Hey guys if you haven’t already noticed, I am extremely shy and I only speak when spoken too. I have noticed that when we talk in class about leadership strategies we always break up into groups of leadership my a direct central leader and leadership by a group of people doing different tasks, but I believe in leadership by example. Obviously because I am shy this appeals to me more because there really isn’t much communication when you lead my example. I feel this strategy works best when you are looked up to as a role model in your family, your community or your school. If you just take the time to think about how your day to day actions would look from someone else’s point of view that looks up to you or how they would respond and/or copy those actions you can become a tremendous leader! Sometime you just have to step back and decide what would be an inspiring thing to see from someone else’s eyes. For example, if you see someone litter and you just take a few seconds to put the trash in a trash can. Think about how that would look to a group of kids walking by. I have two younger siblings and plenty of little cousins that look to me as a leader. When I think about how much of an impact my actions can have on them it really makes me think twice about the example I set. So next time you see a youngster copy your actions, think to yourself “was that the best thing for them to see” or “how can I use my leadership skill to set a good example for people in my surroundings.” In the end, there are many different types to leadership and it all just depends on the situation but whenever I want to lead I always LEAD MY EXAMPLE!
October 4th, 2012 at 7:08 pm
I completely understand where you are coming from. I too am shy and would rather lead through actions rather than having to speak. However, I told myself that when I got to college, I would learn to speak up (I’m still working on that). Overall though, I think a good leader is someone who can set forth something good within a group of people. Through whatever channel it is achieved, whether it be verbal, actions, Twitter, videos, etc., positive things should amount from it. And there is nothing more powerful than having influence over younger people. I am the “little sister” in my family so I have seen and attempted to do things my older siblings have done, both good and bad. It was just the simple fact that I’d seen the people I’d looked up to doing these things. What I mean by that is actions really do speak louder than words. Anyways, I hear that college is the place where people break out of their shyness so hopefully that will prove to be true for the both of us.
October 9th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
This really caught my eye!! When I read the part about “youngsters” I immediately thought of my boyfriends 11-year-old sister, H. H only has one older female close to her in age, and that’s her cousin. The others are all either aunts, her mom, and her grand moms. H has always looked up to me, and my boyfriend says she asks about me/talks about me all the time when I’m gone at school.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is that fact that sometimes we lead without even realizing that we’re leading. That’s when we really must be most careful about what we do or say, because someone out there IS going to notice. Great post, Keilah!
October 9th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
In my opinion, leading by both example and by words is the way to go. It depends on the moment. Whenever someone litters on the ground and they just walk away, and no one is around, yeah you’re leading by example, but leading by example, nobody.
Or if there were a crowd of 500 pre-schoolers, but they all had their own thoughts, and they all disagreed with what adults do. They grew up doing exactly the opposite of what adults do, and so when they saw you ‘leading by example,’ 20 years later, they’re littering all over the place!
Sometimes you have to tell that guy to pick up the trash! If he doesn’t pick up the trash, at least you tried communicating with him in the first place, you can be like “what a loooooooser!” and then that guy will feel bad about littering and that moment would then change his life forever.
He might even turn around, apologize, pick up the trash, and then thank you. Who knows, what if he had no one to talk to his entire life and you were the very first person that ever asked him to do something kind?
Yeah all these situations are hypothetical, but I’m just making the point that it doesn’t even matter what you do ! Just do something and you win! As long as that ‘something’ isn’t something that will eventually harm you or destroy you in the future, such as drinking 500 bottles of alcohol in 2 minutes and then surviving! Totally not good for you!
Anyway, yeah. My advice given can go both ways. You can either accept the fact that I’m right, or live in the shadows forever knowing that you are wrong.
October 9th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
I agree completely! I’m kind of on the shy side too and I do most of what you described. In my family I have a lot of little cousins that I’m really close too and I’ve noticed that a lot of what I do influences what they do. Last year, around this time, when I was receiving acceptance letters from school it really affected my little cousins – they went straight to doing their homework and started talking about places they wanted to go to school. At that moment I was proud, but I want them to continue to do better and push themselves, so I told them, ” Don’t be like me, be better than me. I want you to get better grades than I did and go to a better school than I will. Make me proud.”
October 10th, 2012 at 6:31 am
This is a compelling subject. Years ago Charles Barkley made headlines by saying he refused to be a role model for kids that sparked debate all over the news. Is this something a person chooses? It’s one thing to choose to lead through your actions, but how about those people who because of their position have leadership thrust upon them? If the kids are already watching, whether you asked for it or not, what is your responsibility?
Once you’ve thought on that a bit, let me follow-up with this from a mom’s perspective: the kids are always watching, and they watch everyone.
October 10th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I could not agree with you more. I think this topic really appeals to me because I am definitely on the shy side and for the longest time I thought that I couldn’t be an adequate leader because of this. I think that there is a certain stigma surrounding leadership positions. Many people assume that leaders need to be outspoken and hungry for power, but in reality the best leaders are able to lead by example and not by control. As we so often hear, actions speak louder than words. One leader could have the best speaking skills and could say all the right things at the exact right moment, but if they are unable to follow through with their actions, then they cannot genuinely be leaders. In my opinion being a positive example is the most important quality a leader can possess.