Be a Leader, Not a Follower

Being a Girl Scout from kindergarten until the end of middle school has taught me various life skills. Firstly, it has taught me the importance of teamwork. Through various projects and activities, my troop and I have worked together in achieving any goals set by our leaders and other members of our community. This experience has also taught me life skills that can help me as an individual, such as first aid and how to deal with children. My mother was a troop leader for girls in grades third through fifth, excluding me from the eighth grade, and I acted somewhat as a co-leader for my mum when the actual co-leader was unavailable. I set up crafts and helped the younger girls with badges that I had already gotten in the

For eighteen years now my parents have influenced me to do my best in academics and extracurricular activities. Both of my parents have gone to college and both have had successful careers. My dad was a highly recognized Police Chief for Waukesha County and is now on the

Having grown up as an only child in a single parent home all of my life, I lived and endured a great amount of uncertainty as to who I really was as an individual during my early formative years. It wasn’t until my high school years, that I began forming my compassion for community service and being of assistance to people that had not lived as protected of an existence as I had. In my

When I was seven years old, I remember seeing boys from the school 's Cub Scouts program walking through the hallway. Dawned in dark blue uniforms, with orange neckties, and many colorful badges, these scouts stunned me by the unity and patriotic spirit that they showed. That evening, I went home from school and ran to the kitchen table where my father was sitting. I explained to him that I wanted to join scouting. He smiled at me and quickly took me to the local Boy Scouts headquarters, where I was signed up for a "pack" as it was called.

I have been an active member of Girl Scouts of America for 11 years. Within my troop we participate in coordinating events for local Girl Scouts and their families, sell cookies, nuts, and magazines annually, as well as participate in community service. Some of the community service events we participate in include, making Easter baskets for the local Women's Haven, making and sending Christmas gifts to our troops overseas and veterans, making and serving food at the Salvation Army, as well as providing hygiene and snack bags for each person we serve, and we recently provided care packs to be sent to the families in the Butte County area that were affected by the recent wildfires that California experienced last year. Also, my Girl Scout troop actively camps and advocates the preservation of the wilderness.

Scouting is probably one of the first stories I should tell, as it has become the moral bedrock for my entire life and personal philosophy. I could write an entire book office individual stories from my time as a youth and the lessons it taught me, but in the interest of time I will condense it. Scouting taught me to look out for myself and others through countless trainings and even just weekend camping trips. Personal responsibility, dedication, and a dependable work ethic were all things I learned on my trail to becoming an Eagle Scout and particularly during my years working on the Canyon Camp Staff. I served

From the group Biblical Integration Paper, it was understood that servant-leadership is not only a gift of purpose that God places in the hearts of His people, but it is also a calling in one’s life to truly touch the lives of others in need. Living a successful life, as a servant-leader is not one that focuses on self-fulfillment, rather it is in seeking a fulfillment that comes from Christ when one pours him/herself out for the sake of others. It is through servant-leadership that one is able to bring hope into hopeless situations (Group Integration Paper,

Girl Scouts just happened to be the way that I could continue to help others and actually make a difference locally. It also gave me the idea that I did not want to just live life in the focus of myself or those closest to me, I wanted to have a real purpose by changing other people’s lives, even if it is just locally. In addition to the community service, Girl Scouts also did an excellent job of teaching the younger generation environmentalism. For my troop, Troop 1865, we read a book on how to treat the Earth better and then each girl chose a specific topic to present in a local school to the students and any local citizens about how they could each treat the environment better in their own simple way. Not only did this provide a service but it instilled the idea of environmentalism in me and made it a topic that I, back then and today, care deeply about. Now, I am working towards my Gold Award, in the direction of providing a service both to the community and to the

I have been a Girl Scout for sixteen years, and I will continue to be one for the rest of my

Who am I? At this point in my life I really only participate in three groups. My family, my work and my school. I do not currently choose not to participate in social circles as my family, work and school dominate the majority of my time and I dedicate the rest of my time to personal activities that are typically solo activities.

1. When discussing leadership and followership, there is often a split in personal opinion when it comes to which one is more important. Leadership and followership both offer unique benefits in their own right and have supporting factors, which give them the perceived appearance of being more important. The focus for this paper will be to advocate the importance of followership over that of leadership. This will be accomplished by addressing the pros of followership to include some core skills of followership and the effects followership has on the development of a leader. The expectation of an officer however, places a high amount of emphasis on leadership more so than that of followership. Given this perceived importance of leadership as an officer, an effective leadership style will be explained and how officers develop this particular leadership style. While leadership has a distinct presence within the professional work environment, followership is considered the underlying backbone in developing an effective high performing team.

Before this class, I had a very primitive and vague definition of leadership. Not only did I define it as per my views and ideologies, but I also said that each individual has their own definition of leadership. My initial belief was that leadership does not have a clear cut definition, but there were well defined leadership traits which made an individual. I also initially believed that personal traits did not translate into leadership traits with no strong correlation. After going through the various modules this class offered, it is safe to say that I have significantly redefined leadership and underwent a strong personal assessment. This paper talks what I took back from each of the class activities, assignments and how my self-assessment compares to the perception of others.

As a future leader, I will have many opportunities to do things that have a positive and lasting impact on the lives of others. This impact will be shaped by the actions, beliefs and values that I have gained through my various life experiences, especially those experiences from my family. I have had many people that have influenced me in positive ways: my parents, my hockey coaches at Loomis Chaffee and at Cushing Academy, and some of my teachers at Cushing Academy. If I had to choose an individual that has impacted my life in terms of leadership, that person would be my father. Thus, I would like to emulate his values, beliefs and actions in my future. I hope to be a man and a leader of fine character, and I hope to make my

Riggio, R., Chaleff, I., & Lipman-Blumen, J. (Eds) (2008). The Art of Followership How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

There are always chances and possibilities to become a good leader regardless the odds against you, gender, age, race, education, previous experience, etc. This paper defines what leadership is and it explains the relationship between leadership and influence. It also highlights the importance of finding opportunities to develop skills and creating strong to become a good leader. It is also emphasized the power of influence that comes from motivating your team, to improve performance and satisfaction and that setting a clear goal is mandatory for good leadership. The conclusion summarizes all the topics under discussion.