Reflective Essay On Leadership

Throughout my life, people would have never considered me a leader because of my reserved and shy nature. Their image of a leader was someone outgoing and charismatic, so they couldn’t comprehend how I could have been an ideal leader. They essentially overlooked my leadership qualities. Sometimes it was due to my culture and gender. I’m a Mexican woman and in my culture women are seen and not heard. I remember growing up my dad once told me that a woman’s place was in the kitchen. So growing up I didn’t view myself as a leader because I was constantly overlooked for who I was. After going into depth more in my HR classes about leadership it help me realize that the experiences that occurred to me in my lifespan had relations to leadership.

The reason why I didn’t raise my hand was because I already had a perceived definition that a leader was someone who was born a leader; they had charisma and power. Before class I full believed that leadership was derived from the Great Man Theory. So I knew that none of the characteristics, involved with the great man theory, applied to me. It wasn’t until people started giving out examples and explaining, that for those who didn’t raise their hands, they might have been leaders to their siblings, that I started thinking about the roles I play at home. Growing up with younger siblings was tough especially when I had two working parents. So I had to step up and become a role model for my younger siblings. I was basically thrust into a leadership position and had to set out rules, responsibilities, and essentially be there for my brothers. It was a lot of pressure because when something went wrong it reflected badly on me since I was the leader. Also, because I had to set an example to their impressionable minds and be the “perfect” sibling, someone who gets good grades, has a good personality, follows the rules, and a generally nice person. I found that setting an example was the most challenging because I basically was a teenager leading my siblings, so I know I made mistakes and wasn’t perfect; I had to make sure they knew that even though I made mistakes, I learned from them to become a better person. My family wasn’t the only time I had instances of leadership