Tiara Boyce

Professor Samborowski
May 3, 2016
Lead 101

To be a leader means to lead a nation or followers with moral goals to accomplish.

Certain qualities make an individual a leader. Leadership isnt something that one is born with,
oneself must train themselves to become the greatest leader they can be. Leadership is a trait that
is inherited. Leadership is a skill. Leadership is a behavior. Leadership is a relationship.
Leadership is an influence process. Leadership is an ability, and this means that the person has
the capacity to lead. To have this ability one can either naturally can do it, or one has to learn and
rehearse to become great (Northouse). There are three different styles of leadership these are,
democratic, authoritarian, and laisse-faire. Democratic leadership style is when the leader helps
his followers accomplish a goal, and helps them understand and learn new things. They help
guide them along the way. Authoritarian leadership style is when a leader is strict and does not
care to guide their followers. They have them do things on their own. A laisse-faire leader is one
who does not care to help their followers out. No one wants a laisse-faire leader because you do
not learn or receive anything out of it. You gain nothing. You become just as lazy and do not
work for anything. Or you are not rewarded enough because you hold your own. No person
should be under the guidance of a laisse-faire leader.
I feel as if I follow the democratic leadership style because I want to make sure all of my
people are good, and understand what they are doing. For example, in group projects I take lead
and make sure everyone knows what they are doing. I then double check and will do anything to
make sure that they are good and if they need any guidance with their work. At the end of this
semester for a final grade all groups apart of the class had to film a video in the green screen
room, and my group had trouble with that. In the group the others had looked to me for guidance
and direction, but I didnt ask for it. It definitely was tough to have that much control when I did
not want it in the first place. I helped my group and always told them the deal, it was hard to
communicate with them when we had such an awkward or different group. But in the end we
came together because I did not give up on them, and quit. This helped me figure out what type
of leadership style I followed. I would have to say I have a bubbly, and kind personality. These
are my two strongest personality traits that I possess. This will show when leading a group
because I want everyone to be comfortable and know they are in a safe place and can be
themselves. I try to influence my peers to be the same because it encourages other to break
through their shells and be themselves, or at least find who they are. To prove that these were my
strongest traits I had taken a personality test and discovered that my personality type was ENFJ. I
love to talk, I am outgoing, always with someone, and can approach situations and get great
outcomes.
I think that leadership is something that everyone can possess at one point in their life. As
long as they do it in a moral way and can influence the people in a positive way, then you are a
leader. Being a leader means growing, and learning as an individual with your followers. To be
an ethical leader one needs to influence those around them, to do the right thing. There are six
factors to being an ethical leader. 1. Character 2. Actions 3. Goals 4. Honesty 5. Power 6. Values
these all refer to a leader using moral means to achieve their goals. Thats what leadership is.
This is what gravitates your followers to you.
After taking this class, I envisioned me being a leader for the next three years, of my time
at Nichols College. I have realized that I want to be a part of many things on campus and become
a leader somehow. Maybe join the Emerging Leaders Program, or become president of the
International Club my sophomore year. I want to be able to help people accomplish their goals,
and work with them to make the world around us better.
Case studies were my favorite assignments throughout this course because they were an
easy grade. My favorite case study by far is the Luis Urzua case study. This was the first group
case study that was assigned to my group. It had to have been the most interesting one because it
was about minors who had been buried thousands of feet under the ground. They were stuck for
over 60 days and all survived. Luis Urzua was a leader and hero. Thats had to call a person both.
At this point I knew I would love this course and I knew I would be a leader.
I enjoyed learning in this class. It was a fun and easy class to attend. As a professor you
did a great job at making me feel a part of the classroom and made sure us as students
understood what leadership was. I now connect everything to leadership. I find a way. The only
thing that I found I was least excited about was the green screen movie. Thus, by far the most
stressful part about this course. I found it quite challenging to communicate with my group and
to find a reasonable time, for everyone to meet up and film. I felt like this was challenging for
my group too because they did not seem to get the concept of writing their own scripts and
showing up to group meetings. To make sure that they knew their material I always checked in,
made sure they were on track, and kept reminding them of when we had to accomplish things.
This was hard to encourage my group members to be a part of everything, I had to reward them
and praise them when a job well done. They all have such great potential and they all are leaders.
I have worked with them for over fourteen weeks, and they are all bright leaders. At the end of
filming the green screen they all started to show their strengths. Matt pushed himself to
accomplish his part of the video, and by far was the best actor we had in the video. Jared had
great ideas. David had pushed me to continue leading the group and encouraged me to guide
them. Sarah was great at planning the storyline. And Ian accomplished whatever task you gave
him, and did not really need any guidance because he knew what to do. Professor Samborowski
had challenged the group and myself to be a leader. When I felt like we were going to fail a case
study, he had assured me that we would do just fine. Without Coach Sam I do not think I would
have had any better of a Lead semester. He taught me what leadership is and how to maintain
being a great and effective leader. He related current leaders to the class, and gave us group
activities to do, and this was what made my experience great.
Thank you for a great Learning to Lead Course!