LEADERSHIP AND

FOLLOWERSHIP
BY: FRED MONROE B. CARVAJAL
How To Be a Good Leader at School

 There are many ways to be a student leader: whether it’s through student government,
academic teams, athletic teams, publications, the arts, or community service. If you are
highly involved in school, chances are that other students look up to you.
1. Taking on a Leadership Position

 Know your strengths. Knowing your own strengths and what you care about will help
you choose what area of leadership to focus in.
 Get involved in school activities. Run for student council. Join a few teams, clubs, or
organizations and get a feel for what is a good fit for you. 
 Gain experience in different extracurricular. Spend enough time becoming
knowledgeable, and you will start becoming a person that others in the group look up to.
 Take action in the groups you're in. Begin assuming more responsibilities in your group.
Set goals and do what it takes to accomplish them.
 Make a difference. Invite outside organizations, like those that help the environment or
the homeless, to your school by organizing a fundraiser.
2. Being a Good Role Model

 Try your best. Being a leader at school doesn’t always mean you have to have perfect
grades. But you should show a positive attitude toward your classes, participation, and
giving out your best effort to everything.
 Be respectful to adults at school. A good leader is someone who knows the rules and who
understands different positions of authority. 
 Be on time and organized. Come to school on time and get to each of your classes on time.
Turn in your homework and other class projects on time.
 Help others. If you know how to do something in class that others don’t, offer to help them.
 Don’t participate in bullying or gossip. If there is one quality that adults notice most about
student leaders, it is their ability to make all students feel welcome and respected at school.
3. Practicing Good Leadership Qualities

 Be a good communicator. Learn public speaking skills and writing skills. You should be
able to express yourself in a clear way, during meetings, speeches, practices, and/or games so
that people are more likely to want to listen to you.
 Distribute the workload. Have others help with the work, and distribute jobs evenly among
everybody so that one person will not have to shoulder all of the work.
 Be resourceful. A good leader knows about the resources that are available to the group. If
you don’t know the answer to something, or notice that something needs done but you’re not
sure how to do it yourselves, you’re the one who should ask questions of your teachers,
coaches, etc.
 Be open-minded and flexible. A good leader will be willing to listen to the group when
deciding if a certain rule or policy needs to be changed. Sometimes the way things have been
done are outdated or could be done in a better way. Being open to change is always good.
How To Be A Good Leader at Home

1. Established Family Values

 Live with meaning

 Provide value to the people around you
 Family first
 Live with integrity by walking my talk
 Respect others
How To Be A Good Leader At Home

2. Live By Example

 In the spirit of “it all starts with you”, you must not only be present, but you must set the
example.
How To Be A Good Leader At Home

3. Plan with Purpose

 Plan with purpose so you can do the things you want to do as a family and spend your
resources on things that will give the greatest meaningful return.
 Followership

 Followership is a globally underrated quality. It is rarely viewed admirably and followers

are often seen as being incapable of making independent decisions and consistently being
led astray, perhaps like sheep. The irony is that great leaders on their journey to the helm
have demonstrated an ability to follow and function effectively in a group. 
 How To Be A Good Follower
at School And Home
 Judgment. Followers must take direction, but not blindly. Good judgment is required
to establish the difference between following good instructions following or contending
instructions that are ethically inappropriate or constitute unsportsmanlike behavior.

 Work ethic. Good followers are good workers. They are diligent, motivated,

committed, pay attention to detail and make the effort. 

 Honesty. Followers have a responsibility to be honest. Respect and politeness are

important and followers also have to be able to offer constructively critical feedback.