Haleigh Bries

CTL 490

Colleen Kuhl

10/15/2020

My Personal Leadership Philosophy

When considering the goal of the Breitbach Program and its role in my personal leadership

development, I started by first looking at their official statement on the Loras College webpage,

which states that their hope is, “to challenge and engage the whole student – academically,

spiritually, personally and socially – while learning what it means to be a Catholic thinker and

leader in today’s world.” Throughout my reflection I kept coming back to this and how the

Breitbach Program has helped me to better understand my wholistic self in relation to the rest of

the world, and how I am called to be a leader as a member of the Catholic Church in the twenty-

first century. With this in mind, I would say that my personal leadership philosophy would be

that I will strive to be a positive and active leader that is built on a foundation of respect for the

innate human dignity of all people in order to work for social justice in my communities. This

leadership philosophy has evolved over the years, and will probably continue to evolve as I learn

more and continue having different experiences. However, based on where I am at now in my

life, after a lot of self-reflection, I think this is a pretty solid description of my personal

leadership philosophy.

Looking at what has influenced my personal leadership philosophy over the past four years

here at Loras College, I would start by identifying three of the Loras dispositions: critical
thinking, ethical decision making, and responsible contributing. The Breitbach Program and

Loras in general have really made me reflect a lot on how I utilize these three dispositions not

only in my own academic work, but through all aspects of my life. I reflected on the importance

of critical thinking and the necessity for finding creative and critically thought out solutions to

different problems that I might face. This is something that I have learned to be super important,

especially when trying to address social issues. One thing that I have learned is the idea that as a

leader I need to be able to think critically, but I also need to help others to do the same. This also

ties directly into ethical decision making because you can’t make ethical decisions if you are ill

informed, or don’t critically think about certain issues before you take action.

In addition, another aspect of ethical decision making that I have really worked on over the

past four years in the Breitbach Program is knowing my own personal morals and core values. I

think that it is critical to understand who you are as a personal, and what it is that you stand for

or believe in, so that when you do make decisions they line up with your identity. With that said,

for me personally, my Catholic identity is the core of who I am. My Catholic faith has been the

basis of why I believe I am called for my leadership to be built on a foundation of respect for the

innate human dignity of all people. In order to do so, I must also work to understand the morals

and core values of those around me so I can make ethical decisions that respect and value others

and their beliefs as well.

This combination of critical thinking and ethical decision-making is what will lead to

responsible contributing. In order to be a responsible contributor as a leader I must be active. It is

important to not simply sit by. I am called to be an active leader in my communities. “In order

for change to occur, one must commit to applying personal values to the collective effort through
action” (Leadership for a Better World, 88). This requires that I value community participation

and building relationships with others. I have to commit myself to the common good of my

community. It is not enough to say that I want to fight for social change, I actually have to use

my leadership to go out into the world and fight for it.

In terms of why I want my leadership to be built on a foundation of respect for the innate

human dignity of all people is due to my Catholic identity. Two themes from Catholic Social

Teaching that connect to my motivation as a leader are The Life and Dignity of the Human

Person and Solidarity. The dignity of the human person is the foundation of our morals,

teachings, and beliefs as Catholics. Understanding human dignity means understanding that all

human life is sacred. I believe that we are all the imago dei; we are all made in the image and

likeness of God. What I have come to understand better throughout my time here at Loras, and

especially in the Breitbach Program, is that imago dei is true for all people, and because it is true

for all people I must respect and defend all people. I believe that I have a responsibility as a

member of the Catholic Church, as a disciple of Jesus, to use my leadership in order to bring

people together and to build communities of respect, understanding, and equality.

The only way to be able to establish and live out leadership that respects the innate human

dignity of all in order to work for social justice in my communities is to be in community with

others. Building and maintaining intentional communities is absolutely essential to how I am

called to be a leader. I think one thing that really stuck out to me in this class in particular in

connection with my call to solidarity was this notion that my humanity is intertwined with the

humanity of others (The Vision of Catholic Social Thought, 129). This connection to the Catholic

Social Teaching of Solidarity signifies that we are all one human family, and that I have a
responsibility to work for social justice for all people. There cannot be true social change if there

are still marginalized, underprivileged, and underrepresented groups in our communities. A

quote that I will often reflect on is by Pope Paul VI who stated that, “if you want peace, work for

justice.” This is a quote that I learned from some of the other members of my Breitbach class

who have helped me to learn more about myself, and ways that I can grow as a leader. I have

come to better understand my own privilege, and how having privilege means that I have a

responsibility to help those who are facing injustices. It is not simply enough for me to recognize

my privilege, I have to use it as a platform for helping others. This can’t be done if I am not in

solidarity with those around me.

With these core values in mind, I had the opportunity to meet with and interview Dr.

McCarthy-Gilmore who I believe is a very effective leader, and who is someone that has

tremendously impacted my life due to her positive leadership. I believe that she is a successful

model of leadership for me as a Breitbach Catholic Thinker & Leader because even though she

isn’t Catholic we still have a lot of the same core values that we hope to bring forward in our

leadership styles. One theme that she pointed out when trying to be an effective leader was not to

be too reactionary. She explained how it is so important to, “take a moment to process everything

fully, think critically about potential solutions, and get feedback before reacting to a situation.

Positive and active leaders are good at synthesizing the ideas they are hearing and bringing them

back to the group in a way that moves the conversation forward.” This connects directly with the

Loras College dispositions of critical thinking and ethical decision making that are so crucial to

leadership. If you simply jump into making a rash decision without really thinking critically,

without getting the viewpoints of others, and without analyzing how that decision may affect
others, then you are not making ethical decisions as a leader. It is important to think critically,

but as a leader it is also fundamentally important to encourage others to do the same, and to

make people feel like they have a sense of autonomy in these decisions.

Throughout my interview with Dr. McCarthy-Gilmore we discussed different ways to live

out your core values and your morals through your leadership. This was something that stuck out

to me and my own leadership philosophy. I ended up concluding that the type of leadership that I

want to strive to portray is leadership that is positive, active, and inclusive. These three concepts

(positive, active, and inclusive) really describe the type of leadership that I will strive for.

Positive leadership because I hope to be able to make a positive change, and to help build

positive communities and relationships with others. Active leadership because I recognize the

reality that true leadership is a daily living out of your core values in order to address social

injustices and evoke social change. Finally, inclusive leadership because in order truly

understand where the needs are in my communities I need to know the members of my

community. In order to fight for the common good my decisions must benefit all people and not

just certain groups.

This has been one of the biggest eye-openers for me throughout my time in the Breitbach

Program because it taught me that love is a choice. The recognition that love is a choice, and that

I have a responsibility to wake up every day to be intentional about my relationships with others,

and show them the love of God through my daily actions and decisions is not always an easy

task. This can be especially true today when there is so much division and so much polarization

between peoples. However, through learning that love is a choice, I now have a better
understanding of how I need to build intentional relationships with people and respect their

human dignity.

Overall, the Breitbach Program has helped me to better understand my wholistic self. I have

come to know and appreciate my strengths, why I believe what I believe, and how I am called to

action in different ways. The program has also taught me so much in terms of how I am called to

be in relation to others in my communities and the rest of the world. After four years of learning

about what I’m good at, how I can grow, where the needs are in my communities, and different

ways that I can address certain needs as a leader, I have so much more confidence in my

leadership abilities and have gained so many skills for future leadership. I have learned that I am

called to be a leader, and different ways that might look as a member of the Catholic Church in

the twenty-first century. So, when looking to the future, I will strive to be a positive and active

leader that is built on a foundation of respect for the innate human dignity of all people in order

to work for social justice in my communities.