By Ethan Glogau
Thinking about what to write my first leadership post about, I kept thinking about what type of leader I am now, what type of leader I used to be, and what type of leader I aspire to be. By thinking about these different stages of leadership and self, I hope to learn about myself and develop my leadership skills further.
In high school, my leadership goals were very selfish. Oh, I want to be president of this club because it will look good on a resume, I couldn’t care less for the actual organization and goals it wishes to achieve. As you can imagine, this philosophy does not get you very far in life. Without an investment in the success of what you are leading, it is doomed to fail or fade into irrelevance. That was a very childish viewpoint that I have grown out of.
Currently, my leadership journey has taken me to a point of introspection. I don’t know exactly what type of leader I am or want to be. Do I even want to be a leader? Am I put together enough for others to follow me? These questions are very important, and I have been developing my answers in this first year of college. Currently, my leadership strengths lie around leading by example and working the hardest to achieve my goals. I haven’t gone out specifically to get others to follow me. If I don’t show that I should be followed as a leader then any attempt to lead is pointless. For this reason, I have focused on developing myself so that I can be someone to be looked up to and a valuable resource for those around me.
As I grow into the person I want to be, I look towards the qualities of a leader which I strive to embody. Reliability and leading by example are two of the most important leadership characteristics I wish to embody. If you aren’t reliable, you don’t deserve to be followed because you cannot be depended on to work for what you want to achieve. As a leader, you can’t ask those who follow you to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. For this reason, you must lead by example and show everyone that you have what it takes to do what needs to be done.