Leadership Interview Reflection

I decided to do my leadership interview on Terry Brown. Terry is the Vice President of Commercial Services at Crosstex Energy and I got the chance to work with him over the summer as an intern. In observing the ways that Terry interacted with his employees and associates and the positive responses they had towards him, I could tell that he was a very effective leader. Terry touched on many of the things that we talked about in class, but he also had some very good input on things that we never talked about. When I asked Terry what are some traits he has observed of effective leaders he said effective communication, fairness, confidence, and planning. I thought fairness was interesting because although we didn’t talk about it much in class, it is very relevant. A follower will respond more positively to a leader if they feel like they are in an environment where everyone is treated equally, and Terry did a great job of creating this environment in his workplace. I also asked Terry what steps he took to reach his position of leadership and the main thing he talked about was competence. As he became more competent, he began asking for more responsibilities and challenges from his supervisors, which made him a more likely candidate for a leadership role. When I asked Terry what the hardest thing he does as a leader every day, he talked about maintaining consistency with actions and decisions, which we talked about a lot in class. He said that remaining consistent allows followers to anticipate needs of the organization and support of the leader to complete tasks with minimal interference. Terry expanded on many things that we talked about in class and introduced new things that we never talked about. He is a great leader and I look forward to learning more from him next summer.