm playing the piece. Often times, I would motivate them by adding to their
repertoire a piece of music of their own preferences. With age appropriate materials, I provided
flashcards and books for them to read about composers from different musical periods. My goal
for my students was not for them to become concert pianists, but to instill the love of music in
them so music becomes an integral part of their lives for self-expression and enjoyment.
Transformational model was further expanded by Kouzes and Posner (2002). They emphasized
that the practices of exemplary leadership are available to everyone, and not just reserved for
those with “special” ability or personality. This concept is in agreement with the skills approach
to leadership, suggesting that leadership skills can be learned. Studies conducted by Jung,
Chow and Wu (2003) showed transformational leadership in 32 Taiwanese companies created
a culture in which employees felt empowered and were encouraged to try new things. Since I
was born and raised in Taiwan where learning took place by rote, these findings were of
particular interest to me. I applaud these transformational leaders as trailblazers, breaking
away from the typical authoritarian approach that are most often seen in Chinese organizations
and institutions. Perhaps Taiwanese leaders today in the educational system are putting more
emphasis on fostering student creativity and independent thinking, and not solely relying upon
the “feeding-the-duck” method of factual memorization.
In addition to transformational leadership, I am also drawn to the concept of servant leadership.
Greenleaf (1970), who first coined the term servant leadership, attributed his model to Herman
Hess’ (1956) novel The Journey to the East. In this novel, a group of travelers on a mythical
journey are accompanied by a servant who not only does menial tasks for the travelers but also
lifts their spirits. When the servant disappears from the group, the travelers are lost and unable
to continue their journey. As the story implies, this servant is ultimately the one leading the
group through his selfless care of the travelers. Later, Spears (2002) identified ten
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characteristics of servant leadership based on Greenleaf’s writings. Three out of these ten
characteristics particularly resonate with me: empathy, healing, and commitment to the growth
of people. I feel deeply for friends and relatives and am willing to lend assistance with my time
and effort. Often times, during the process of helping others to become whole, I experience
healing myself. This parallels with the transformational approach in which followers and leaders
are mutually affected by the transformation process.
On the other hand, there are criticisms for both transformational and servant leadership models.
One criticism is the lack of clarity in defining the exact parameters of transformational
leadership. Tracy and Hinkin (1998) conducted research to show substantial overlap between
each of the four factors of transformational approach. Even though there are evidences that
associate transformational leadership with positive outcomes, studies have not yet shown a
direct causal link between transformational leaders and changes in followers or organizations
(Antonakis 2012.) My personal response to this criticism is that transformational leadership
covers a wide range of characteristics with long-term effects that are difficult to quantify in any
research studies. As I look back upon teachable moments I have had with my children, I can
assume but cannot be absolutely certain about their causal effects on my children’s character
development. As time goes on, I observe changes in their attitudes and behaviors that
demonstrate maturity, which are not easily measurable or quantifiable.
Servant leadership, by definition, sounds paradoxical. Gergen (2006) pointed out the conflict
between altruistic approach and individual autonomy. He argued that while it is commendable to
advocate an altruistic approach, such an approach conflicts with leadership principles of
directing, goal setting and creating a vision. In my situation, I put my children first before my own
aspirations and career development. All of us make conscious choices daily as to how we
spend our time and energy. For the last two decades, I took a more altruistic approach with my
children. Now they are all grown, I am able to pursue my passions by going back to school and
possibly returning to the workforce, and thus regaining my autonomy. With proper balance of
altruistic approach and individual autonomy, servant leadership is no longer conflicting and
paradoxical. In a way, I can see how situational leadership model applies here with raising my
children. Now they are mature, I take on a more supportive role, rather than a directing role.
My PPL and Leadership Calling
Integrative approach to health has always been my inner compass. Trained as a pharmacist, I
witness the sad phenomenon of patients trying to fix their health problems through medications
alone, without proper nutrition and adequate exercises. In addition to encouraging patients to
live a healthy life style, we now have the tools of using genomics information for personalized
medicine and preventive health. Having my own genome sequenced, I am eager to share my
SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) or gene variations with others in my sphere of
influence. My dream is that one day we can wear a personalized health bracelet that contains all
our genomics information along with other pertinent health records. By combining my PPL and
leadership calling, I am on this path of learning, teaching, and collaborating with others in the
field of genomics for better health and quality of life.
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A Summary of My PPL with Visual Representation
Here are several points that summarize my PPL, with more of an emphasis on transformational
and servant leadership models, and to some extent the situational leadership approach.





Leaders genuinely care for and listen to the needs and viewpoints of the followers.
Leaders inspire, motivate and empower others to achieve excellence and live out their
fullest potential.
Leaders adjust their leadership styles based on the developmental level of the followers.
Leaders are not afraid to admit they are wrong, and don’t have all the answers.
Leaders think outside the box for new solutions and innovations.
I created the following drawing to capture the essence of my PPL and leadership calling. In
Chinese medicine, the mulberry tree in the center is a life-giving tree with its unique medicinal
properties coming from every part of the tree, such as leaves, twigs and fruits. Its medicinal use
ties in well with my leadership calling in the area of genomics study for improving health and
quality of life. As it takes time for mulberries to grow, transformational leaders invest their time in
nurturing, guiding and empowering others to live out their fullest potential. Servant leaders care
about the personal well-being of their followers, through healing and helping followers to
become whole. They put others’ interests before their own for the greater good of the
organization and community, just as the many branches and berries of a mulberry tree. The yin
yang symbol represents my belief in adaptability and balance as a transformational leader.
Good leaders adapt their leadership styles based on the situations and needs of the followers.
This dynamic circle of yin and yang reminds me of the evolving nature of leader and follower
relationship. Followers mature to a point of becoming leaders who then lead a new generation
of followers. Thus, the cycle of transformation continues with leaders leaving their legacies
behind and influencing the future generations of people, organization and community.
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Creating Values with My PPL
My primary approach to create values with my PPL is to address my own weaknesses and to
improve upon them in order to be more effective and adaptive to different situations. Through
experience mining and questionnaires from the LMIs, I have discovered new aspects about
myself that I was not previous aware of.
Here are some specific actions that I plan to take based on the results from the LMIs.

When it comes to conflicts, I shall not try to avoid them at all costs, but shall evaluate the
situations and people involved to potentially use the conflicts as opportunities for growth.

Even though I am not strong with administrative skills, I can improve by tackling a small
project that requires certain amount of administrative functions. Instead of having a fixed
mindset that I am not good at it, I will adopt a growth mindset that I CAN learn the skills
and view administrative tasks as practical and essential, rather than busy work and
boring.

Based on the result from the gender-leadership implicit association test, I am made
aware of my unconscious gender bias of leader association. As a female, I am
determined to not undermine my own abilities and other women’s abilities to be assigned
or emergent leaders.

Results from authentic leadership self-assessment questionnaire are most revealing. I
got a very high score on balancing processing, but a rather low score for internalized
moral perspective. This shows that I am NOT balanced in processing, because I am
swayed by others’ opinions at the expense of losing my own voice and belief. So I plan
on writing and using some kCards to become more assertive and confident so my
processing can be well balanced.
In conclusion, it has been an amazing journey as I wrestle with my personal philosophy of
leadership. I appreciate all the feedback and guidance from Professor Mark Clare. When I first
started working on this assignment, I was very hesitant because I did not consider myself as a
leader. But this paper assumes that we are leaders and need to define our personal philosophy
of leadership. As a result, this assignment has helped me to transform my thinking about myself
as a leader with unique strengths and weaknesses. Thus, this paper becomes an invaluable
document of the process for self-discovery and actionable plans for self-improvement. Given the
tools from this class, I shall continue to develop my leadership skills as I face new challenges
from work and home.
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References
Antonakis, J. (2012). Transformational and charismatic leadership. In D.V.Day & J. Antonakis
(Eds.), The nature of leadership (2nd ed., pp.256-288). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press.
Bennis, W. G., & Nanus B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York:
Harper & Row.
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
Gergen, D. (2006, June 11). Bad news for bullies. U.S. News and World Report, 140, 54.
Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant
Leadership.
Hess, H. (1956). The journey to the East. London: P. Owen.
Jung, D. I., Chow, C., & Wu, A. (2003). The role of transformational leadership in enhancing
organizational innovation: Hypotheses and some preliminary findings. Leadership
Quarterly, 14(4-5), 525-544.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd ed.). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Spears, L.C. (2002). Tracing the past, present, and future of servant-leadership. In L. C. Spears
& M. Lawrence (Eds.), Focus on leadership: Servant-leadership for the 21st century (pp.
1-16). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Tracey, J. B., & Hinkin T. R. (1998). Transformational leadership or effective managerial
practices? Group Organization Management, 23(3). 220-236.
Yukl, G. A. (1999). An evaluation of conceptual weaknesses in transformational and charismatic
leadership theories. Leadership Quarterly, 10(2). 285-3305.
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Appendix:
Here are three questions that Professor Mark Clare has challenged me to think about as I
continue to process and redefine my PPL.
1) Contrast to Management: How does my PPL explain the difference between leadership
and management? The literature we reviewed drew a pretty sharp distinction,
emphasizing how leaders make deep change and invent the future for the organization
and managers work to make current practices perform as well as possible. If you agree
with that distinction, how have you factored it into your PPL?
As compared to other classmates, I have not had years of work experience in an organization
where topics such as career paths, management, and leadership are discussed. This class has
given me the opportunity to seriously think about what constitutes a leader and how leaders are
different from managers. I have chosen four differences between managers and leaders and
factored them into my PPL.
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

Managers work with the status quo. Leaders challenge the status quo.
Managers administer and control. Leaders motivate and inspire.
Managers minimize risks. Leaders take risks.
Managers plan details. Leaders set directions.
Based on personal reflection of past experiences and the results from assessment
questionnaires, here are my responses to the four points above.



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I realize that my tendency to avoid conflicts actually hinders me as a leader. This is one
area I need to work on so I am able to challenge the status quo.
I prefer the approach of motivating and inspiring others, rather than controlling the
situations or people.
As I reflect upon risk taking, I am willing to take the risk if it involves only me. If the
situation involves a group of people, I am not as likely to take any risk. This realization is
helpful as I seek to be more courageous and be a risk taker when the situation calls for.
By nature, I am not a detailed person so I am better at setting directions than planning
out details.
2) Change and innovation: What role does change and innovation play in your PPL? How
do you define these terms? Change and innovation, like leadership, can be a bit tricky
to define. Distinctions between continuous and radical change and invention and
innovation are often useful. This is related to the first question but is asking you to go
deeper into the meaning of the concepts of change and innovation whether you use
them to contrast leadership and management or not.
Up until this class, I have not seriously thought about leaders as value innovators. Leaders
create deep and often times disruptive change in order to bring value for employees, customers,
investors and other stakeholders. Managers, on the other hand, are more concerned with the
smooth operations of day-to-day activities, and thus opt for small, incremental changes. This
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class has taught me the importance of thinking deeply, broadly and creatively to bring radical
change for value innovations. I find myself thinking more deeply, broadly and creatively than
before in the area of genomics study.
Since the completion of the human genome project in 2003, there has been an unprecedented
growth and development in gene sequencing, largely due to biomarker assay advancement and
healthcare IT solutions. New discoveries from large-scale studies have linked genetic mutations
to many diseases. This breakthrough in DNA sequencing has made it possible for a
personalized approach to treat individuals based on their genomic makeup. The impact of
genomics is huge in creating economic, experience and social value. Here are a few examples
where I see value innovations related to genomics.

Predisposition testing: to determine who is at risk for a disease. For example, women
with a significant family history for breast or ovarian cancer can test for BRCA1, BRCA 2
gene variations. Not only will the information benefit the women themselves to make
better health decisions, it affects the treatment strategy and lowers medical cost.
Value innovation: Very few screening tests are currently available on the market. Many more
simple-to-use tests are needed for diagnostic purposes.

Pharmacogenomics – to determine which drug and how much of the drug is best for
treating an individual. For example, Iressa, a drug used to treat non-small cell lung
carcinoma, works in only patients whose tumors have very specific mutations in the
EGFR gene. This targeted therapy improves patient outcome, reduces side effects, and
treatment cost.
Value innovation: Targeted therapy is not limited to drug deliveries via the oral or the
intravenous route. A new innovative drug delivery system that incorporates the technology of
gold nanoparticles allows direct injection of medications into targeted tumor cells.

Personalized/preventive health – to determine genetic variations that influence exercise
performance, drug/food/alcohol metabolism, inflammatory response and many other
individual variables. For instance, based on my fitness gene profile, I am more of an
endurance runner, rather than a sprinter. The gene analysis also reveals how I
metabolize food, and detoxify chemicals. Based on the information, I can modify my diet
intake accordingly for optimal health.
Value innovation: I am particularly interested in this value innovation of personalized health. I
will explore the potential of a health bracelet where it stores pertinent individual’s medical
information, including genomic makeup, medication records, and allergy. The data can be
stored in such a way that they can be retrieved and updated from different hospital systems and
physicians’ offices so no duplication of tests will be necessary when patients go from one health
system to another. This can result in huge cost savings associated with duplicating tests and
correcting medication errors. This is one of the reasons why I am in the medical informatics
program to explore new ways of incorporating genomics for personalized medicine and
prevention.
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3) Ethics: What do we mean by ethics? Do leaders have special responsibilities when it
comes to ethics? For example, leaders use influence, have power and are responsible
for organizational outcomes in ways that followers don’t.
When it comes to leadership and ethics, people associate a good leader with someone having
good moral character and doing the right things. Since leaders have power to influence, they
can misuse their power to lower the level of morality in others resulting in devastating outcome.
Bass (1998) coined the term pseudo-transformational leaders to describe leaders such as Adolf
Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Leaders do the right things because of the consequences and
because of moral obligations and responsibilities.
There are many ethical considerations with genomic data and research. Prior to the passage of
the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) in 2008, people worried that they could
be denied of health insurance or employment based on their genetic predisposition to certain
conditions. Today, people are still concerned about privacy breaches and the possibility of being
re-identified based on their genetic data. Therefore, maintaining a high level of privacy for
people's genomes is crucial to integrating genomics into healthcare settings. Researchers need
to provide patients with realistic claims regarding data privacy, while operating under proper
protocols. As I am involved with genomics, it’s my duty and obligation to protect patient data and
uphold patient privacy. I also have the responsibility to conduct research that are ethical and
can bring health benefits to others to achieve better health outcome and quality of life.