Women are Leaders

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            Over the weekend I attended a Women’s Lead Conference held at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. This Empowering Women to Lead conference was the first year Stockton College has ever held this kind of event. The day was broken up into three different sessions.   Individuals had the opportunity to sit down with real professionals and real woman and hear their own life experiences being a leader. It was a huge inspiration listening to all of the stories each woman told about how they have made a difference in the world. This conference was about understanding leadership skills and how you can benefit in life from having such skills.

            Many women and men themselves do not believe they are leaders. They do not realize the impact they may have on others and their everyday life/living. Believe it or not we are all leaders in some way or form, whether it is in the workforce, running your own business or getting together with classmates for a school project. We can make a difference! Having influence on others and being persuasive is something we also look at when talking about leadership. Influence is the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways. Persuasion is the attempt we make to influence the actions or judgments of others by talking or writing to them. There are many influential situations we deal with in life; one for example can be promoting a proposal to a group or club that competes with their own. These situations can be very difficult if not handled in the proper manner or lack of communication skills. We also look at power, which can be both a negative and positive thing, depending on how you use it. There are three types of power we use they are; personal, relational and position. Personal power is within yourself and your personal strengths that you have.  Relational power is coalition; power which is joined from actions with another person and finally position power. Position power is authority held in an office or in the workforce. Reward power is used in position power and is someone of authority rewarding you for doing something good for example, a raise, or promotion. 

            Leading can be contagious! Within the media we see many influential men and woman such as, Mother Teresa, Oprah Winfrey, Gandi, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Lisa Ling, Martin Luther King etc. We look up to these people and want to become a leader ourselves, so that we can spread this goodness to others.  I have participated in many programs and projects at school were you must present good leadership skills.  The two projects I have worked with recently are Boxes of Love and Project Porchlight.  Both of these projects require leadership skills when working out in the field, and especially when working with children. The projects were totally different from each other but with both, I was able to represent myself in a way that I hoped impacted these children and influenced them to become leaders themselves.

            When we think of a good leader what are some of the qualities we think of? Someone who is trusting, encouraging, never punishes for mistakes, takes risks, motivated and promotes teamwork. Unfortunately, we may experience in life some examples of bad leaders who are not inspirational, have a negative attitude, lie, hypocrites and only think of themselves. Good leadership skills will be an advantage for you and most valuable for your career, at home or in a personal relationship. These skills are easy to fit into you daily schedules or activities within school, whether you are a mother, father, daughter significant other, friend, spouse we all can become good leaders and make a positive influence around the world! So let’s get out there and start making a difference!