Changing Perspectives

At the beginning of my OT journey we were asked to draw a glyph representing our thoughts on leadership. Now, near the end, after all the ups and downs graduate school has presented us with, we were asked to repeat the same exercise. I was surprised to see what aspects of my perspective had changed. Some things had remained the same; I still see myself as a leader behind the scenes, I still believe an introvert can be a leader, and I still believe self-awareness is vital to effective leadership. These elements of what a leader is stayed the same because they were the most solid values; in fact, the past year and a half only reinforced them.

In regard to the opinions that have varied, I suppose my most accurate belief is in the middle: the average of my answers. The biggest view that changed was whether leadership was an inborn trait or if it stems from nurture over nature. I started out with stemming from nature and since then migrated to inborn trait. I believe that some people are more inclined to lead and naturally rise to become leaders, while others prefer to follow a leader, (or be a leader in their own, less obvious, overwhelming way). Yes, the latter will rise up to the occasion in the case of injustice or necessity, however, the trait is still stronger in some individuals.

My experience in graduate school has also allowed me to see that you do not have to see yourself as a leader for other people to see you in that way. As a leader, a person guides/helps while experiencing the same circumstances as everyone else. They will not be able to recognize their actions are setting an example because they will feel the same emotions as everyone else; they will simply react in a different way. This realization was exceptionally eye opening for me.