Leadership is a Hard Term to Define by Toni Mastropieri

In APO, we focus on Leadership, Friendship, and Service and what these words mean to each of us and as a fraternity as a whole. These three words help guide us in everything that we do, inside and outside of APO. Because of this, it is important to remember why leadership is so important to us.

Leadership is a hard term to define. What is leadership? What exactly is a leader? How does one become a leader? Why would anyone want to be a leader? I’m going to try to answer all of these questions in this post, so bear with me.

I’m going to write a bunch of things in this post that a few of you might disagree with, but I would venture to say that each and every one of us is a leader. We each have the potential, the drive, and the ability to really make an impact. However, it is up to us to take the initiative to actually become a leader. The most important thing for a leader to have is passion. Passion is what fuels leaders, what allows them to gather others to join them, what helps them to come up with innovative ideas, and what gives them the opportunity to implement these ideas. Although passion is the most integral part of leadership, organization, strong communication skills, listening to everyone’s ideas, and showing compassion.

Your actions are what make you a leader. They are also how you become a leader. Remember that you can impact anyone, with a smile, a hug, or a few words of encouragement. You may not realize how your small actions could change the course of someone’s minute, hour, day, or life. Every second counts, and it is important to truly make the most of your time here. These small acts over time can build up a strong leader.

When we are a leader, we have the ability to make important changes that can cause bigger and better things to happen. We can help influence decisions and can inspire others to do the same. Being a leader is a powerful thing, and we have to be mindful of this. We have responsibility and others look up to us. Being a leader can be extremely rewarding, but there is often a lot of hard work that goes into it.

Leadership is passion. A leader is each one of us, with passion. We become a leader when we direct our passion in a way that helps us make new ideas, consult with others for advice, and make impactful decisions. We want to become leaders to create change in (for the sake of this blog, we’ll only focus on the good ones) a positive way. So go out there and lead!