Leadership and College Success by Nicholas

Leadership and College Success by Nicholas - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Leadership skills are necessary for college success. But the phrase "leadership skills" has many components. All of these components are needed by the college student in order to be successful in college.

I feel the first misconception is that in order to possess strong leadership skills you must always be the leader first and foremost. In some cases this might have the person think they are a "know it all" about all topics. Leadership skills are only effective if there are people willing to follow. In college, the true leadership skill is practiced by listening to your college professor. After all, the college professor is the one with the most wisdom about the subject.

I feel to have good leadership skills, it is important to listen and ask questions to those who are in charge. If I am in class and a project is assigned, I need to listen to what the project is and the requirements. Leadership skills here is more evident as a student being the student needs to show the leadership skills necessary to have a good project handed in on time.

If the project needs to be worked in as a group, then leadership skills are important with each person being responsible for their share of the responsibility. Leadership skills in a group project would be using a time line so each person had their specific role completed by a certain time. The leadership skills would also be taking the time to help another student by answering any questions they have or helping them if they are “stuck” at a certain point.

When working on a group project, I would be able to show leadership skills by holding down my responsibility for the project, meeting my deadlines, and helping the other people in my group. I may have proven good leadership skills by setting the standard of the work I did to complete the project, but earning the respect of my fellow college students during the group activity plays a large part of leadership.

Reason being, it is still a group project.

A man whom I have strong admiration and respect for is Richard “Dick” Winters, the commanding officer of Easy Company in World War 2. Here is a man who undoubtedly is a hero and showed strong leadership skills. Captain Winters wrote in his book, Beyond Band of Brothers, this famous quote:

“The cohesion that existed in the company was hardly the result of my leadership,” he wrote in “Beyond Band of Brothers,” his 2006 memoir. “The company belonged to the men, the officers were merely the caretakers.”

During a group project in college I think this quote is quite important. The leader with the strong leadership skills should be the caretakers of the school project. The assigned project belongs to everyone participating in it to get a good grade.