Report Writing Leadership - Jamie

Leadership

What makes someone a leader? Is it how they behave, is it  that they have talent or is it how brave they are? No. I believe it is those things and more. It’s all the qualities and values that they live by and believe in. By including these values and qualities in your own life you can become a leader yourself. They are determined to be the best they can be.

To become a great leader, it is important to include these values in your life. Many of these values come from well known leaders themselves and what they believe is great leadership and success. People look up to leaders to show them the way to act and behave. If you demonstrate these values then you can show them how to become great leaders themselves.

Great leaders know who they are. They know who they want to be and what they want to do with their life. This is crucial to being a leader because you must look confident in yourself and so inspire others to do the same. By dedicating themselves to being better, they can improve who they are. To do this they focus on giving back and making a difference to others because, if you are not making someone else’s life better, you are wasting your time. Peter Jackson was someone who had great success in life and used it to benefit others when he purchased a church for $10 million to save it from demolition.  A life is only worth living if you use it to benefit others.

However, you don’t have to look at others and compare yourself to them. If you do this you will not succeed in life, because there will always be someone better than you. You should look at yourself and focus on making what you see better. For example, when choosing a challenge, a great leader will attack their fears or weaknesses. They won’t choose something they are good at, but go for the areas where they are less confident in. By throwing themselves into the deep end, they are challenging themselves as well as improving themselves.  If you challenge yourself every day, you can be a great leader yourself.

Whereas talent comes naturally, you must work hard to become skilled at something. Talent can only take you so far in life before those who have worked hard to become skilled will surpass you. Becoming skilled at something gives a great feeling of satisfaction, something you won’t feel if you just use your talent and take the easy route. So if you have a talent or have a strength, don’t just go with the easy option and rely on your talent. Work as hard as you can at being skilled at something. Do this and not only will you become better at something , but you will have earned your skill and can be  proud of how well you have done.

If a leader wants something they will go get it.  This shows absolute determination in the face of unrealistic odds, negative opinions and their weaknesses. By protecting their dreams, they are not letting anyone tell them they can’t do something. They will listen to other people’s opinions but will stay determined no matter how unrealistic the idea is. There is no such thing as an unrealistic idea. For example, Thomas Edison was a great leader in technology and was determined in his attempt to create the light bulb. Though many people thought it was an unrealistic idea and laughed at his failure to make a lightbulb 2000 times, he replied that he hadn’t failed, he had learnt 2000 ways how not to make a lightbulb, but he only needed one way to make it work. This shows how determined he was to protect his dream. You can do the same by working hard at something you are passionate about, because if you believe that you can do it, you can achieve it no matter how unrealistic it is.

“The man who says it can’t be done and the man who says it can are both usually right” - Will Smith (American Actor, Rapper and Producer)

So to be a great leader you must be determined to believe in your ideas and dreams. You must work to hard to have skill not just rely on talent all the time. You must always try to make a difference and follow the values of a leader. Challenge yourself everyday to do something you are afraid of. Having all these values and qualities to use in your life means that you can be a great leader as well. So what are you waiting for? Start inspiring other people to be leaders by showing them what you can do. By doing this, you can convince other people that they can be great leaders too.

Sources

“Will Smith on Life”

www.youtube.com

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html

Authors Opinion

Written by Jamie