Attitude

I had the honor of being initiated into Phi Lambda Sigma this weekend. This is an honorary society that honors leadership. A piece of advice that we received from one of the members was this: "Keep your chin up and your nose down." Her dad had told this to her when she moved away to college and it was, she said, the best advice she ever got.

I've had some pretty good advice over the years and I do have to say that this one is pretty good. It means to be confident in what you do - have conviction and be proud of the impact that you make in the world. But don't be cocky or overbearing or ever think that you are better than someone else. If you do this, you will earn people's respect. People will follow you and respect you and trust you.

The more I thought about it, I realized that it is - on some level - this set of attitudes that I value in people. I want to follow someone that I can trust and who thinks thoroughly about everything. I want to follow someone who has made mistakes and learned from them and has become all the wiser because of it. I also want to follow someone who is humble, someone who does what they do and acts the way they do because it's for them, because that is who they are. I don't want a leader who thinks they deserve recognition for everything they do. I value modesty in people but I also value someone who knows that what they do is good.

I have a friend who fits this. I had the honor of being initiated with her this weekend. I watched her go through the process of deciding to run, and running for a national office. She lost, but she was 100% herself during the entire process. And when it was over? She talked about what she learned, the amazing people that she met and talked with, how empowered the experience made her feel, and how she would be wonderfully happy to walk someone through the process in the future if they wanted to run. She was perfectly graceful and she has this way of believing that she doesn't deserve the praise she gets while at the same time, she knows she can move mountains. I would follow her to the ends of the world and back because I know she would never ask me to do something that she wouldn't. I know that she would, to the best of her ability, never lead me astray.

I also have a friend who is a great leader. She works really hard and gets so much done when she puts her mind to it. But she was upset that she didn't get chosen for PLS. I trust her to get her job done and to get it done well, but I wouldn't necessarily want her to lead me anywhere. Why? It's hard to say - but she's extremely emotional and has a hard time thinking straight in those situations. I don't know if that's the whole reason, but it's at least a part of it.

I hope I am a leader like my first friend. I hope people want to follow me. I've been put in a position to do so, and I hope that no one ever regrets voting for me. I want to live up to the expectations of my friends and my peers and I want to serve them to the best of my ability. And I hope that they know that about me.

I think that a lot of leadership is attitude, and how you handle situations. But you can't lead if no one will follow you - and I am honored to stand alongside people that I would follow to the end of the world and beyond.