Personal Reflection For Leadership: The Importance Of Leadership

For Leadership day I attended the political science major lecture. I regret that my seminar did not travel anywhere like other majors or have the same networking opportunistic like the criminal justice major seminar being held next door. Part of the leadership seminar was identifying personal values and representing this institution. Honesty is a trait that holds strong with most cadets here and it is certainly a value that The Citadel believes in. Holding true to the standard of honesty, I must be honest that this seminar did not present anyone with new concepts. Elevator speeches, networking and follow ups are concepts that have been covered time and time again on Tuesday LTPs. To dedicate a whole day to this was a wasted opportunity. We

Loyalty in the Military is very important both to your country and to the men around you. As a leader in the military you should have loyalty to those below you. They should know that you would do anything for them as long as they are squared away. You as a leader should have confidence in your abilities as a leader to have inspired loyalty in your men towards you. Dedication to the missions, tasks and the organization you belong to. Motivation and more importantly self motivation is an important value. Anyone can be externally motivated but true motivation comes from within. I value those who have a fire burning inside of them to press on and succeed purely on their own. If someone demonstrates that they never quit on themselves and can motivate themselves to keep going then they are the kind of person who will never quit on you either. Lastly Pride, you should have pride in everything you do, if you don 't then it wasn 't worth doing or it wasn 't the right thing to do in the first place. In regards to Military service I believe that is the most honorable thing one can ever do and is most certainly something you should be proud of. I can only speak for myself but I know that seeing a leader that was loyalty to me and demonstrated the worthiness of loyalty, dedicated to to a cause greater than just himself, self motivated and proud to be that way; would be a leader that I would follow to the

I do not believe that you can undo 18 or more years in only 4 years by forcing doctrine down peoples throats. Forcing things on people only causes them to shut down and shut you out. An individual would have to already have these values. I find it offensive that the citadel claims that Arland Williams gave his life because the citadel made him that way. That claim takes away from his greatness and sacrifice because you are saying he only did what he did because of you. That sort of selflessness can only come from within. If you do not possess that trait or do not have a cause you are willing to die for then no amount of LTPs and Leadership days can convince the average Citadel cadet to die for a stranger, you can hardly get a Cadet to donate to charity or go to community service without making it mandatory. If the Citadel insists on taking credit for making Arland Williams that way then the Citadel must take credit for the behavior of all Grads and Cadets for making them that way including Skip ReVille a citadel grad who molested children. The Citadel is Similar to the Masons it is an institution that makes good men better. A man or woman who holds the citadel values close to heart is a man or woman who was already a good person. As for as shaping my principled leadership this fine institution has helped me greatly. While I personally have only had one leader here who I strive to be like, I have had countless examples of