Leadership 2/19/10

Leadership is taking authority over a group of people to help lead and succeed; to reach certain goals. It involves setting your own goals and following through with them, and using trust, honesty, and positive character to earn the respect of people who are then willing to follow your lead, and then everyone works together to bring out the best in your fellow teammates. Just as the author of Exploring Leadership said, "Leadership is not a position that someone gives you; it is ultimately a privilege that you must earn and maintain." Vocal leadership is leading someone else by words, and taking authority when speaking to the rest of the team. Performance leadership is leading by actions, and demonstrating things they want done by actually doing them themselves. Personally I am a performance leader, because I would rather show people what I expect than just tell them. I need to work on using my voice though because you can't always get through to people by just actions and at certain times vocal makes more of an impact than performance. I believe that both are vitally essential when it comes to being a successful all-around leader. I also believe that leaders can be born a leader, but they can also be made into one. Someone can be born with great leading skills, but they have to actually practice those skills and be "made" into a leader in order to make the most impact. But someone who is born without leadership skills can also be taught how to make them and how to lead others, and they may not be quite as successful as the person born with talent but they can still be a good leader. So in other words, leaders can be born and made.