How Do I Define Leadership?
Back in my hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, my understanding of leadership continually shifted throughout my life, as I immersed myself in different activities as I proceeded to grow. When I was little, I observed my father closely, watching this busy businessman receive many promotions at his job. Obviously being younger, I believed that my by my dad climbing to higher positions, he was becoming a leader. That striving to gain more authority in order to hold a higher title was the only goal of leadership. After years of being in school, taking part in philanthropic work and traveling around the world, my understanding of what it means to be a leader has transformed completely.
To me, being a leader is not necessarily taking on the role of being a boss, but serving as an inspiration for others to admire your qualities and gain motivation to help get a task completed. There should be no titles assigned or hierarchy established in a group, but instead a collaboration of multiple people sharing their diverse skills to all work on the issue at hand. Within a group of people, everyone can demonstrate leadership, whether it be simultaneously or at different times, every individual should have the chance to give input that will help further the group’s task. Leadership can also serve as a way to empower others to gain some leadership, such as motivating someone to give their input or maybe how they could improve their process to help reach the finished product. Additionally, strong leadership means striving towards a goal. A successful leader does not take charge and make demands just to reach their goal of taking power over a group of people, but instead see the goal of collaborating well socially with the other group members and reaching a completed group project.
The common purpose of this community leadership class is to introduce college students to managing their leadership skills. Leadership is a quality that everyone has and will use throughout their life, so being taught about how to use it effectively and not abuse this form of empowerment is crucial for young adults to understand before obtaining work after college. Throughout my life I have been assigned to countless group projects during school and have had to undergo the stress of deciding who will take on what part while attempting to hone my leadership skills. Although I believe that working on this type of leadership, in cases such as school projects, would be a very helpful skill to have in the future, being a leader can take on other forms as well. I want to further learn how to become a leader in fields such as philanthropy. I have always taken part in community service or charity through programs such as National Charity League, National Honors Society, and even through programs in Peru, where I have offered my help to many people throughout this country. I want to take what I can learn from this class and apply it to this passion of philanthropy that I have and maybe start my own organization of some sort and take on a higher leadership position than that of me just volunteering under bigger organizations.
Being in the Impact Leadership Village will allow me to obtain an even better understanding of how to become a leader mostly because of the involvement it offers its students. Even though some of this village’s activities are required, such as participating in at least five hours of community service, it pushes the students to get involved and take part in volunteer work that they may not have ever done before. Being involved in this way can boost a student’s confidence. This leadership village will allow me to meet new people and learn how to collaborate them and the skills that I develop by doing this can be used outside of the village as well. I hope to use my time in the Impact Leadership Village to find out about many organizations where I can get involved even outside of the village.
One of the course learning outcomes consists of the students adapting to their own philosophies of leadership. It is crucial to understand that leadership does not mean exactly the same thing to every person, besides its main factors. Everyone must set a goal of their own in what they want to accomplish for themselves by being a leader. Since my common purpose for this course is managing leadership and applying it to different situations, it relates to identifying sources of power in certain organizations. Sometimes being a source of power is crucial for an organization, but this responsibility must not be abused. Every organization will work together differently as they strive to make their impact, so understanding where power needs to be implemented instead of empowerment can be okay, as long as the person in power does not become a dictator. Taking charge is a very tricky subject, especially when it comes to relational leadership, one of the last learning outcomes for this course. Being able to evaluate how your leadership affects others is crucial, if someone does happen to be abusing their power.