Follow the Leader by Maah

Follow the Leader by Maah - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Leadership skills are important for college success to an extent; however, I believe that the longing to have leadership skills has clouded peoples’ awareness to listen to one another and hear one another's ideas. From classrooms to political debates this has been an issue of the public. People naturally want to be heard and have input. It has now become a competition among people to get their thought across before the next person. This all comes from societal pressure: to have a population of leaders; however, it is not possible to have leaders if there are no people who follow and support. Although being a leader in college is beneficial, there is too much pressure to be a leader, or to have the qualities of a leader in today’s society. Leadership has become a trend that is required for most college students and somehow being someone other than a leader like a follower in college has become condemned. Society has put down those who are not leaders and has labeled them with the term “follower”. There are never slogans or phrases that say “you should be a follower”; the phrases always go along the lines of “you should be a leader, not a follower”. It has been ingrained in society that leadership skills are necessary to succeed in college, when this is certainly not one hundred percent true.

It has come to my attention that many people forget that being a follower in college is not necessarily a bad choice. Sometimes, being a follower is the better choice in a situation. From being a follower, the individual may learn more than the leader and that is success in itself. By being a follower, one not only hears, but listens to others ideas which in turn may shape and even advance the follower's original thoughts. This is not to say that having leadership qualities in college are not important. Having leadership skills in college are definitely important, but it must be mentioned that leadership skills do not only include public speaking, taking initiative, and having a cult of personality. Leadership skills also include listening to what other people have to say, having humility and allowing the interest of others to be more important than one’s self. All these qualities of a leader come with the ability to be a follower.

I find that succeeding in college does not depend on possessing leadership skills. In my opinion, leadership skills should not be required for college. Many people in college may try to be a leader and forget to be a follower, so instead of having leadership skills in college, following skills should be considered to gain. Being a follower in college is not a bad choice, but having one’s own say and opinion is also important because it shows personal character. For this reason I say that college students and the world population must find a happy medium where he or she is able to have both following skills and leadership skills.