Okay, leadership is such an easy subject that you can’t even consider it a topic suitable for idle conversation. But if you still wanna know much I studied the concept of one person telling everyone else what to do with their lives, I can tell you this: I’ve rarely studied the subject at all. The “leader” that taught class all throughout 5th grade in elementary school? I knew she was being lead by the principal. And even then, the principal was under the control of the superintendent, who was being influenced by our parents.
Now having said that, it wasn’t until I got a little older that I realized CEOs, Army Generals, Class Presidents, Country Presidents, Criminal Bosses and the Town Sheriff/Rookie Head Cop/FBI Officer flick heroes that fought said Evil Crime Bosses, were also being lead by other people. Okay, I guess I always knew they were being lead. I just didn’t wanna admit it. All I ever wanted was for a CEO, Army General, Class President, Country President, Criminal Boss or the Leader Hero that fought ’em to just appear and say “Hey.”
Unfortunately, reality is a hard road indeed. Yep, you gotta admit, the laws of leadership definitely puts a damper on things. I even stopped watching those TV shows about office leaders and CEOs telling everyone else what to do. CEOs, Army Generals, Class Presidents, ‘course they don’t lead every single person in the world. But a little part of me wishes they did. I guess I’ve grown up and realized that I can think about those things and still accept reality. But by the time I got out of High School, I pretty much outgrew that kind of stuff. And I guess I got used to the idea of living in an ordinary world without any true leaders that tell everyone else what to do. And just like that, I was in college. And that’s when I met her.
“Nice to meet everyone. I hope we all have a good year together.” I announced to the class standing up, it being my turn to introduce myself. Taking a seat back down, it was the person behind me’s turn to introduce herself.
“I’m from East Town High School.” What she said was pretty normal up to this point. So I didn’t even bother turning around to look.
“First off, I’m not interested in any normal human beings. But if any of you are Army Generals, CEOs, or Country Presidents, please come see me. That is all.”
Upon hearing that, I couldn’t help but turn around. There stood before me this amazingly beautiful girl.
And after that, leadership never became a problem for me anymore.
By: Megg Gawat
October 9th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
I know that leadership might seem too easy, but not everyone is a leader. In my blog post I said that everyone can become one, but not everyone uses the tools to become a leader for various reasons. However, leadership looks “too easy” by definition, but in reality it is harder than it is. Actions speak louder than words in leadership. For example, the trip to Assateague Island might have sounded like it was a super fun and easy trip, but in reality it wasn’t. We went for a community service project to save the dunes by building fences for hours long. It was self fulfilling and rewarding to see the final product of our hard work. Then we had a good time after all the work was done. I agree with you that leadership might seem too easy and for some it is because it comes naturally, but in reality leadership requires management, responsibility, perseverance, endurance, hard work, and ACTION. Also, I hope that you can be exposed to more than one leadership style of one person telling another what to do. There are so many different leaders that shift their authority to their followers and then vice versa. There is bureaucratic, autocratic, transactional, charismatic, democratic/participative, laissez-faire, task oriented, people/relations related, servant, and transformational leadership. You can find each description on this page: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm
October 9th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
Soof, good reply! I don’t think you read my article though did you ?
Geez, you replied to my title only, but not the content that was inside of it !
!
I find that offensive !
Yeah there are different leadership styles, but I don’t believe in what a lot of businesses study. In my opinion they make everything so complicated. Why are charts and graphs necessary all on different leadership styles, why do there have to be theories in leadership, what motivates workers, etc?
Yeah that might work for some people, but I don’t think it works for everyone. Of course, I’m talking out of my axe here, I have no experience or any high positions in leadership that these people make theories of, but still, I honestly think they over complicate everything.
October 9th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Megg,
Great job explaining a thoughtful narrative. If my calculations are correct, you are speaking about Professor Wagner in a very sweet, respectable manner. In the beginning, I thought your reflection about leadership was interesting, because you were able to analyze your reflection on the subject and symbolism behind leadership.
October 10th, 2012 at 5:52 am
haha – nope, not me Lauren, seeking out CEO’s and and Army Generals is not where I go looking to explore leadership. I’m not into the leader=hero thing. I’m into looking at the processes people engage in when they work together to accomplish more than any single person barking orders from a position of authority could ever achieve.
I think Megg brings up some interesting points here – the biggest issue being about growing up and learning to think in more complex ways. I’m sure it’s a great comfort to imagine that there are smart strong leaders out there taking care of us and we don’t need to think for ourselves we can just do what they say and trust they have our best interest at heart. Not reality is it. Is that even a reality we would prefer? I think I much prefer one in which we all need to step-up in our own ways. Everyone needs a sense of purpose, a sense of being able to contribute to the world in meaningful ways.
October 10th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
I disagree. I think it is very difficult to be leader for many reasons. I think a good leader is one who appears to be the “hero”. There you have to appeal to people of all types. Also, the leader unless born to lead must learn how to lead by example from scratch. Finally, a leader is someone who is constantly up to be judged which I discuss in my blog: http://clce.onmason.com/2012/10/02/leadingtobejudged/ I feel that is extremely difficult to be a leader because of all the issues that one has to deal with.