Being a Leader

Hi everyone! I’m Emily and I’m an Alumni Ambassador from Massachusetts. I’ve just returned from the Student Ambassador Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ve just got to say I had the most amazing time working with all the bright, devoted Student Ambassadors on brilliant ideas for Fuel Up to Play 60. There were so many great ideas. In fact, I barely have any room left in my Fuel Up to Play 60 notebook.

Everyone at the Summit was and still is a leader.  It didn’t matter how old or young someone is because leadership isn’t limited by age. Anyone has the ability within themselves to be a positive role model and make healthy choices for others to follow. It’s just a point of finding your inner leader and bringing it out into the open.

So what exactly is a leader and what makes a good one? The literal definition of the word leader is somebody who is in charge and directs others. Now, leadership isn’t all about bossing people around all the time (although I will admit, I do relish in the fact that I have some authority!). Three key parts of being a leader are communication, collaboration, and compromise. They are the three C’s to being an effective leader.

Leaders need to be able to communicate, not just with their team, but also with other people on the outside to convey their visions clearly. You also must be willing to ask questions because, let’s face it, no one knows the answer to everything, so that willingness will get your plans to run smoothly. To be a good communicator you don’t just have to know how to talk and ask questions; you have to be a good listener too. Listening to others’ ideas can spark new ones in your own mind.

You won’t have a clean vision for every Play, so you’ll have to collaborate with your peers. One person’s idea can get a better idea out of another person which could lead to another idea coming from a different person which would eventually lead to your group’s well thought-out plan. So because you brainstormed and collaborated with others, your team now knows exactly what they are going to do and how they are going to do it.

The last C is compromise. Leaders have to be flexible and be able to compromise. You won’t agree on everything, so leaders must be able to compromise in order for your team to start making a change. If you don’t compromise, nothing will ever get done. Sometimes someone else’s vision might be better than your own, even though you wouldn’t want to admit it. Plans don’t always turn out the way we’d hope, and sometimes you have to go all the way to plan Z before something finally works.

I heard a saying about leaders once. It went like this: “Followers talk about problems, but leaders talk about solutions.” I believe this sums up leadership perfectly because while some people just want to complain about life’s problems, leaders want to go out there and fix them. There are two types of people in this world, doers and watchers. Leaders are doers, not watchers. Don’t sit around and wait for an invitation to make a change. Go out there and do it yourself.