Relational leadership is primarily focused on the interactions between others. While there are forms of leadership that can happen through writing and public speech, the best form of leading can be found through interacting with others and establishing a level of respect and comradery amongst your teammates. The concept contains five primary components, which purposely builds commitment towards being inclusive of others and encourages them to express their unique worldviews. In The Relational Leadership Model, the concepts are organized in a manner that depicts how the layers of and how it is in all groups or organizations. Process outlines the entire circle, with inclusiveness; empowerment and ethics act as the triangle within it. Purpose sits in the middle of the triangle. Majority of these components are also dependent on each individual’s comfort with them. There are certain values that come with each section of the diagram that each person has to understand in order to learn to be a leader.
Each of the five main components of Rational Leadership contains distinguishing elements that characterize a team member. The first one is purpose. This provides an individual with a motive and fuels their desire to accomplish whatever task they set their eye on. When a leader is given a purpose, their motivation can help inspire the rest of their team to follow them into the goal that they aim for. Ethics is a component that helps to establish order in a team. A general concept of what is right and wrong helps a leader understand what is appropriate in a group dynamic. If they do not understand what is appropriate, it will lead to an unstable dynamic in which others may not respect one another. Empowerment is important for a leader to have in order to help the team build motivation. If a leader is able to recognize the strengths of his peers, he can assist in trying to motivate them and lead them into a better place. Being inclusive means bringing others into projects and finding ways for them to contribute. This can require being recognized and motivated into bringing them forward into any project. However, all of these moving parts in these projects have to have a process. Being oriented with how a plan needs to be executed as well as learning how each individual skill can be included is an important task for a leader to understand.
Out of all the aspects in the model, I am definitely the most confident with having a purpose and process. In group projects that I have had in the past, I would set a goal for myself then create the necessary steps to reach it. For example, in my junior year of high school, I wanted to make a short film for a contest that our county was having. I set the goal for an eight-minute short film that I would finish by the end of March. During September, I would create a calendar and work on the script with the intent to meet my deadline. During the winter, I casted, filmed and edited with the purpose/goal for myself in mind. I met my late March deadline and achieve my goal. My weakest aspect in the model is being empowering. Part of this issue has to deal with embracing my own problems and finding a way to deal with them in a productive manner that does not pull my confidence back. The purpose of the service action proposal for SLC 101 supports me with a better understand through simply using a visual medium to breakdown what is required to lead. Through understanding the individual steps required to be a leader, I can completely understand what I need to do in order to achieve this group. I must utilize my process-oriented skills in order to achieve this goal of being a leader.