Personal Experience
The last few months I've been in charge of starting a club at BYU to aid Latin American students throughout their career development in school. We're also responsible to help them progress professionally and help them learn the ropes of the competitive American culture in the corporate world. When I was offered the position of be in charge of the club, I thought to myself, "I got this, no big deal." But its been quite the learning experience.
The following are a few of the skills I've learned through this experience:
- True leaders motivate & inspire
- Delegation is key
- Hard work ethic
- Charismatic
- Able to execute
Professional Leader at Marriott International
The climax point in this learning experience on what leadership truly is, was a lecture given by Craig Smith, President of the Caribbean and Latin American Region at Marriott International, for one of my classes. He asked us to determine which one attribute, out of a set of two attributes, was the most important one for a leader to have. These were a few of the examples he gave.
- Introvert or Extrovert?
- Fun or serious?
- Listener or reader?
- Easy going or controlling?
Or class seemed to be constantly biased toward one side or the other. Craig Smith then mentioned that neither side, in each of these set of attributes, was necessarily better than the other. All skills different, and can be great skills if used correctly.
What I learned
In the past few weeks I learned that there are a variety of skills a leader can have. And there is not such thing as the ideal set of skills for a leader. Leaders can be different, and have different attributes. Finally, I learned that having these attributes is all about being effective at leading. And, according to Craig, effectiveness is a discipline, it can be learned, and must be earned.
Now that my perspective has changed and my mind has been opened to the concept of learning leadership, I will focus on developing the skills I need to become a better leader. I will follow Craig Smith's counsel and find out what skills I need through self-evaluation, and understanding how others perceive what I do. I believe learning leadership is worth putting forth the effort to learn and earn this discipline.
Leadership is so valuable! I am not going to reiterate your post but I will say that leadership should be taught more than math or science. Okay so math and science are really important and needed but you get what I mean. There should be leadership classes in grade school.
ReplyDeleteA successful businessman visited my class the other week said this about success;
Your success will largely be dependent on your ability to attract, retain, and develop talented people around you.
That was his main message! He told the class to learn how to be a good leader and life will be good.
Love it.
I agree with you, Andres, completely. I think being a leader is a learned skill. One of my favorite quotes about being a leader comes from John Quincy Adams. He states that "if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." Here I think that you will be a great leader, because you will help the Latin Americans dream more, lean more, and become more. I know you will be a great influence. You will help them dream, learn, and do by reaching out and helping them develop in their major, as well as professionally. I think that you were elected to start the group to make this work out. You should feel very honored. I wish you all the best and good luck!
ReplyDeleteLeadership is a big deal. It can help inspire and motivate groups of people to be better or to change the way that things have been done. When I think about leadership, I just think about the leaders in my life that have influenced me and each one of them had their own unique way of leading out. I think that each way has been effective. However when thinking of leadership, there are certain characteristics that fit certain situations or places. So the leader has to be adaptive to be effect!
ReplyDeleteGood take aways. My perception of leadership has changed lately-- that leadership has very little to do with titles or positions, but it has everything to do with choosing your own direction, living your life independently. That is so rare that people naturally follow. It's like roads, the only reason that most roads go where they do is because someone trod that path first. Then the rest of us followed and paved it.
ReplyDeleteYour post was really interesting! I never thought of how different people can add different traits and qualities to leadership. When I thought of a leader it was always a very stereotypical perception of an extrovert with a loud enthusiastic voice riling a crowd up. But when I really thought about it, some of the greatest leaders were completely different from each other and used their own personalities to relate to people in different ways. This really helped me to see that anyone can be a leader and not have to change who they are to do it. Thanks for the thoughts!
ReplyDelete