Maurice Mitchell Jr.
November 19, 2012
ALED 340-902

Leadership AHA! Moment

I have worked at my job for going on four years. The company has continuously hired and fired people since I have been there, as far as the management go, I call it “The District Circle of Life”. The staff in which I work and interact with the most with is the Community Assistants (CA). A Community Assistant job combines being a Leasing Agent and a Resident Assistant into one job. The staff consist of twelve student workers that either attend Texas A&M University or Blinn College. We give tours of our property to prospective residents, handle legal documents, organize the office, and put on events for the residents that reside at our property. During …show more content…

The leader and the follower only related with each other within prescribed organizational roles and have low-quality exchanges. Jerry is in Phase 1 with the staff. We do not accept him as being in the in-group because of lack of communication, dependability and involvement. He attempts to communicate with us in order to gain knowledge of his job, so the communication is only for self-interest rather than to for the good of the group. We have tried to expand our roles with Jerry by helping him out when possible. The attempt to enter Phase 2 was a fail with the staff and Jerry. He abused it and just made us do all of the work instead of allowing us to just assist him on a task. He used us to gather information and that’s it. We relied on Jerry to have our backs when needed and he never did. If we need something done he is the last person we would want in charge. He is obsessed with having power and being charge rather understanding and developing relationships with his staff.

This Aha! Moment catapulted my ability to understand the Leader-Member Exchange theory in several ways. I was able to witness and be a part of this type of leadership theory which allowed me to grasp a better feel for it. I was able to understand how vital the relationship between the leader and follower really is. I was able to witness that the more a follower interacts and enhance a relationship with their leader; the follower is more likely to