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Alphonse Russo

Caroline Twiggs

CNL125.01 Communities and Change

February 2, 2024

Unit 1 Final Project

What is a leader? A leader to me can be described as many different things; they can be described as

selfless, brave, courageous, charismatic, confident, adaptable and many other things. Being a leader

brings me back to football. My coach always told me and my teammates that good teams aren't just

because we have good coaches as leaders but what makes a good team is when you have players as

leaders. One of the times I remember my senior year of high school it was after we has just lost a big

game and it was the first practice after. Our whole team was arguing and fighting that entire practice

because one person thought it was another's fault and it just continued the entirety of that practice and our

coach caught on and noticed what’s been happening. After that final period of our practice our head coach

was scolding us for how we were treating others when he said “You cant be a half assed leader” he then

went to say you cant be a leader if you don't practice with your all so you can help make your teammates

better, when you aren't reliable and give up bug plays because you were tired, or when you try and lead

and come last in sprints. Then out next practice instead of people blaming each other for what had

happened from the previous game we had more players that were leaders they took our coaches advice

and put it into action and once that started happening our practices picked up tempo and we as a team got

better because of the leaders we had as players. How my definition of leadership and the leadership
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relational model are similar is that in the text book on page 96 it states (How that purpose is achieved (the

process) is just as important as the outcome” this ha always been preached to me growing up in a house

full of athletes my dad, coaches, and trainers would always tell me “you have to love the process, the

process is where you grow and if you love the process the outcome is even better’’. Also being inclusive

was a big part of leadership as a team if you called a play and someone didn't hear it the whole play wastn

going to work right so everyone had to be included. In the ways our leadership was ethical is I would go

hard in practice so the guy that I was going against would also get better rather me going half speed you

wont go half speed in a game ever its always 110%. With Empowerment is that we would encourage our

teammates if they had messed up you would tell them pick your head up its just one play because once

you get in your head about messing up its like walking on eggshells and you aren't at your best. When you

put all three of those things together you get a group purpose and that group purpose was on Fridays when

we would go out and win those games.

A group that I worked with that personifies the idea of socially responsible leadership is the Bonner

Scholar program. Why I say the Bonner program is socially responsible is that we have a name round the

area of Mars Hill, we are known as the leaders on campus to be a Bonner is to be a leader. With this being

a small campus Bonners are well known and are known for doing acts of service surrounding the area.

With new people coming in first impressions are everything if even one Bonner doesn't act accordingly

that could hurt the Bonner programs reputation not just that certain Bonner. Things that I admire about

the Bonner program is that we help people in need. We have so many great Bonners who put in 122 hours

of service per semester and to me that's a lot of hours of volunteering with a whole program as well I

think its amazing what we accomplish around the Mars Hill and Ashville area helping those in need.

The ways in which I practice leadership vary but like the previous paragraph I am a Bonner scholar here

at Mars Hill University and Bonner are leaders in themselves. I perform acts of leadership by going to site

and setting a great example for my underclassmen. I am also a Big in a Bonner program. This program

has a upperclassmen Bonner mentor and hang out with a lower classmen to help with hours, school, or
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even just to hang out. By being a role model for these underclassmen and showing them what to do right

is being a leader in itself.

My top 5 Cliffton strengths include Woo, Harmony, Includer, Restorative, Context. The first

strength I am going to talk about it Woo. Woo is a big part of who I am as a person Woo means I love

meeting new people and I am very outgoing and can talk to anyone. I do not know a stranger I want

everyone to be my new best friend. My next strength is Harmony, Harmony to me means I do not like

conflict I rather seek the middle ground where everyone can get meet in the middle. The third strength I

am going to talk about is Includer. Being an includer means I hate seeing people left out of things. Like

when I go out to eat with some of my friends and I see someone who went out and is sitting by

themselves I always get sad because that person is eating by themselves so I usually ask them to come sit

with me so they arent all by themselves. My fourth strength is restorative this strength to me means that I

am a problem solver. It means that I am usually good at figuring out the issue to a situation and resolving

it the best I can. My fifth and final strength is Context, what conctext means to me as a strength is that I

enjoy using my past experiences to help with current issues that are in the present.

Certain things my strength help me with on the chart is that they usually tie into each other. I am

very outgoing so I can ask questions with people and make sure eveything ethically is alright I like

getting people opinions on things seeing if they like it or not. That is also where some of my other

strengths come into play like context, restorative, and harmony come in where once I ask those hard

tough questions we can work to figure out a solution to an issue. Those also tie into empowering other

individuals being a woo I like talking with people and getting to know everything about you so if you tell

me something interesting I am going to be interested in what you are talking about and being inclusive

making sure everyone has a say and making sure that we all as a group can come together to form a

reliable and sound resolution to any given issue.

Certain things I can do to develop my leadership skills is to get out of my comfort zone and do

more things that I usually wouldn't be doing in my day to day routine. Putting myself in new situations
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and seeing how I react to help improve on my social and leadership skills. Getting to know people I don't

really know and interacting with them like I would with anyone else I usually am around. Its always a

goal of mine to be more social and meet new people and make new friends around Mars Hill were such a

small campus and I look at the same people every day but I find myself not talking to a lot of the people

that I see day to day so a goal is to at least talk and interact with someone different each week.

The one that stands out for me the most is the commitment aspect of it. To show loyalty and

reliability to someone they can trust and rely on you, and when you are committed to putting in a lot of

work and showing you care for a good cause, all the other competencies fall into place. This shows me

the types of leaders in my life love commitment and responsibility so if I say im going to turn and

assignment in on time and I don't that doesn't show my commitment and it doesn't show them that I'm

serious about it. I like to work with people who's strength differ from my own because it they highlight

my and help me improve on the strengths that im not so great while I do the same thing for them. We help

each other in the end.

Work Cited

Komives, Susan R., et al. Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference.

Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2013.

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