Leadership is a journey of personal discovery. It’s a combination of skills, personality and behavior that motivates people to create extraordinary change. For me, leadership is a way of life and an everyday lifestyle as to which you adapt or you don’t. Leadership is all about vision, goals, and the want to inspire others toward a common purpose. Some people believe leaders are born, however leaders can be developed through following. Barbara Kellerman declared, are followers first in “We infancy and childhood of the adults on whom we depend, and then later in life we follow leaders before we lead follower.” (intro, xxii) Throughout my entire life, people have always defined me as a leader. I understood how this conclusion came about from my social environment, but I just went along with it. It was sometime after high school when I tapped into what others saw that I didn’t. I began to notice how my behavior and personality changed as I grew older (as any other person), but one thing I noticed was how often people complimented me my level of maturity, leadership capabilities and how proud they were of me. I began to think about myself as a leader and how effective I would be. I’ve noticed of all my close friends, I was more extroverted and brought that characteristic out in anybody. Before I realized, I was looked at as a cultivator, a leader. Honestly, I have to give credit to my parents for instilling in me the values of leadership, which was being a servant first. According to Robert Greenleaf author of The Servant as Leader (1977), leader must be a “a servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.”(p.6). My parents showed me the meaning of being respectful to my elders and if asked to serve, then do so willingly in
Leadership is a journey of personal discovery. It’s a combination of skills, personality and behavior that motivates people to create extraordinary change. For me, leadership is a way of life and an everyday lifestyle as to which you adapt or you don’t. Leadership is all about vision, goals, and the want to inspire others toward a common purpose. Some people believe leaders are born, however leaders can be developed through following. Barbara Kellerman declared, “We are followers first in infancy and childhood of the adults on whom we depend, and then later in life we follow leaders before we lead follower.” (intro, xxii) Throughout my entire life, people have always defined me as a leader. I understood how this conclusion came about from my social environment, but I just went along with it. It was sometime after high school when I tapped into what others saw that I didn’t. I began to notice how my behavior and personality changed as I grew older (as any other person), but one thing I noticed was how often people complimented me my level of maturity, leadership capabilities and how proud they were of me. I began to think about myself as a leader and how effective I would be. I’ve noticed of all my close friends, I was more extroverted and brought that characteristic out in anybody. Before I realized, I was looked at as a cultivator, a leader. Honestly, I have to give credit to my parents for instilling in me the values of leadership, which was being a servant first. According to Robert Greenleaf author of The Servant as Leader (1977), “a leader must be a servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.”(p.6). My parents showed me the meaning of being respectful to my elders and if asked to serve, then do so willingly in
msl_566-leaders_and_followers.docx