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Leadership Inventory Reflection Essay 

Aaron Jain

What is leadership? It can be defined as leading a meeting in the office, standing up

against something you know is wrong, or it can even be showing your little sibling the path they

should take to school. While leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. I will be showing you

what leadership means to me, and what kind of leader I am.

A great leader is defined by his/her strengths, like Gandhi’s patience, or MLK’s desire for

change. One of my greatest strengths as a leader is my sense of teamwork and togetherness.

Through about a decade of playing sports, one of the biggest lessons I learned was: ‘For the

strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack’. Always following this

important directive, my team always won and lost together. Just like how Johnny Bravo

swooped down to help his fellow soldiers, his pack was so tightly knit, he knew they would do

the same for him. Another strength in the way I lead is I’m always looking to learn more.

Whenever I do group work, I’m always adamant that I want our team to push the boundaries of

the project. I don’t just want to know the when, where, or who, I want to know the why. Leading

by example, I always hope this tenacious drive to do and learn incredible things rubs off on my

peers. Because when an entire unit is working with a passion to do their absolute best, that is

when extraordinary things happen.

Just like everyone, I do have my flaws. A good leader must identify their weaknesses

before they become a regular occurrence whenever they lead. Something that I struggle with

whenever I’m leading is that I have tunnel vision. Whenever I want something to get done I

ensure that I do absolutely everything in my power to make sure it gets finished. Whenever this

comes out when I’m working on a project or a problem, I work insanely hard to get it done, even

if it is nearly impossible. To me, I feel like this flaw is crucial to fix. If I learn to let these things go,

I can assert my energy and hard work into something more worthwhile.

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There are so many different leadership styles used by leaders around the world. Some

leaders like to be assertive and directly involved, while others are more passive. I like to think of

myself as a mix of both, and that’s called being a democratic leader. Being a democratic leader

is like raising a teenager, you want to make sure you’re giving them the freedom to have fun

and learn, but also make sure they don’t make any mistakes too big and stay on a good path.

Being a democratic leader means trusting your team to do the work they need to, and knowing

when to jump in and take over. Using the democratic leadership style works best when you

have a group of fairly experienced workers, who are motivated to learn more and do their best.

The final reason I use the democratic leadership style is you can seamlessly transition between

being an autocratic (hands-on), or a lassiez-faire (passive) leader, which is what a great leader

needs to be able to do.

Finally, I would like to express who I am as a leader. During this course, I’ve learned that

I’m a leader who is very social. I love to work in groups, it’s were I thrive. But I need to make

sure that I’m in control of my emotions at all times. Like one of the quizzes said, I’m a lion, if I

work hard I will undoubtedly find my way to the top, but I have to make sure I’m not burning

bridges along the way. I’ve also learned that there is no best leadership style. A social/vocal

leader is no better or worse than a leader who may listen more, and let their teammates run with

ideas. I’ve also learned that leadership isn’t a title that’s bestowed to you like a medal.

Leadership is a mentality, like how Johnny Bravo swooped down to save his team, or doing

something small that could change someone’s life like Drew Dudley, it can even be taking a

knee for something you believe in like Colin Kaepernick.

Leadership is different for everyone. But for me, leadership means no matter what, if you

succeed or fail, you do it with your team. Because, ‘For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and

the strength of the wolf is the pack’.

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