Leadership?

I would like to ask everyone reading this a question:
What is a leader?
Or maybe if you would like to to rephrase that,
what is leadership all about?
Maybe to elaborate even further,
How do one define a leader?
What does a leader do?
What are the key principles of leadership?
How is leadership presence in life?
How does one consider oneself a leader?

Leadership, what exactly is it all about?

For the past 5 years I've been trying to find an answer to this question,
and to find the answer to this extremely generalized question,
I sought opportunities to develop myself as a leader,
and to also have a try at taking up leadership roles,
doing things that 'a leader should be doing',
and try to 'act like a leader'.

I gave myself a go at various leadership roles,
voluntary, appointed, elected and nominated ones;
doing things what a class monitor, subject representative, level coordinator have to do.
Back then I used to have the immature mindset of that 'a leader is equivalent to the top gun who takes control of the situation';
leadership to a 13 year-old me was then more like an asset instead of a responsibilities,
lest talking about it as a role of servitude and dedication.

My misconceptions of leadership then resulted in disastrous consequence;
people coined me with the term 'boastful', 'childish' and 'authoritative'.
The process of working together with people taught me that leadership was more than dictating the process and outcome of a particular situation;
somehow a leadership requires one to have the ability to listen most of the time,
rather than talking at one's own free will.
For that, I found out that leadership is an idea of taking responsibilities-
the higher your position, the larger your responsibilities, the bigger the range of activities you got to account for.

Common sense, but it really took me some time to understand that.

Stepping down from my positions after Secondary One,
I gave myself a one year hiatus from any leadership roles,
thinking that the absence for the need to account for people would then protect me from the 'claws of leadership'.
I assumed that the lack of any leadership positions that you hold responsibilities would actually make life better;
now onward, I'm only required to account to myself for my own doings,
instead of having other pinpointing you for your actions when you're a leader.

But all that effort to put myself away from any leadership roles did not deprive me of chances to develop leadership in myself,
or to 'understand the needs and negative consequences of leadership;
it was then the academic valor of the school that obliged everyone to develop a form of leadership among themselves.
We call this process self-leadership;
doing what a leader should be doing, but in this scenario you're your own leader.
You work independently, set aims and targets for yourself,
learn to account for your own doings, and learn to be responsible for your properties.

It was the process of self-leadership in the academic arena that gave me a better idea of what exactly leadership is about;
a leader does not only accounts for his doings towards his followers,
and besides being responsible for his followers and himself,
a leader must have a realistic aim and outlook of the path that he is taking;
a leader must know how to be dependent on his own thinking and turn his thinking into reality.

As I reach the third year of my secondary school curriculum,
I was again given a chance to have a go at being a leader.
Appointed as a Platoon Commander and nominated the monitor of my new class,
I was put in front of a leadership journey that requires me to understand everyone that is following my advice or orders.
It took me effort to understand my new classmates and new subordinates,
and even more to get them to listen to me and follow my directions.
Here I learn that leadership was also about earning trust and faith,
and the development of mutual understanding between a leader and his followers.

While I am once again put on task to the responsibilities as a class monitor,
my appointment as a Platoon Commander led me into a new area of leadership.
Leadership in uniformed groups or the military was not only about subordination, obedience and attentiveness;
it was a whole chain of obligations ranging from communication to brotherhood.
Leadership was here, not just a matter of pulling rank and subjugating others;
it was about developing belief, respect and understanding among everyone,
from a leader to his smallest follower.
The prospects of my appointment include teaching and developing skills in my followers;
it was here that I learn a leader is also one that imparts knowledge and corrects the mistakes of others.

Coming to the final year of service both as a class monitor and Platoon Commander,
I was obliged to lead my juniors to success the appointments that we have left them.
It was all a process of monitoring, guidance and development;
leadership is now not just only a matter of self-development and self-improvement,
but also an idea of sparking inspirations and motivations among others to be like us.
Here, I took effort to impart my skills and experiences to my successors,
guiding them, correcting them, and at the same time,
challenging them, to overcome their obstacles and outshine their predecessors;
inspiring them, to be like us, lighting a flame of passion among the hearts that have yet to come.

As I happily end the four blissful years in Secondary School,
I went on to tertiary education in one of those Junior Colleges in the East.
Here, I once again observe the development of people in the field of leadership;
the requirement of everyone to lead oneself,
the passion of many to become servant leaders to repay the community,
the immaturity of some that are stubborn of leadership being an asset,
the process of leaders guiding leaders-to-be,
and the inspiration and motivation leaders have sparked in the hearts of their followers.

Listening to the campaigning speeches of nominees of the Student Council,
I asked myself a question that I've asked five years ago:
What is a leader?
Or to be more specific,
What exactly is leadership about?

After experimenting with different forms of leadership in the past five years,
having lessons learnt and achievements made,
frankly speaking, I still don't really have a direct answer to that.
For this, you might be thinking that the four years of leadership in my life is then wasted,
or thinking that I've not learn anything after the sagas of leadership in my life...
But well, I guess right now if I were to ask you WHAT is LEADERSHIP all about,
you too, are unable to give me a direct answer to that...

But all in all I am glad to say that even if I couldn't define leadership,
I know how it feels like, in the perspective of a leader and a follower.
I leave it to every individual to define leadership for themselves;
we all have different ideas and beliefs in the same concept after all.
I leave it to others to define my competency as a leader-
those that have worked with me before,
those who have lead me in one way or another,
those who I've lead in a way or two.
But I don't really think that I've made a good leader myself;
there's more that can be done about it.

In conclusion, despite saying so much,
I just want everyone to understand that the concept of leadership is very simple.
While leadership training, concepts and discussion sprung up all over the society,
I would like everyone to consider leadership in this perspective:

When a soldier participates in a battle,
he will always follow his sergeant and never lose sight of him;
because he know that this is the person that he can entrust his survival upon,
and he know that in one way or another,
this person will be the one that guides him from the start to the end,
without abandoning him in the process.

Leadership, after all, it just a simple belief, that's all.