My Leadership Journey

Few days ago, I had to write this essay about Leadership, part of a course called Development of Leadership Skills that I am taking at the Honours College of the University of Macau. Telling the truth I wasn't that excited about it because it was a 6 to 8 pages essay. However, it end up to be very fruitful and interesting because I had to stop and think for a while about what I've been learning, what I've been doing, what I've been being... Below some lines of my essay.

Leadership is on focus nowadays and everyday I hear about leadership training programs here or there, great leaders, potential leaders and the list goes on and on. However, what is leadership, what is it all about? Well, I am not here do give scientific definitions of such thing because that can be easily found in books and on the Internet, I am here to give my general understanding of leadership and what I am trying to pursue in my Leadership Journey at the Honours College and my personal life.

Going back to my definition of Leadership, I would like to state, first of all, that generally speaking, Leadership does not mean domination. It might be that, in the past, leadership was synonym of muscles, power or something similar but not anymore. It’s true, that we still live in a world well supplied with people who wish to dominate and rule others. However, the true Leadership is an art and this art of leadership is in the capacity to make people want to work/cooperate with you, while they are really under no obligation to do so. Moreover, he or she, the leader, is the one whose actions inspire others to dream more, do more, learn more and become more. At the end of the day leadership is the act of holding the torch of wisdom, while inspiring people and guiding them to a common goal.

Now, changing a little bit the topic, let’s talk about the leaders. Who are the leaders? How do they look like? How do they act? What are great leaders? How do they become leaders? What do they eat? Maybe I am exaggerating in the questions but once talking about leadership we cannot avoid trying to get to know the Leaders. Well, first of all, leaders are just normal people, men and women, capable of influencing others. Moreover, the true leader is the one that realizes that he is a tool on the hands of God and dedicates himself to guide and inspire the sentiments and aspirations of people with love. Only with love/passion, he or she will succeed as a leader because he or she who does not have the power of love and will to serve the others will find it difficult to win and keep the goodwill and cooperation of his followers or subordinates. Furthermore, in my view, leaders are people capable of raising standards by which they are willing to be judged and judge themselves. In addition to pay the price of self-discipline and moral restraints, living in a constant improvement of his personal character, in other words, he or she has to, first of all, lead himself in order to lead others.

In my opinion, there are several key characteristics for one to excel as a leader but the principal is to be able to give of you without expecting anything in return, sacrifice yourself for your believes, that is why I believe that a leader should be also a volunteer and that every volunteer is a leader. That is the reason why I often quote Bob Marley by saying: “if you live for yourself you live in vain, if you live for the others you live again.” Furthermore, a leader should be able to communicate, express its ideas for the group and discuss whenever it is necessary to set goals, motivate and inspire. That is why speeches such as “I have a dream”, by Martin Luther King Jr. or slogans like “Yes, we can”, by Obama’s campaign or songs – never underestimate the power of music because music can change people and people can change the world – can make a difference in a point in history.

Six months ago, if people have asked me who is or was, in my opinion, an excellent leader, I would have probably mentioned Nelson Mandela or Jose Maria Neves, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Cape Verde. However, these months at the Honours College made me realize that there are ordinary people doing amazing things around us and we fail to praise them the way we should, while we keep thinking about the Great Men. I do not have anything against the Great Men, I just now realize that we should pay tribute to this kind of people that surround us and that everyday wake up in the morning trying to make this world a better place for all of us and future generations. This takes me back to Cape Verde where a met this young man that changed my life forever; his name, Helmer Fortes. He is in his early twenties but with a charisma and wisdom of a mature man. I met him at the Youth Center of Mindelo, Cape Verde, where I was a volunteer and he was the President of both the Youth Associations and Volunteers Association of Mindelo. Helmer, more than a leader, he was a friend and he was always “wearing” a smile on his face because according to him a smile was the best make-up that a human being can wear. The door of his office and his heart was always open to everyone and he was always there for everyone. I remember the first day I went to the Youth Center to sign up to become a volunteer, he approached me, gave me hug and said: “Nos eh un so” (we are one). Besides that, he was a very creative and innovative fellow that always inspired people and made people want to know more. He was the one that introduced me to the endangered animal protection program and made aware of the high high school dropout rate in my country and inspired me to do something for people without expecting anything in return.  In an ever greedy and selfish society, Helmer was a “light in the night”, with his love for the people and animals inspiring many others and me. If today I am the person I am, the one who is writing this essay about leadership, he was a key to make me want to be the change and be a leader to change the world, acting locally, thinking globally.

Now you might become a little bit interested in getting to know me. Well, let me tell you about me as a leader and a group member but remember this is just my opinion, as everything I have written so far, different people might have different perceptions. First of all, I believe I am a good member of a group. It’s easy for me to work with people, collaborate to achieve a common goal. I always try to do my part, promote inclusiveness and encourage the group to get things done in harmony. I am also a quite curious person. I tend to be interested about almost everything. I read newspapers everyday to know what is going on in the world and I am always willing to learn more things. That is one of the reasons I always have something to talk with everybody and I believe that makes people to become more familiar and work with me. Moreover, I learnt with people, like Helmer, to smile always; that is why, even when I am sad I will always be laughing like a clown. However, sometimes I cannot control myself when it comes to say what I think. I tend to say things to people that I will regret in the future, things that might harm their feelings. I tend to be different, I don’t like being just like everybody else. If it is in to wear black, I will definitely wear white. That makes me outstand from the crowd, which sometimes creates antipathy with people.

In my opinion, to improve myself, first, I need to be able to give people, while working in groups, more freedom of choice, let them make more decisions and support them. Even if those decisions are not what I stand for; however, they are better for the majority or for the group itself. Therefore, I have been trying to divide the group tasks with people, assigning tasks to people according to their “expertise”. For example, I belong to the African’s Students Group and I am the vice-president of the Honours College Student Association. Therefore, I have been trying to be a more laisser-faire leader, trying to let people’s creativity and spontaneity work. Second, I think I need to become a more effective communicator. Being able to share what I think and what I know in a more concise and direct way. Thus I plan to join the Toastmaster Club to learn and improve my away of addressing to public and people in general. Third, be able to control my feelings and don’t say things straight away without considering the effects on people’s own feelings. Hence now, I always try to consider different ways of approaching people and seek for advice of “co-workers” when I need to communicate my dissatisfaction to someone.  Moreover, I would like to better be able to recognize contributions of people and motivate them, either to continue doing the good job or to improve it. Recognize people’s feelings so that I can say the right thing at the right time, so that they can boost up their confidence or whatever.

Finally, I will continue reading autobiographies of Great Men and pay attention on how they deal with issues. In other words, absorb the wisdom of history and apply it to the problems of the present, so that the future generations may be born, live and die in peace and with joy.