My Idea of Leadership
My idea of leadership without dominating is being able to inspire others, motivate, set a vision, communicate, and of course respect others. A leader must have an honest understanding of who they are, what they know, and what they are capable of. To be a successful leader, you have to be able to convince your followers, not just yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed. In my opinion, this can build confidence in your followers to have faith in you, in order to be able to lead. I strongly believe that good leaders are made rather, and not born.
If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders are developed through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. My personal experience as a volunteer with the Kids against Hunger Program has allowed me to demonstrate being a leader without dominating the event. As a volunteer, I often would work with people with different capabilities and personalities. I learned if you respected the ideas of others they would respect you and often times my thoughts and suggestions would set the tone of the initiative and others would follow.
As a student you take on many responsibilities to include attending school, the completion of assignments on time, and studying. Responsibility means that I will show up to school on time and ready to learn; I will pay attention in class and I will be responsible for making sure I am participating in class and not relying on others to get me through. I realize that being responsible does not always mean that I will always accomplish my goals, but being responsible and oriented helps me to better accomplish the tasks ahead of me.
I take total responsibility for my life and would rather succeed than fail. A successful leader is one that is responsible; knows their strengths and weakness and is able to set realistic and attainable goals. Attendance is a frame of mind and a leadership characteristic in that your desire to learn sets you a part from others. This is the frame of mind I strive for on a daily basis. Participating in classroom discussions, volunteering at my part time job to taking on added responsibilities, to being a team player in DECA and helping with fund raising for children that have muscular dystrophy.
My experience has taught me that community involvement can lead to leadership roles. Often times when you step forward and out of your comfort zone you are being your self-worth for the type of individual you will be in the future. A recent group project in History class is a good example where each individual had specific responsibilities; however without an individual leader our group was unable to organize our ideas. I took this opportunity to step forward and volunteered to become the group leader, obtaining the cooperation of the other team members, which ultimately lead to our successful completion.
