What is a leader?

So what is the definition of a leader? Most would associate traits like intelligence, resilience, endurance, and goal-oriented, the “book” definition of a leader. Such traits are important, but there is more to being a successful leader. Often overlooked is the list of humbler, personal qualities. Through a personal experience I learned that these kind of aspects are more essential. A person is not born a leader, but sure there are those who possess natural leadership qualities. Executive Vice President of the GPHA, Scott Brunner said it best. “Virtually no one come out of the womb equipped to be a good volunteer leader, but while few are ingrained with an innate ability to lead, the skills can be learned.” During my internship this summer I learned something along these lines. I worked with other interns my age and we collaborated with each other on almost every assignment. In any group situation, school or in the real world, there is always that one person who takes action and initiates the first conversation, in my eyes that’s a natural born leader. While working with one set of interns, there was a girl who did just that. Most of my group did not like the authoritarian approach that she took, too much control in one person’s hands, she rarely relied on support from the rest of the group. Overall I think this approach is one of the worst, because it just doesn’t create a healthy environment and there is no collaboration involved. On the other hand, I worked with another set of interns where there was not a set person as the “leader,” no one took more initiative than the other, so it was more of a democratic approach. Every day there was a new “leader” in that group, everyone was able to bounce their creative ideas off one another. Overall it was more functional than the other group I worked with, we produced better work and were better leaders.