Leadership
Michael Woods
Rodney Bertholet, Min.D.
Warner Pacific
February 4, 2015

Leadership
What is leadership? What is leadership? Merriam-Webster defines leadership as the state or position of being a leader. Which I believe is a woefully inadequate statement of what it means to be in leadership. Over the next several pages I will explain what a person who in Maxwell’s book is described as a level four leader “people development” and how my superintendent Greg Arnold, is going to help me by mentoring me. I will also compare and contrast his leadership traits between Maxwell’s book and the Text book Management. Also I will give a better view of what I think leadership is and how Greg uses this to influence the work place.
Who is Greg Arnold? First let me explain a little bit about Greg Arnold. He’s 55 years old and is the superintendent of Oregon Iron Works nuclear division. Greg has been working for OIW, for the last 15 years. Before that he has had many similar positions at companies like U.S. barge, and Gunderson. Greg has been in the trade for well over 30 years. Many of the managerial styles in the text book Management is apparent At Oregon Iron Works. Greg I believe is a transformational leader “Leadership that motivates followers to ignore self-interest and work for the larger good of the organization to achieve significant goals accomplishment; emphasizes articulating a vision that will convince subordinates to make changes” (Hitt, 2011, p.486) The reason I bring this up, is the type of individuals that are iron workers are usually surly at best. Greg has hired people that may not be the best at the trade (which everyone at OIW is a professional) but has hired more for culture. At work we regularly talk about things that you wouldn’t hear at any other shop, for instance SCWE which stands for safety conscience work environment. This is above and beyond what state and federal regulations would have us do for safety measures. Also we are bonded by our signature when we sign something it states that we are capable of doing the work required. When Greg hires someone he has to be sure that they will be able to meet these basic requirements and also be willing to challenge themselves to want to do more.
El Jefe (the chief) There a traits and qualities about Greg that has made him standout from all of my other lead man, foreman, and superintendents. The first one I would like to talk about is the trust the whole crew has in him. We believe that he not only does a good job for the company but dos this with what is important to us, things like safety, hours worked, and job duties. Where as many