I have not held any leadership roles in the past, but I think I have learned a lot from

previous leaders about what to do and what not to do that can help me develop my own
leadership philosophy. Some of the previous jobs and experiences I want to discuss that have
helped me learn about leadership include my senior year of high school on the Varsity Basketball
team and my two summers working as a Sports Camp counselor. In both of these experiences, I
learned from great leaders that created productive and enjoyable cultures where all players or
employees were happy to come to every day.
My senior year of high school was my first year on the Varsity Basketball team after
three years on JV. Going into my first practice I was very nervous because I had heard the head
coach had a reputation of getting overly angry with bad mistakes. However at the end of that first
practice, the first game, and the end of the season, I could not find that reputation to be more
untrue. Our head coach did get angry sometimes, but it was out of a place of care for his players'
improvement, not a way to put his players down. Every practice and every game, I could see how
much our head coach cared about every player by keeping everyone included and involved. Only
about five to seven players would see game minutes, with me not being one of them. But still,
every player felt that he was part of the team. That is due mainly to the inclusive and caring
culture our head coach created, and it is something I deeply admire about him as a leader.
My other experience with great leadership came from my work as a Sport Camp
counselor. I had two different types of bosses at camp: there were bosses who were in charge of
the entire camp (not just sports camp) called directors, and sports camp bosses who were just in
charge of sports camp called unit heads. The directors were X managers; they did not think we
did our jobs to the best of our ability, and would closely monitor us when they could. This
assumption was untrue, and it made parts of work unenjoyable and annoying. On the other hand,
our unit heads were Y managers; since they spent more time with the counselors and were
generally more lay-back than the directors, they knew we did our jobs well, and did not supervise
us as closely. Our unit heads made work more enjoyable and got me excited to come to work
every day. The culture our unit heads created for us is one I would want to create as a leader so
my employees would be motivated and happy at work, whereas the culture our directors created
is one I would stay away from while developing my own leadership philosophy.
The leadership style I would choose would be democratic with parts of Laissez-faire. A
democratic leadership style includes all employees in work culture and decision-making, which
leads to all employees feeling important, cared for, and part of a team. This is the leadership style
my previous leaders had, and is one that I really admired. The parts of the Laissez-faire
leadership style I would like to incorporate would be to let my employees work independently
without much oversight once they become trustworthy and experienced enough to complete their
job well. I still want to provide helpful input and designate tasks and objectives to my employees
to keep business operations organized, but I feel that too much oversight could possibly ruin the
relationships between me and my employees because they feel I do not trust them to do their jobs
adequately.
I believe the most difficult task for a leader is to find a balance between being likable and
approachable, while also being authoritative and enforcing necessary policies that employees
will generally not appreciate. In order to find this balance, I believe that the actual experience as
a leader, and not lessons on how to become a leader, is most helpful. With experience comes
many trials and errors, but should I be lucky enough to gain leadership experience, I hope to
effectively implement my leadership style and find the right balance. With this balance and
leadership style, I feel that I can create a work culture where employees are excited to come to
work each day, feel included, and tasks and objectives are completed on time and fulfill or
exceed company expectations.