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Leader Follower Relationship

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We all go through our jobs, organizations, life day to day, but it really is wild when you take a step back and assess how strangely human the whole leader–follower dynamic really is. We talk about leadership like it’s this big, formal thing, but in real life, I see it a lot in manufacturing, it’s way more fluid than that. Some days I’m leading, some days I’m following, and most days I’m bouncing back and forth depending on what the floor throws at us. It never looks as perfect or structured as a textbook makes it sound. The moments where things actually work are not the ones where somebody with a title is marching around directing traffic. It’s when people just move. When a tradesperson jumps in before anyone asks. When an engineer reroutes something upstream to keep us on track. When a TRACK kid or an intern volunteers an idea because they’re too new to be jaded. That natural rhythm is what keeps builds moving more than any top-down order ever could. When I took Obolensky’s assess...
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Should the “Boss” Always Know the Answers?

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One of the most beautiful things in this universe and about humanity is that not one of us individually has the answer to everything. We all are meant to learn from one another, and we are all meant to grow at our own pace. If we all knew everything, there would be no individuality, and our curiosity as a society would no longer exist, because there would be no purpose, no drive and no NEED to learn more because we already know it. This is one of the many things that make a team work wonderfully. So, “Should the boss always know the answers?” No. They are not going to, and should not be expected to. The more I grow into my own career, and the more we explore adaptive leadership in this course, the more I realize how unrealistic, and honestly, unfair that expectation is. Watching Marty Linsky talk about adaptive leadership really brought that home for me. He makes this clear separation between authority and leadership , and it couldn't be more true. Authority can give direction, s...
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The Leadership Gap

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As I reflect on my own leadership journey, I can see that my view of what makes a great leader has shifted significantly over time. When I was younger, I thought leadership meant having all the answers, being confident, and guiding others from the front. But through my experiences in life as a young woman in my career, in manufacturing, and from what's been explored in this course (OBLD 633) at Embry Riddle, I’ve come to realize that leadership isn’t about control, it’s about adaptability. It’s the ability to create an environment where people can work together to solve problems, even when the path forward isn’t clear. When I think about how leadership attitudes have changed across generations, I can see a definite trend. My grandparents’ generation viewed leaders with deep respect and loyalty. Leadership was about authority, and those in charge were rarely questioned. My parents’ generation started to see leadership as something a bit more human, they still valued hierarchy but e...
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