Why Leadership Skills Aren't Necessary...And Why You'll Want Them Anyway by Joe

Why Leadership Skills Aren't Necessary...And Why You'll Want Them Anyway by Joe - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Are leadership skills necessary for college success? No.

No.

But will they greatly help you to be one stratospheric step ahead of everyone else?

Oh heck yes.

Leadership skills aren't just the arbitrary blank line for when you fill out a resumé. They aren't just the list of attributes your third grader teacher once wrote on your report card that you now use to apply for scholarships. Leadership skills are a strategic way to do life...better.

We could bumble about for ages, trying to determine what MAKES a leader. We could use the dictionary definitions and then I compare it to what I think a leader is. But ultimately, I feel it's better to determine what leadership skills are by looking at leaders and imitating them. Dictionary definitions do diddly squat if you can't apply them.

The good leaders I know wisely consider their options. They volunteer when others don't. They aren't always the loudest, but they usually have earned the most respect. They utilize humility and enjoyable personalities to accomplish things that they never could have accomplished alone. They didn't come with these attributes. They too learned them from others and honed them into themselves. And they probably started using these tactics when they were young, so that they might slowly become part of them.

A school environment is just a sample of what you'll experience in the so-called "real" world. Your success in college isn't removed in any way, shape, or form from how you'll work with people outside of school. You have to utilize the same tactics of earning respect, being consistent and persistent, and utilizing your time wisely. College isn't a test run. It's the real deal, with real stakes at hand.

You don't have to always be a leader. Some people are better at executing the tasks and guidelines that the leader sets up. We need just as many of those people...even more of them, I believe. Not everyone is a leader, nor should they be. But utilizing leadership SKILLS in the right environment will always help you along, no matter what.

You don't need to be able to rouse a crowd of thousands. But if you can convince a class of 20 to believe in something, you've gained success.

You don't need to be able to plot out a business plan for a major corporation over the next five years, but if you can plan a well-executed essay, you've gained success.

You don't need to be able to manage the lives of 500 people with families, but if you can manage your daily schedule to be effective, you've gained success.

No, you don't need to be a leader to succeed in college. But leadership skills will take you to heights you never could have imagined.