What determines a successful leader? Maybe it’s their talent and upbringing, or it might be something to do with their life experience and character. Either way, Prattville business owners Lori and Larry Bowdoin are the epitome of a successful, strong, and influential community leader. Through completely different childhoods and personalities, they come together each day to serve our community through business and spirituality, and their effect on me and how I hope to lead as I grow older is measureless. Their similarities and differences strengthen their characters and help their talents shine, and their success and determination as community leaders impresses even the most influential of people. Born in the small town of Hartford, Lori …show more content…
His father was in the navy, and was stationed in a new place every year for his entire childhood. He describes his upbringing as lots of time in the car, traveling to forty-six out of the fifty states. It was great for exposure, but he never ended up making long-term relationships. He learned to be very independent, and this led to his incredible self-discipline. At the age of twelve, his family settled in Prattville, which created a home for him to develop relationships and long-term talents. After working for the gymnastics department of the YMCA and even being a collegiate gymnastics coach, he decided he wanted to have a professional career managing a YMCA for himself. He received the education for it in college and spent years trying to find the right position for him to direct. Because of a low amount of money in the business, they had nobody to make the programs and brochures, and nobody to print them. He took it upon himself, demonstrating his self-discipline, and bought a computer and eventually a copying system. To make this a side-job, he took jobs from businesses around the area. Seeing the success of the business, he bought a small building, and set up a small space for his budding business, which he later entitled Laser Copy. When he met Lori, he finally decided to keep up Laser Copy’s growth and drop his longtime dream of becoming a YMCA director. He wanted to focus on …show more content…
From their journeys as hardworking community leaders, I’ve learned how important upbringing is, because each of their childhoods affected how they function and work today. I’ve also learned that everything happens for a reason. If my dad had pursued the YMCA career and had not opened his own copy store, he would have never met my mom, because he did copy jobs for UniCare as one of his first transactions. If my parents had never owned the gift company, my mom would not have had the idea to open Blessings, or to even run it. I’ve learned that everything leads to everything-each experience in life has the opportunity to help make the next one better. In my life, I’ve looked to my parents for advice time and time again, and they’ve never disappointed. I can learn from their story to not focus on the one thing you want to do-I’ve learned to broaden my horizons and let new things and cultures influence me as much as possible. I’ve learned that a work ethic, strong character, and the utilization of my natural talents are my best assets, and to use them to my advantage in my career in whatever I decide to do. From this interview, I’ve learned more about my parents than I knew before. Their effect on me is measureless, and I am forever grateful for the lessons they learned that will help me in my growth as a person. Lori and Larry Bowdoin are incredible people, and I am so blessed to not
To be a good leader you need to be brave, experienced, and hardworking. Unlike the football game life isn’t always about the final score. Leaders such as Richthofen, Rickenbacker, and Mitchell put their lives on the line for what they believed
Many definitions exist on what leadership is. Despite the many differences in definitions, they all describe the leader as someone who influences others. Leaders transform individuals around them allowing them to work to their full potential. In order for a leader to be successful they must be knowledgeable, self- confident, and effective communicators. These characteristics will create a positive workplace environment that results in an increase in productivity. Leadership is not defined by titles or salary. Leaders must acquire their skills and continue to improve on them through learning. Good leaders provide a vision and help motivate others to make that vision happen. The leader must be effective and successful in creating a strong institution.
Leadership is strength. Though it is strength, what makes a leader? Is a leader someone who is in front of the line in the game ‘follow the leader’? Technically yes because that is their name in the game, but this essay isn’t about a game. It is about reality. Is a leader made up of a variety of skills, talents, morals, and values? Or perhaps a leader is someone who tells people what to do? Or maybe a leader is someone who can make a difference? To an extent, a leader is built up of all of those possibilities. A leader is someone with a variety of skills, talents, morals and values, and someone who knows how to make a difference, and someone who can guide people into doing what needs to happen. Leadership can’t just be broken up
Leaders do not just appear out of thin air and automatically start making great things happen in the world. A leader must learn from prior leaders or role models that they are surrounded by that they look up to. Not everyone can be a leader, only some people have the correct characteristics it takes to lead others in the right direction. Those who do great things, for example volunteering at a homeless shelter, are not leaders. Many people mistake a “great person” as being a leader, which is completely incorrect (Kouzes and Posner, p. 3). While playing an active role in your community is a positive thing it does not make someone a leader of that community. All leaders have a group of people they have inspiration too and that is a good way of determining who your personal leaders are. My mother, brother, and grandfather are my leaders because I have always looked up to them and tried to mimic some of the great things that I have seen them do. My mother has always been an independent women with goals and an action plan to accomplish those set goals. Stephen, my elder brother, is outgoing and tends to have a leveled head when it comes to evaluating stressful situations. My grandfather is the most caring person I know and he is amazing at keeping situations under control in order to please everyone. These are all the qualities I want to combine into my own leadership style. I know I am not a efficient leader of these actions yet, but I plan on growing into this as I more on into my career, fulfill my set goals, and adjust to the curve-balls that life throws at me.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
These childhood notes came in handy during the course of my personal, academic and professional life. Born as the elder of the two daughters to a single father, responsibility became second nature to me. I worked hard academically, led many group assignments during my post graduation studies in travel and tourism, received a scholarship and eventually took charge of the family business at a young age. I faced many personal setbacks during this course, but eventually discovered ways to overcome them.
Great “leaders are made, not born” (Skrhak, 2014). A great leader motivates and influences a team to reach seemingly impossible goals. A great leader has a compelling sense of purpose and duty. Great leaders portray excellence and in return they expect no less than excellence. An effective and great leader is not defined by only personality, but by their values, ability and skills, and leadership style.
Although there are many outstanding, albeit necessary qualities of a good leader, it is the leader’s beliefs in which greatness is given its first breath, fostered by action, and spread throughout the institution. A great leader believes in encouraging, not destroying; in setting the precedence instead of yielding to prominence ; in collaboration, not division; in giving, not taking; and in having high standards and volunteering to be the first of many to be held to them. A great leader does not take advantage of the people being lead, but instead, creates an advantage for the people by giving them the opportunities to lead. Only when people take ownership of an institution will passion be cultivated, action be taken, and greatness be achieved.
The practices of a leader can have wide spread implications. They can impact individual stakeholders and the organization as a whole. Clark (2013) states that “you must be the role model you want others to grow into” (para. 9). A strong leader leads by example, is ethical, and earns the trust and respect of their followers. They are also conscientious of the impact they have on the world around them. They practice impeccable communication and learn to inspire others with a positive vision for the future. Clark (2014) describes leadership as the methods of influencing others to accomplish objectives in a collective manner in the direction of the organization's vision.
Leaders are the individuals who help to create options and opportunities. They help in identifying the choices and solve the problems. They build commitment and coalitions. Leaders do this by inspiring others and working along with them to construct the shared vision of the possibilities and commitments of a better group, organization or community. They engage the followers in such a way that most of the followers become leaders in their own right. The variety of demands of an increasingly complex world very often require that leadership be shared by most of the members of an organization, in appropriate ways for different situations. A leader is the on...
Leadership has been described as a “complex process having multiple dimensions” (Northouse, 2013). Over the past 60 years, scholars and practitioners have introduced a vast amount of leadership models and theories to explain this complex field and examine its many perspectives. Numerous leadership theories and models have attempted to define what makes a leader effective. From the early 1900s, the trait paradigm dominated leadership literature, focusing on inherited traits of leaders and suggesting that “leaders are born, not made”. However, during the 1950s, the trait approach lost enthusiasm as focus shifted to the behavior of leaders. Similar to the trait theory, the behavioral paradigm was based on general effective leadership behaviors
Growing up my mom and dad always showed us unconditional love. They shaped us to learn the right from the wrong and the importance of education. They related the troubles we experienced in America theirs in South America and how education primarily is the root to being successful in America. My dad would always say “we never had the opportunities you all have in America so don’t let it slip away”. Besides education, they taught us that money is easier spent then earned so to value a dollar. The upbringing in life that they had was very hard living and all the struggles they experience moving to a new country just to provide a better living environment for their kids. In their country beating your kids was known to put way word kids straight. My brother and I can contest to those beating but it made us into good kids. We didn’t give into the peer pressure of other kids in school and we learned to walk away from trouble instead of fighting. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t angels but we stayed out of the ways of trouble. I commend my parents for the person I’ve become and the independence they instilled in my life today. I’ve used the knowledge to shape the person I want to be and some day the mother I want to be for my kids. My parents brought me up with the foundation of kindness, humbleness, and understand with a strong spiritual Christian background. Their parenting styles
Great leadership is not achieved over night, and it is not something that one achieves and stops. Great leaders spend entire lives building and growing their leadership skills. It is not likely that a leader will one day wake up with all of the vision, influence, knowledge, respect, and momentum necessary to be great; these take time to develop. “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.”
Authentic leaders have revolutionized the world of business by focusing on what they are passionate about, on becoming the best in their industry on their specialty. They strongly believe in having the right people on board to help drive their successes and lead with humility. One thing that I have learned and found interesting in reading the Good to Great by James Collins, is that the leaders of some of the most successful companies are not even recognized by the masses. Take a look at Charles Walgreens the founder of Walgreens – not many people know that Walgreens was the first to revolutionize the convenience drug store or the fact that they were the first to start the drive through pharmacy that is now seen everywhere. Walgreens for centuries also remained on top outperforming many top competitors in the stock market. This is one great example of what a company can gain by having authentic leaders that communicate and operate in that
There were many instances in my life that have shaped my values, intellect, and academic or career goals. I was raised by my parents to become a hard worker, independent, and caring young adult. I was taught how to be all these qualities by a combination of experiencing and witnessing them first hand.