Eleanor Roosevelt was born in October 11, 1884. She started off her life being extremely shy, but she was able to move beyond that (Mahady, 1). She married Franklin Roosevelt in 1905. Eleanor helped him while he was in the senate and started becoming active in politics. He became president and she became a first lady in 1933. Eleanor was a unique first lady because she used her own voice. She was involved in the civil rights movement and women’s rights. She even helped her husband by being his eyes and ears when he had polio. According to an article I read on Eleanor, author Doris Goodwin says “Eleanor gave a voice to people who did not have power. She was the first women to speak at a national convention, to write a syndicated column, to earn money as a lecturer and hold press conferences”, (Goodwin, 1). As you can see, this woman was not afraid to pursue anything! After her husband’s death, she became a spokesperson for the United Nations.
I chose to do my leadership paper about Eleanor because she is a good role model. She used her talents of public speaking and organization to lead change in the United States. She inspires me because she became the first “first lady” to break out of the traditional role and become a powerful leader. She also inspires me because she knew what she believed in and she never compromised those values. She was a leader in her own way and used her own talents. She is the type of person I would like to model myself after.
Leadership Theory
When I looked at the way Eleanor led, I can say she was a transformational leader (Hamilton, 273). She inspired others to follow her in the women’s movements, as well as inspire her husband to follow her advice. She was able lay out a vision for many of her ideas. She formulated and executed plans to create child care centers for working women (Goodwin, 2). She often would provide her husband, the president with memos and reports of her ideas over dinner. She was definitely able to provide the follow through on her ideas. I would say she also had charisma. She was likeable and carried herself in a certain way that people wanted to hear what she had to say.
In addition to being a transformational leader, I also thing Eleanor falls into the trait theory of leadership. She had great organization skills in which she used to coordinate the civil rights and women’s movements. She was also clever and creative. One example of that is her press conference idea. Eleanor held women’s only press conferences (Gerber). This paved way for women in journalism. The news teams had to hire a women journalist so that they could attend the conference and get the inside scoop. I think that is an excellent example of how creative she was.
Leadership Characteristics
I admire that Mrs. Roosevelt was a great leader, yet she worked hand in hand with another great leader, her husband. She respected him, yet she also felt she could inspire him with her ideas. I really like this characteristic of hers. In the working world we may become leaders, but we will still need to interact with other leaders. She did that well. I strive to have the ability to work together with other people in leadership positions. I think part of being a leader, is be aware of when to lead and when to listen.
I also like how Eleanor saw her role. Eleanor knew that being a first lady was part of a traditional role, yet she went beyond that. She created new opportunities and defined her role how she saw it. This has impacted me positively. I may not be in a role of great leadership at this present time in my career, but I can create my own path to leadership. I can influence and define the projects I work on. I can volunteer and get leadership opportunities. I really admire Eleanor’s ability to go beyond what was expected of her.
The last characteristic I really like was that Eleanor had values and she stuck to them. She knew what was right in her heart and she pushed for that. She worked hard on the civil rights movement because it was what she thought was right. She didn’t care what other people thought. I will want to always keep true to the values that I believe in and never compromise them. At the present company I work at, corporate values are extremely important.
I consider myself to fall under the trait theory of leadership (Hamilton, 273). Like Eleanor Roosevelt, I am extremely organized. I have the ability to always stay on top of the many projects I am working on. I also consider myself creative and encourage brainstorm sessions when I am a leader on a project.
I also think I fall into the trait theory of leadership, because I get results. I come up with a plan. I sell people on my ideas and then I push to get the work done. Many people can come up with a plan, but it is the follow through that it important.
When I look at the way I act, I do think I possess many of the important traits of leadership. I am highly motivated to succeed. I hold high standard for myself. I feel I am confident in my abilities to lead projects. I also have strong technical skills and I am always trying to stay on top of new technology.
I just think I was born with certain characteristics that could make me a good leader. The hard part for me is that I am early on in my career. I need to work hard and volunteer for things at work to put myself in positions to practice those leadership skills. So far, I think I have done a good job of doing so at work and in my personal life.
My Strengths and Weaknesses
I think I do have much strength as a leader. I have good listening skills and I am able to pay attention to the ideas of my team. I am creative so I can usually problem solve well. I am supportive of my team. I provide encouragement and am appreciative of the work that people help me to accomplish.
I like to stay on top of my learning. I am pursuing my Masters Degree and I also am trying to constantly learn new technical skills. I am also an avid reader. These hobbies of mine help me to become a better leader by making me more knowledgeable. By learning new things, I can back up my ideas with facts and give my team a reason to believe in what I say.
Although, I have much strength, I do have many weaknesses as a leader. I see these areas as my improvement areas and I hope to change them over to strengths someday.
I think that sometimes I do not speak up as much as I should. When I am not the leader in a group, I find I often hold back ideas because I don’t want it to seem like I am taking over someone else’s job of being the team leader. I should learn to speak up more and offer up my suggestions.
Another weakness of mine was one that I identified in my behavior profile. I am quick to make decisions and I need to be aware of how other people operate. I think overall, I need to use what I identified in my behavior profile to improve my leadership. I need to learn to read people better and in times, cater my style of behavior to theirs. I think that may help me to get better results in my team.
I think one of the biggest weaknesses I have right now is a lack of experience. I have only been at my company for four months now, and because of that I cannot be an expert in it. I try my best to learn about the history and the office politics, but there is no way that someone who has been there as short as I have, can compete with someone who has been there fifteen or thirty years. This is a weakness that I am aware of and I try to speak to these people who have been there a long time often, so that I can continue to learn more about the culture of my company.
To conclude my paper, I think I have shown that many leadership characteristics of Eleanor Roosevelt and proven why I admire her so much. I have also assessed my own leadership abilities. In writing this paper, I have become more aware of the areas I need to work on to become a stronger leader.
Bibliography
1- Hamilton, Cheryl., “Communicating For Results“, Page 273.
2 – Mahady, Sandy.,Website – “In Her Own Words” , Page 1 http://personalweb.smcvt.edu/smahady/erquotes.htm
