You Need Not Be A Politician To Be A Leader...but you can be. by Cameron

You Need Not Be A Politician To Be A Leader...but you can be. by Cameron - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Leadership skills are a must for collegiate success. Generally, leadership skills, especially at the high school level, are thought of in reference to student government or club presidents. The students who take part in these activities are who we typically look at as our student “leaders.” They are often recognized and honored by teachers and administration for their contribution to a successful school year.

Leadership skills go so far beyond that, however. To be a leader, one doesn’t have to be the most outspoken, socially or politically engaged individual. We can be leaders on any number of levels, from being the one who provides a vision for a greater good to being the one who leads a team of researchers, to the one who represents and engages the public. As described by Daphne Mallory, a family business expert with the Daphne Mallory Company, “Leadership is the art of serving others by equipping them with training, tools, and people, as well as your time, energy, and emotional intelligence so that they can realize their full potential, both personally and professionally.”

Let’s think about that for a minute. If you are a tutor, whether formally hired or simply assisting a roommate with an assignment, you are demonstrating leadership skills. You are providing a fellow student with the training, your time, and energy to help them achieve their goals of successful course completion. If you are a good listener who is easy to open up to and offers good advice, you are exhibiting leadership skills as you provide time, energy, and emotional intelligence in helping others solve their problems. If you work in the school library, you exhibit leadership skills by providing the tools necessary to find and utilize library resources. If you are simply the role model student who follows the rules, gets to class on time, succeeds academically, you are exhibiting leadership skills by providing others with a positive example by which they can model their own behavior.
As we enter into college, many of us are taking on a great deal of responsibility that we haven’t had in the past. We’re responsible for getting ourselves up and ready for classes, staying on top of our assignments, doing our own laundry, securing our own nourishment, etc.. Maybe we’re doing so while juggling a job or two, and extracurricular activities such as clubs and sports. The initiative to take on these responsibilities is, in and of itself, a leadership skill. Time management and organization are invaluable leadership skills, as are communication and interpersonal relations.

The great thing about leadership skills in college is, often for the first time, we all have the opportunity and unlimited potential to be leaders. We can lead a club. If a club of interest doesn’t exist, we can start one. We can engage in campus politics. We can lead the class in grade point averages or lead a study group. We can be captain of the basketball team. Or, we can lead a group in sports by simply inviting them to a casual game of flag football. We can be leaders in scientific research, whether it’s being the first to make a new discovery, or leading a group towards a common research goal. We can be the lead in a musical production or the one leading the backstage crews. The possibilities are endless! The one thing for sure, is that these leadership skills are crucial to not only our success in college, but our growth as individuals. It doesn’t matter whether we’re leaders in the public eye, in the grade book, or on the stage, the experiences will help define our futures, build our resumes, and help in determining the next steps in our lives.