Katelynn Malecha

PS 111-42

Dr. Kunkel

4 December 2014

The Values and Roles Citizens and Leaders Have Today

Today leaders are expected to have the natural gift of leading, but in all reality

everyone is a leader some point in their lives. Leadership can vary between leading a group

project, organizing an event, or working for a campaign office. Regardless of what the

activity maybe, the leader should have values what reflect who they are as a person and their

roles as a citizen also.

One of the central values leaders should have is honesty. According to Plunkitt,

honesty is nearly essential to be a successful politician. Being honest allows people to trust

you and building trust is important when support is needed later on. Even Catherine Shaw

suggests that if one is dishonest, that their chance of becoming a leader is highly unlikely.

Honesty not only should be a value for leaders, but even citizens.

As a citizen of the United States of voting age, it is my duty to vote. As a leader I

should encourage other people to vote. I learned this through personal experience because in

this class, Honors U.S. Government, we all completed a campaign activity. For my activity, I

volunteered for a political campaign where I canvassed, also known as door-knocking. This

required me to be honest when people would ask me questions. Sometimes I did not know the

answers; therefore, I had to inform them that I did not know, and provide them with

alternative resources. After all honesty is the best policy.

 In addition to honesty, communication is also extremely valuable. Communication

provides a way for people to not only share ideas, but creates a bond. This bond opens up a

door for people to express themselves in a way to be clearer and understand each others

differences. By recognizing differences, one can become a better leader by knowing how to

communicate properly without offending anyone. This ties into our government class, the fact

that much the class discussion was done with international students. The international

students provided alternative views on leadership and politics. Organization and a whole

different concept of image and how image is truly essential played important roles. Image can

be included as clothing. Plunkitt says to dress the part which sometimes means not wearing a

suit. Catherine Shaw suggests not wearing track pants, but jeans can be accepted, while in

other countries that would be looked down upon. Communication and image are additional

values to honesty.

More basic values exist. Organization can be essential, depending on the activity. For

example, for a campaign office it was essential for the volunteer coordinator to be organized.

This required not only organization, but being also being prepared. A good leader is prepared

for many different situations and if not, remaining fairly flexible when things do not go as

they wish. This also showed in my campaign activity when I was out canvassing and I met up

with Jack Considine canvassing in the same neighborhood as I was. I ultimately made the

decision to help him for a little bit, but found something more effective such as going back to

the campaign office. This connects back to communication that if the campaign office would

have known, then I would not have canvassed in the same neighborhood at the same time, but

then the communication was resolved through discussion. Using values and skills can make

all the difference in events.

Every value from this class through discussion, books, lectures, and campaign

activities provided an insight into personal and group values as a citizen and leader. Those
values include honesty, communication, organization and image. Wrapping all of these

values together will provide a base for any leader and taking Honors U.S. Government has

personally given me an opportunity to expand knowledge about leadership and citizenship.

 Works Cited

Plunkitt, George Washington, and William L. Riordon. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall; a Series of

Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics. New York: Dutton, 1963. Print.

Shaw, Catherine M. The Campaign Manager Running and Winning Local Elections. Boulder,

CO: Westview, 2010. Print.