My definition of leadership has changed drastically since my start at American University. When I first arrived, I was unsure of what true leadership entailed and had a loose view of how to be a leader. I had experienced leadership through the sports I played or by trying to emulate my teacher’s leadership styles, but I had no real concept of leadership. Today, I would say that I am much more educated and aware of different leadership styles, attributes, and concepts that allow me to define and analyze the various influential and successful leaders of our time. In the past, I might’ve defined leadership as the ability of someone to make decisions to reach a goal. I would say now that my definition of leadership is the ability for an individual to motivate their followers and help them to obtain growth, in order to achieve the goals of the team. While these might not seem that much different, I believe that there is a drastic difference in the purpose of leadership between the two definitions that is highly important towards becoming a well-rounded leader. In understanding a new definition, I have been able to analyze people close to me and myself to determine the type of leadership style and attributes we possess. I have seen a variety of people express leadership styles and attributes that can drastically differ from one another, making it easier to understand how to better work with them. Additionally, when it comes to myself, through the various reflections that I have written regarding my leadership, I have been able to really understand my own leadership and change aspects of it to become a better leader.
The way in which I have demonstrated the skills to work collaboratively is through the various teams I have worked within my campus, community service, or professional experience. In particular, when I interned for the Senate Diversity Initiative, I had to communicate and cooperate with my fellow interns and staff to solve certain issues. Through my abilities to reason, listen, understand, and compromise with my team, I was able to demonstrate that I had the capability of effectively collaborating with other individuals. I have also been able to build my theoretical and practical knowledge of leadership through my application of certain leadership styles. By learning more about the various leadership styles and approaches, I have been able to use the information to create theoretical structures for the types of leadership that are present, and then use the aspects of these approaches and styles to apply the practical knowledge of leadership.
As I stated in my definition, I better understand leadership as a process through the impact that leadership has on the outcome of the goals of an organization and the impact on one’s followers. The process of leadership involves encouraging, motivating, and lifting up followers to achieve their own goals and to inspire them to progress themselves. By doing this, it shows how leadership doesn’t just involve holding a position of power and making decisions for a group of individuals. Rather, leadership is the importance of promoting the process of growth for one’s followers and ensuring that they reach their full potential. The way in which I was able to engage in leadership behaviors and opportunities that reflect leadership as a process is through my willingness to take on roles that took me out of my comfort zone. In these leadership roles, while I was not particularly confident in my ability to lead, I challenge myself to commit to the experience, in order to enhance my leadership development. As a result, I was able to learn a lot about my leadership style and approach through my development and my engagement in a leadership role.