Cal Poly Students with Dr. Antti Pasila (SeAMK Dean) and Dr. Douglas D. Piirto (Professor at Cal Poly) at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Ilmajoki, Finland. (Photo: M. Piirto) 

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... leader is being able to choose the right leadership style at the right time for that situation. However, you cannot make a giant sequoia tree from a turnip seed. Each of us has unique qualities and characteristics that affect how we interact with people. Those personality traits will affect the approach a person will ultimately take to lead an organization. A fundamental question that all of us have to answer is what leadership style will work best for me? There is no magic bullet as to the “right” leadership style that will fit all situations. The literature reports a relatively wide range of leadership styles with many different names. 12 Murray Johannsen lists 20 different leadership styles 13 with an emphasis on the Transformational Leadership Style that embraces aspects of various different leadership styles. The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management 14 identifies and discusses the following leadership styles making reference to Daniel Goleman's (2013) book titled Primal Leadership: 1.) visionary; 2.) coaching, 3.) affiliative; 4.) democratic; 5.) pacesetting, 6.) commanding. All aspiring leaders will want to read more about the various leadership styles. Some authors state that you must develop as many different leadership styles as possible to handle the various situations you will be faced with in your journey through life. I concur with that assessment. Examples of six leadership styles for providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people as listed in Wikipedia 15 are further discussed below in relation to actual situations I have experienced as a leader: 1. Authoritarian — Strict, close control by the boss; 2. Paternalistic — Complete concern for followers and workers with complete trust; 3. Democratic — Shared decision-making with guidance by a specific leader; 4. Laissez-faire — The worker is fully empowered in the decision making process (i.e., boss is hands off); 5. Transactional — Strict adherence to established routines and procedures (i.e., by the book) with worker rewards; 6. Transformational — A variety of leadership styles are used by charismatic leader to change/transform, challenge, and inspire others; A few examples in my career where these different leadership styles were employed are discussed in the following sections. As a forest scientist you must always be on the hunt for good research ideas, especially those ideas that are fundamentally important to better forest and land management decisions. Proposals must be written with a clear purpose and need for the proposed research. Once grants are obtained, then the project work must be delegated to co-workers (i.e., other scientists, graduate students, administrative support personnel, technicians) with established deadlines. Experiments and trials must be conducted, data collected and analyzed, papers developed, published, and presented at professional /scientific meetings. In this context the Project Leaders (i.e., the lead scientist /professor) uses a variety of leadership styles which in my case included authoritarian, paternalistic, and democratic approaches. Concerns about long-term management of coast redwood stands (Standiford et. al. 2012, Piirto et. al. 2012; Piirto et. al. 1997b, 1997c), pitch canker infected native stands of Monterey pine (Stephens et. al. 2004; Piirto and Valkonen 2005; Ferchaw et. al. 2013), and central coast oak woodlands (Rice et. al 2004) required scientific leadership on the part of many people insuring that publishable peer reviewed papers were produced in a timely manner per the expectations of the funding organizations. Science must be part of the information used by leaders in arriving at informed, justifiable, and defensible decisions. Likewise science has been and is very important to the management decisions made for Sierra Nevada giant sequoia groves and their associated ecosystems (Figures 4 and 5). This underpinning of science to management was clearly evident in the management planning for the Giant Sequoia National Monument (GSNM) created by Presidential Proclamation signed by President Clinton on April 15, 2000. A GSNM Science Advisory Board was established as a result of that proclamation to help USDA Forest Service leaders develop a Management Plan (USDA Forest Service 2012) and associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). I was asked to serve on that Science Advisory Board (Clark et. al. 2003) and to assist both the Sierra National Forest and the Sequoia National Forest to develop an ecological foundation for management of National Forest giant sequoia groves. That work to implement ecosystem management principles in giant sequoia groves led to several peer reviewed publications (Piirto and Rogers 2002, 1999a, 1999b; Piirto et. al. 1997a; Piirto 1994). Leadership occurs in many different ways by scientists, concerned citizens, and agency leaders as these examples clearly demonstrate. Professors are also involved in teaching and mentoring students (Figure 6). A professor wanting to make a difference in terms of teaching must be “passionate” about their subject area to such an extent that it shows in the classroom. Students learn when they listen, work, and learn by doing with enthusiastic and interesting faculty members. Nothing is more boring than a professor reading their lecture notes prepared many years ago. The professor must be awe inspiring and current to help students expand their knowledge of the subject area. So in this context, the leadership style being followed is perhaps best described as transformational yet at times the professor must be paternalistic and authoritarian to insure that the course, program and university expectations (i.e., learning outcomes and student performance) as listed in the course syllabus and university catalog are being met. Professors are often, depending on their academic achievements, asked to lead the academic department they are in as either a Department Head or Chair as was the case for me. I served as the Department Head for the National Resources Management and Environmental Sciences (NRES) Department at Cal Poly for 14 years. A lot of work and many accomplishments occurred during that timeframe, more than I can comment on here. Fourteen years is a long time to serve as a university department head. What did I do to survive and succeed for that period of time? Four management and leadership strategies stand out in my mind as being important to the success of an academic department. First, the Department Head or Chair must clearly understand that working with faculty and staff in a university setting (i.e., the Academy) is not the same as working with a group of workers on the factory floor. Professors are self- starters and seek a lot of independence and autonomy for their assigned role in the university. University faculty and staff want to be consulted (shared governance) on all major administrative decisions affecting the department, college and university but they would rather leave all the nitty-gritty details up to the Department Head and other administrators. Second, academic programs must always be evaluated in terms of their relevance and currency. The Department Head or Chair must periodically be involved in strategic planning and program /accreditation reviews (e.g., Piirto 2014; Shelton et. al. 2006) to insure that currency is maintained and enhanced. Follow-up development of an Action Plan that implements the accepted recommendations of those reviews is essential to timely enhancement of department programs. Third, an outside advisory council can help keep the Department Head, other administrators, faculty, and staff in tune with changes in the professions the department serves (refer to Figure 7). The outside advisory council can be tasked to provide information to the academic Department Head, faculty and staff on emerging trends, career / job opportunities, sources of research funding / donations, curriculum concerns, and so much more which in turn can lead to better programmatic decisions. Fourth, application of good meeting management (Frank 1989), effective communication (Carnegie 1962; Piirto 1989) and human relations (Carnegie 1936) principles learned from training and experience must be sincerely and enthusiastically applied to garner trust, respect, and most importantly teamwork. As an agency officer with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service I was responsible for timber management program on both the Kings River and later the Pineridge Ranger Districts of the Sierra National Forest. A large number of people were assigned to work with me on this forest management, timber sale preparation, sale administration, reforestation and timber stand improvement program. Goals, objectives and tasks were clearly identified for the people assigned to work with and for me. The employees knew what work needed to be done and I gave them plenty of latitude to get that work done within the context of known agency procedures and protocols. Yet there were many situations where the boss must be the boss to insure that specific agency policies regarding time, attendance, performance standards, safety and much more were being followed by all employees under their direction. Various leadership styles (e.g., authoritarian, democratic, paternalistic, and others) were used depending on the specific situation. Good discussion, feedback, and employee agreement to the work at hand is essential no matter what leadership style is used. As a USDA Forest Service employee and as a U.S. citizen, I was concerned about the proposed Dinkey Dam project and its environmental impacts on the Sierra National Forest. So, I stepped forward and spoke out. The proposed dam project would have diverted water from several streams via an underground tunnel beneath McKinley Grove (i.e., old-growth giant sequoias) forming a reservoir (i.e., man-made lake) in the Dinkey Creek Area of the Sierra National ...