What is Leadership? by Nicholas

What is Leadership? by Nicholas - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

I found myself at odds with my school’s leadership program. The school introduced a new mandatory leadership seminar which occasionally preempts our English class. Conducted by the Psychology teacher and a corporate leadership adviser, it consists of raising abstract questions about the nature of leadership and prescribing arbitrary personal qualities that contribute to it. I felt this was heartless and institutional, and in the eyes of myself and my classmates, it devalued the meaning of leadership. I, for one, found that this approach stifled creativity and original thinking. Instead of taking a Socratic approach, the course asked leading questions intended to steer us toward the instructors’ definition of leadership. To my mind, this is not the spirit of academic inquiry: it illustrated the difference between instruction and education.

I take no issue with the idea of teaching leadership and the qualities needed to practice it. What I found difficult to accept was the manner in which the instructors were trying to force their concept of leadership on everyone in the class. But it was not enough simply to disagree with the program; I felt I had to do something to try to change it and make it a worthwhile use of our school time. I endeavored to challenge the curriculum at every opportunity. In our discussions, I tried to point out contradictions and offer alternative ways of thinking to show that leadership is not a blanket concept that can be applied mechanically to everyone. It has to mean something; it has to resonate; it has to come from the heart.

Leadership is not purely an academic or intellectual exercise; it is a unique expression of every individual’s character. Leadership is the way in which each person goes about making a difference by influencing and inspiring others. It is not an algorithm or a formula, it is an expression of oneself, a reflection of one’s moral sense. Reducing leadership to a corporate exercise is to disrespect the example of true leaders of the past, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King led from the heart in a way that was deeply personal to himself. His leadership sprang from his spiritual identity and moral sense, and his commitment to the principles of justice and freedom. That is an example of true leadership.

By opening the door to more possibilities than the program coordinators had envisioned, I believe I had a positive impact on the course. I was able to persuade the instructors to acknowledge that everyone’s idea of leadership is different, and that it is counterproductive to force a set of preconceived notions on a very diverse group of human beings. Expanding this purely intellectual exercise to a consideration of both original thought and individual personality, I believed, deepened my understanding of what it means to be a leader. I hope that it did the same for my classmates. Ironically, by challenging the course’s idea of leadership, I gained a clearer understanding of what it means to be a leader.