I believe leadership is not something that can be taught in a classroom setting. Yes, one may learn about the psychological or sociological aspects of leadership in the classroom, but the true tests of leadership can only be taken in the real world. Because I am enrolled in a class that teaches me these psychological and sociological aspects of leadership, I believe it is necessary to apply them to real world situations. Only then will I truly become a leader. Two aspects of leadership that I find very important are; the leader and follower have a reciprocal relationship and great leaders have strong beliefs about matters of principle. These aspects of leadership seem to change the way I approach leadership in life, sports, and my views of the workforce. They also help me to become more humble and considerate of the people I am leading, not attributing all mistakes to them and also considering their feelings when they do make mistakes.
Being a point guard basketball player has placed me in a leadership role for many years. When on the court, and even in life, to be an effective leader is it mandatory that one takes into consideration the individuals they are leading. A leader will not get the full respect and dedication of their followers if they do not. As the basketball season is right around the corner, I am making it an essential goal to be an open minded point guard. When something does not go the way I, or my coach expects it to, I will consider the person’s feelings before I react. I think this simple pause before reaction will help to make me an effective point guard and leader. In life it is a known fact that leaders have more accepting followers when they have strong beliefs and are passionate about those beliefs. Before taking this course, when approached with a dilemma based on ethics or morals, I am very sure I would have approached these problems incorrectly. Even though this is true, now that I know that great leaders stand up for what they believe in, I will approach these dilemmas differently. Instead of attributing all faults to the follower, I will step back and ask myself, “was it something I did to initiate this mistake or conflict”? This course has taught me about this slight second of reflection because not all things may be as they seem. Leadership is a very hard idea to grasp because I believe that anyone can be a leader. Because I was sort of forced into a leadership role, whether in my family or in sports, it was not hard for me to become a leader. This has caused me to view leadership as a lesser entity. This course has taught me that this is not the case. It takes much patience, respect, kindness, integrity, etc. to be a productive leader. Anyone can be a negative leader and lead individuals down the wrong path, but it takes a lot to be an effective positive leader. With me, there are many ideas of leadership that I have to work on. Before entering this course, when asked what I thought a leader was I would have most likely said, “the loudest, most confident person in the room”. Through this course I have come to realize that this is not the case. In turn, this idea and the fact that not everyone can be an effective leader have helped me tremendously. As stated before, when I wanted to assert myself as a leader I would always talk up frequently and try to gain respect and control. I now know that all leaders do not lead this