In the end...

When I first started this class I was spectacle about being able to learn about leadership in a classroom. There are just some topics that cannot be taught in a classroom and are better understood when you experience them in real life... I thought leadership was one of these topics. After realizing all the different things I have learned about leadership in this class, I found that leadership could be taught in a classroom setting. There were topics about leadership that I did not even consider before taking this class. As a whole, I feel like many students are the same way. The first class we wrote down things that makes a good leader. This list mainly consisted of qualities such as organized, outgoing, persuasive, etc. These characteristics that we listed barely covered the spectrum of leadership. Throughout the class, I realized that leaders not only need the characteristics that we listed but also need to have a vision and share this with followers, they need to motivate their followers, take challenges and try new things, recognize and reward followers, and support followers. Again, this list can go on but there is a huge difference between the two lists. The second one is much more in depth and provides clearer aspects on leadership than just saying a leader is organized. The difference in the two lists just helps display the better understanding and insight that I have received with this class.

Additionally, the way that leadership was taught in this class helped us be more aware of leadership in things we do daily. For example, a movie, many of us have watched endless movies but have we ever considered the leadership in them. Until now... no. Never did I think about the leadership prevalent in a movie while watching it but as discovered through the large list of movies used for our papers, many movies have leadership in them. Also, the Airborne military program videos that we watched were a unique example of leadership. A normal viewer would never think about the extraordinary leadership ideas in those videos but after this class it is hard not to think it.

So not only has this class given me a better understand and base qualities of leadership, it has also made me realize that leadership can be observed in many facets of life.