Week 2- City of Richmond Human Services

Reggie Gordon, my boss, is certainly a transformational leader and utilizes transformational leadership. His job as the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer is to create policy to instigate real change throughout Richmond. As a result, he bands together organizations and leaders in different sectors (ex. homelessness, food security, etc) to try and track progress for the city and plan new ideas and policy. This job in and of itself requires a transformational leader in order to make sure that all of these organizations can work together to create change. However, Mr. Gordon also utilizes transformational leadership in other ways. A large part of this job requires that he “convince” or persuade people and organizations to want change in the first place. Unfortunately, not all citizens (and profit seeking businesses as well) are dedicated to these same goals. Therefore, it hinders the city’s ability to create and actualize the policy that they want to create. Mr. Gordon must use transformational leadership in order to be successful. Mr. Gordon is a textbook transformational leader. My Theories and Models class laid out four assumptions of transformational leadership theory: change, prosocial, reciprocal, and goals matter. Mr. Gordon must be dedicated to change in his everyday life, as his whole position of DCAO demands that he think or and actualize change. Second, Mr. Gordon is prosocial in that people look up to him and understand his motivation to reforming Richmond. He is well known in all fronts for this dedication and must vocalize it constantly to ensure that all people are meeting their goals. Third, he is reciprocal because he is not authoritative. He emphasizes collaboration and only really delegates in order to connect organizations to each other. Even as an intern, I know that my ideas are valued and the daily tasks that I do are because Mr. Gordon is working overtime… in other words, despite my intern status, Mr. Gordon is not authoritative and instead, places me on the same level as the other workers in the office. Lastly, goals matter to Mr. Gordon. Mr. Gordon and the whole office of Human Services made a model to tangibly look at their goals and keep them on track to achieving them. I am even working selectively at trying to strategize towards these goals, through brainstorming policy and other reforms throughout Richmond (that align with the existing model). Overall, Mr.Gordon and his leadership style is not just transformational by choice, but transformational by demand. Mr. Gordon could not be in the position he is in without utilizing transformational leadership, which ultimately makes him more successful and helps him achieve his goals of change.