What Makes a Leader? Essay

Leadership can mean something different to everyone. To me leadership encompasses many things. Leadership is being able to motivate others to achieve. Leadership is listening to what others have to say and acting on it. Leadership is using interpersonal skills to communicate with others. Leadership is being a good example to others.

Leadership is “the fusion of heart and mind, selfless action, encourage betterment of others, and to make a difference. It is the process of influencing

Leadership, which is defined as “…The action of leading a group of people or an organization” is used in many different ways. Most people think being a leader is mostly about being the boss, having people work under you and just becoming successful, but it boils down to more than that. Leaders are those individuals that actually utilize their many abilities in leadership and administration to help make a better change for themselves, the people around them and the goal that needs to be achieved. Leadership is not an expertise that can essentially be grabbed from a book or article based on leadership but instead it is one of those initiative abilities that are increased through experience and understanding those real life situations.

Leadership is all about having the right amount of heart and determination to help make a difference in someone’s life. It takes certain qualities to be considered a good leader. A leader should want to help inspire others to make a change and to be the best that they can be. A true leader does not need to feel powerful, instead they empower those around them. Throughout my life I have come across various leaders who have made an impact on my life. It takes a very special person to inspire and touch people’s lives. Leadership is so much deeper than having power and bossing people around.

Through Frederick Douglass’s, Sam Houston’s, and my own life, being fearless, determined, and dependable has helped us be great leaders. In all great leaders, character plays an important part, for it defines the way they will interact with people and situations. Leaders tend to have strong traits, courage and ambition, for example.

Leadership is defined as the position of a leader, the ability to lead. I assure you it is much more then that. Being a leader is not easy, I have learned from personal experience. Being a captain of a football team is hard work. It takes guts to stand up and be a leader.

Leadership, to me, is not necessarily always equated with a formal title, but rather it is characterized by the attitude, behavior, mindset, and actions of a person. Being a leader means being positive and supportive of others, providing them the opportunity to be heard and know that their opinion matters, motivating them to accomplish shared goals through teamwork. Over the past years,

“At times of change or dealing with uncertainty or in a crisis-- that is when the best leader will shine” (Ellis, 2016). A leader who can work effectively in a complicated, unpredictable situation is a competent leader and he tirelessly works to improve his capabilities (Ledlow & Coppola, 2010). All great leaders are known for communicating effectively what they want to achieve. They are visionaries who have the ability to lead others toward a shared goal (Gibson & Weber, 2015).

Leadership can be hard to define and it means different things to different people. To me it means being able to create an inspiring vision of the future and help people achieve that vision. It also means being able to help people acquire that vision either directly or indirectly and help them grow.

There are many admirable traits of leadership, but the three I discussed above are the characteristics by which I desire to live. I want to build strong and genuine relationships, be forward thinking and a role model that others want to follow. I do not believe that a person must be a born leader; rather, I have the view that we can all acquire qualities that will help us grow and develop into leaders. It is human to make mistakes, but if we learn from them, we will be better people, who can make a difference in this world. In the words of Mahatma

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

Committed. Creative. Courageous. These are but few of the great aspects of true leadership. Through hardships and tribulation, a leader is able to effectively take control and be a example to those who surround them. Throughout my 18 years of living, I have experienced and taken advantage of this great characteristic. In my daily life, I believe leadership is what drives, motivates, and ultimately has made me who I am to this very day. I have been selected and elected leadership roles in many of the organizations I participate in, my community, and my family. I take great pride in this, because people are able to look up to me and implement those qualities within their own life. I, of course, have learned what genuine leadership is by observing the amazing actions of others. Within

Daniel Goleman’s article “What Makes a Leader?” was very insightful into what makes a person a leader. It proved to provide relationship between emotional intelligence and the effective performance of leaders in organizations. In 2010, I was taking my first Undergrad Degree class at Liberty University in Virginia. The class was a Professional Business writing class that was a requirement for all degree seekers. In the first lecture, the professor noticed about half the class was made up of military professionals. He stated “The highest grade you will receive in this class will be a B if you are a military person”. He went on to explain the phenomenon of that “military speak” is very passive in nature. I am not sure of the other students but it was a real eye opener for me to learn to break the habits I had learned in the military and was rewarded with a “B” grade. In my experience, success was based on how one conformed to the system. A person who conformed to the values and goals of their superiors would be rewarded with higher performance evaluations than their peers. In the military, where promotions are linked to these evaluations, along with tenure (or tie in rank), many people abandon their own needs and drives to maintain promotability. As for Goleman’s second component, Self-Regulation (in the Robbins text it is also referred to as self-management), I see eye to eye with his analysis. In many organizations, leadership does not demonstrate apposite self-regulation. We

What does it mean to be a leader? There are leaders in everyday situations that society is a part of: whether it be a professor, boss, coach, captain, politics and so on. No matter how big our roles, we have some type of leadership responsibility over others. How does one effectively lead these people? What methods, ideas, and skills should they convey to these people? It is not always easy or fun to be a leader and it is almost guaranteed that not everyone will like said leader and all that they stand for. What type of person or ideas comes to mind when someone says the word President? Hopefully they are positive words like leader, intelligent, helpful, and hardworking and so many more great qualities. A president has one of the toughest leadership roles in my opinion that has to make very tough decisions on topics that people have many varying opinions on. As a voter it can be hard to understand all of the information and which side to choose. A person must ask themselves what they stand for or believe in and then decide who will complete these tasks the best way possible. To be a first time voter it is a very exciting experience but there is also a lot of turmoil associated with this election that makes it hard to know which side to choose. With an election year like never before, the candidates have placed a lot of pressure on voters to decide who is fit enough to bring our country back into order, but Donald Trump has the potential to fix a nation that has a growing

It’s impossible to respect, value and admire great leadership if you can’t identify what makes a leader great. There are noticeable differences among the leaders, none may be as significant as the leadership styles of the men and women leading their respective organizations. Many researchers suggest that women leaders are natural leaders and women are more qualified for leadership positions while others suggest differently. I address my assertion that women possess more natural leadership than men. This paper will include some inserts from different articles about the topic and real examples of current women leaders in our society. I will conclude by closing defending lines and by suggesting more women should take leadership roles in our society.