Leadership

When I was going to school up at Utah State University I was on the new student orientation team called the A-Team. Eventually on the A-Team I became a Student Coordinator and was a student worker over the A-Team. Our department had a program/class new students could take the week before school began called Connections and each member of the A-Team was a peer mentor for the students in one or two of the classes. As a student coordinator I did not get to be a peer mentor but my job was to be a runner all week long during the class, helping A-Team members where they may need help.

One day, one of our A-Teamers, Spencer, used our buzzers to play a game with his students and then another A-Teamer needed the buzzers right afterwards. Well Spencer and the other A-Team member did not have time to meet up to exchange the buzzers, so I said I would be the in between man for them. When I arrived at Spencer's class I was impressed by the way he interacted with his students, how he reached out to the shy ones, how he got the awkward ones to be part of the group, how he knew all of their names, etc. As we packed up the buzzers together, and his class was headed out the door to a workshop, I told him how great it was that he was doing all the things I just observed and told him what each of them were. His response took me completely surprise. He said, "Amy, I have watched you as my leader and I have watched you do all of those things with the A-Team and I knew I wanted to be a leader like you." I don't tell this story to say, "Hey, in case you didn't know, I am awesome." No, I like to tell this story because it was a good lesson to me that you are always being an example, even when you are not intending to be and there is more than one way to be a leader; even a quiet leader.

Years later, as I have talked about on here, I became the boss of the A-Team and I would tell the A-Team this story as we started a discussion about what leadership. I always loved this discussion because I was in a room of all leaders but leaders in so many different ways, although some did not realize it, and it was fun to see them accept they could each be a leader in their own way and that is what would make them the best leader. (If we were all the same type of leaders, this world would be boring and only a small group would follow).

One of my best A-Team members returned for a second year and when he made a comment in class he said that when he first joined the A-Team he didn't think he was anything compared to the others on the team. This made me smile, because I always knew what an incredible leader he was, but so many of us have been there where we don't believe we can be a leader because we are comparing ourselves to those around us. The cool thing about him is he decided to take the opportunity to learn from those around him but he also held on to his true talents as well. At the end of each "A-Team Year" we have a closing banquet and give out awards, mostly funny awards, but this particular A-Teamer received the traditional Spencer Vernon Banks award which is an award given to the A-Team member who goes above and beyond when helping students and staying continuously until the very last student has been taken care of.

When I hired my A-Team I didn't look for one type of person or leader because that didn't make any sense; this team was a resource for all new students and all new students are all different, thus, I needed a team where there was a variety of leaders so that these students had a higher chance of having someone they could relate to and connect with.

When I taught this leadership discussion, I asked everyone to think for a minute about leaders in their own life that they admire and why. I then asked them to write down the qualities and traits these leaders have and we made a huge list on the board. It was fun to see the huge variety of things written on the board from hard worker to sense of humor to humility to organization and creativity. I then had them all write on a piece of paper the leadership qualities they felt the had and two they wanted to improve or develop.

I always loved this class discussion because it always seemed to spark a flame of hope in each of them because even though they were among the best of the best; they were each there for their individuality and that was a good thing but sometimes they needed the reminder to break the mold because I didn't want molds.

I always ended this discussion telling them a little bit about whichever leadership book I happened to be reading at the time. My favorite was The Servant and it is about what the “true essence” of leadership is. It talks about how it is natural to think that leadership means you have power or you can manipulate others to do what you want them to do but that is not what the true foundation of leadership is. It focuses on leadership having authority which is built (and must be built) by building relationships, showing love, serving others and sacrificing.

I like this idea. I like the idea of selfless leading, I feel it is the most genuine and most effective type of leadership. To me, one of the ways of being a true leader is helping those you lead reach their full potential and what better way to achieve that than bey being selfless. And honestly, the best part of being a leader is getting the opportunity to learn from all of those you are following because each of them are leaders in themselves.