Many people think leadership is described as having a person in charge and you follow what they do but, it comes down to way more than that. First of all there are many types of leadership such as autocratic which basically means that one person believes they are the smartest person in the room and everyone should follow them.
But there are also other types of leaders that are called authoritative and coaching leaders. Authoritative leaders mainly are the confident type and try to visualize a way to set expectations while still energizing the group. The other type is coaching leaders which are individuals who like to learn about the group’s potential first and then see how they can grow. Whichever type people tend to follow is up to them, it just depends on the individual’s personality. Personally the type of leadership that I try to hold myself to would be an authoritative leader but there are some parts of my leadership style that I could work on.
Whenever people have a leadership role, they start off by thinking they know everything and they start acting “cocky” about things, but there is a difference between being cocky and being confident. Personally I have experienced this by working as a rides operator at Kings Island. I have been working there for 4 years now, and just this year I got promoted to be a Certified Trainer, which means I can train other associates at a ride and it is one step closer to becoming a supervisor. When I first got this little promotion I was really excited but I also started to get really cocky and I thought I knew everything. As soon as other people started to realize it they ended up telling my supervisors, who told me what the responsibilities are as a certified trainer. I needed to just do my job and help only when needed. After that situation I knew that I had some leadership responsibilities given to me, but I also needed to realize that I still wasn’t the one in charge of everything.
Many people who are given a leadership task are determined to achieve any goal that they can to improve themselves as a person. Some people also like to look on different group’s pages to find inspirational quotes that can help them with their journey. A group that I have looked through is called Leadership First which consists of people who are trying to grow as leaders and find some inspiration throughout their daily lives.
Some of these quotes inspire individuals to be a better leader such as “outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” When I read this quote it inspired me to go out there and help others be better at what they do. This group helped me during my experience at Kings Island because I was able to look at some of these quotes and it started to make me think of what a leader actually is.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the responsibility of being a leader got to be a little more difficult, but individuals started to use video chats and social media in general to keep up with their other associates and find ways to help them even with going through this hard time. Going through this hard time even taught people all over the world that even though we can’t talk face to face at that moment we can still motivate and encourage people to do what they need to do to accomplish anything that they put their mind to.
By Allison Rammel, Activist writer
