Being a Leader, the journey of a Lifetime
Student-Author: Louise Bastard de Crisnay (France) in the course Co-Creative Organizational Leadership – Spring 2023 – #GenZ, tales from Finland collection
I always knew I wanted to do something with my life, something significant, that would be useful and would help others. At first, I thought why not become a doctor and save lives, but I quickly realized that first I was not good enough in chemistry and second, I would not be as free as I wanted, this is not the kind of life that I wanted. So, I started to think: What will I do when I am a grown-up? Who will I be? To this day, these are the questions that I am still asking myself, but at least now I have an idea. For years I have watched my parents, and my siblings, successful adults, and there is one thing that united all these people that I admire, they are free because they are entrepreneurs, they are free because they decided to take the lead in their own lives. Suddenly it struck me, now I know, I am and want to be a LEADER.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization, but to me, leadership is much more. To me, leadership is not about leading people but guiding them, helping them achieve their goals, and becoming the person they want to be. Being a leader is about being able to bring people together, motivate your team members and cultivate a sense of shared purpose.
I said that “I am a leader” because I believe in the great man theory of leadership. The great man theory of leadership is a theory introduced in 1840 by Thomas Carlyle, explaining that some people are born with certain capacities enabling them to become leaders. In fact, several studies reveal that 30% of our leadership abilities are due to genetics (University of Illinois, 2014). I believe that I was born we some leadership characteristics: I have always been sociable, confident, and creative, and I am certain that as a child I had leadership experiences that I can’t even remember.
I want to be a leader because being born a leader is not enough. I need to learn how to be a great leader. This is why I am writing this paper today I attended the class of Marcella Zoccoli: Co-creative Organizational Leadership because I wanted to learn, feed myself with knowledge, and explore different aspects of leadership, to become one day the best leader I could ever be. I want to have all the necessary knowledge in my possession before taking the leap.
To conclude I would like to talk about the future. As I continue on my leadership journey, It is crucial for me to keep in mind that being a leader involves more than simply attracting followers, it also involves having a positive influence on the world. Whether you are the leader of your family, a sports team, or a group of coworkers you have the power to encourage and inspire people to achieve greatness. At the end of the day, we are all the leaders of someone else, and it is our responsibility to use our leadership abilities to shape a better future for ourselves and the others around us.
References
Bastard de Crisnay, L. (2023). Personal experience.