As a senior human resources officer and leader in the United States Army, I have found this course not only very informative, but very useful for practice and application future. Through the myriad of different leadership theories and approaches, I have developed a better understanding of the historical, political, social, cultural, psychological, and organizational contexts in which leadership occurs. I know several ways to identify staff who could become better leaders using the trait approach, the competency approach and the style approach. They are also able to better match leaders with subordinates using the situational approach, contingency theory, and path-goal theory. Lastly, and probably most importantly, I have learned several leadership techniques that I can personally apply as a leader to better understand and influence my subordinates. The ability to identify leadership candidates will be a very useful skill set that I can apply in hiring and promoting myself into leadership positions. From the instruction in this course, I learned several approaches to identifying potential leaders. Through the trait approach, which emphasizes a leader's personality characteristics, the competency approach, which emphasizes the leader's abilities, and the style approach, which emphasizes the leader's behavior, I can select the right people to be successful in leadership roles (Northouse, 2013) . All three approaches can be used affectively to identify people who have the potential to be strong leaders. I could use questionnaires for all three approaches during the hiring process to determine whether they have the traits, skills, and behavior of the type of leader the organization would like to hire… middle of paper… … adapt my leadership style based on the subordinate to achieve optimal results. With the model, I now know how to better evaluate my subordinates and what leadership style to adopt based on their level of competence/commitment, whether directing, supporting, coaching or delegating. I also learned valuable insights from leader member exchange theory on how to create higher quality exchanges with my subordinates. Learning about Transformational Leadership and Authentic Leadership has also given me a greater understanding of how I can inspire my subordinates through my words and actions. This course has definitely provided me with useful knowledge that will make me a much more effective leader as I continue my career as an HR professional. Works cited Northhouse, P. G. (2013). Direction. (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.