Thursday, January 24, 2008
My Role As A Leader
As president of Student Council I have come to acknowledge myself as a leader and as someone who wants to make a difference in my school and community. I have learned first-hand how to work with members of the council, the executive board, my advisors, and the student body. Most importantly, however, I have learned more about myself and my personal contributions as a leader. There are times when I need to take the initiative and stay committed to a task, but there are also times when I need to delegate and put trust in my council-members to offer their commitment. Delegation has been one of the hardest jobs as president. I am so used to just doing, but now I must think of my council first and delegate accordingly. Overall, being president has been the most rewarding positions I have ever held. When I stand in front of the council, give basic instructions, and then watch them put their minds to work and accomplish their goals I realize just how important leadership is. It's not about how many leadership positions you hold, but instead it is about what you choose to do with those positions. A common misconception is that leaders are the ones who are successful. What is misunderstand is that a true leader takes what he or she knows and provides that information to others so that they can be successful. Leadership really is a service; and as Student Council President, the service I am able to give to council, to my school, and to my community is how I know I am being successful.
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3 comments:
This is an insightful and revealing first entry. There are many leaders in history who talk about the sense of service, of duty, to those they lead. Your entry shows a greater level of maturity already, since you have already come to realize that leadership is not so much about the success of the leader but rather the realizing the potential of the group. At the same time, you share a very common "weakness" in your reluctance to delegate. For years you've been the one people have come to in order to get things done - and you performed marvelously - but it builds this sense of duty to do the job yourself. But a great leader will know how to build "ownership" within the members of the group - even at the expense of something not being done just as they would have it done. This is a huge step for a leader to take, to be willing to risk public criticism for the quality of the task in exchange for building a stronger team.
Well done. Continue to be reflective, honest, and focused!
This may be a little "science-nerdy" on my part, but here goes:
I recently discovered that my college advisor had a blog. Your post reminded me of this post he made, with its references to teaching to the test and providing a one-size-fits-all solution to education.
Incase you don't know, an ecosystem is most stable when it is biologically diverse. A monoculture (defined as a single, homogeneous culture without diversity) is biologically unstable and susceptible to disease.
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