#Not All Leaders
Normally, when my name and leadership are included in the same sentence, people are often amused. I used to join them in the self-deprecation. I have to admit that I tend to allow myself to fade into the background and be more of an active observer. It wasn’t until I arrived at Agnes Scott College that I learned this too could be a form of leadership. Typically, leadership is viewed as an extroverted person who commands attention and is bursting with charisma. However, after receiving the results of my StrengthsFinder test, I realized that I do in fact have the potential for leadership. Once I observed and learned how the themes of context, futuristic, input, intellection, and restorative blended I realized that I could still be effective in being a leader. My strengths lie mostly in the strategic thinking category which was surprising at first, because I never saw myself as an organized or incredibly introspective person. However, when we got together in our groups and discussed how we felt about our assignments, I began to realize that I was not alone in how I felt. We began to realize that we shared the same basic ideals of what traits we thought a leader should possess. In the group discussion, we were able to grow from this simple ideal of a leader and what leadership means. Of all of my five assigned themes, I would like to be seen as restorative by the people I meet because it would be nice to be seen as someone who can improve upon a situation. My other strengths individually build to assist each other such as the blend of context (looking back to move forward) and futuristic (looking to the future) allow me to garner answers from the past, yet not get lost in it because of my hope for the future. In addition, intellection and input go hand in hand because it merges my enjoyment of learning with my ability to retain information which I find interesting. Through this knowledge of my strengths, I can valuably contribute to the course as a team member because my results suggest that I tend to lead through analyzing information and aiding in making the best choice for the team. This means I can contribute by evaluating the ideas presented by others and organizing them into a cohesive thought.