Leadership Is Influence: Nothing More, Nothing Less

My leadership journal

1) Intro
2) Personality profile/ self assessment
3) Defining moments of leadership from primary school to jc
4) How I changed and can be better
5) What I want to be

Introduction

Having been through almost 21 years of life and experiences, attended countless of leadership talks and read numerous books on leadership, if there was one word to describe leadership, it is influence. I once read from a book by John C Maxwell, “The true measure of leadership is influence – Nothing more, Nothing Less.”

Since young, many often at times, I personally misunderstood leaders to be directly in official positions of power. Sometimes its true, but these titles I realized have in fact no correlation to real leadership as I learn over

Though I did attained acknowledgment by my cohort and teachers’ for the immense effort and time as compared to others, I thought I had a shot at one of the core leadership positions in the unit. Yet it came as a disappointment when I was appointed Assistant Platoon Sergeant holding a 3rd sergeant rank. It was truly shocking and I felt this couldn’t be true. I felt I deserved more, given the amount of effort I’ve put in to making this unit great and I was not getting anything in

One great example was the HBO television mini series the Band of Brothers, which told “The story of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division and their mission in WWII Europe from Operation Overlord through V-J Day. Focusing on the positive examples of leadership, Winters was one of the best portrayals of exemplary leadership by example, of leaders walking the talk, showing the way for followers to accomplish the shared vision for the greater good over personal interests. One memorable incident illustrating Winter’s way of leading was during the “Crossroads” episode where he led his men from the front, setting the example and taking the risks with his men. If not all the instances, Winters inspired and assisted his men to perform at their fullest potential. There are many examples such as Gen. Doolittle in Pearl Harbour, Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan just to name a few, but one thing I observed from all great leaders, whether they had good or bad intentions, was that they provide and create the vision for their followers, and more than just communicating the vision clearly, they live by the vision themselves; they lead through their actions by setting the benchmark for others to