Leadership and London

         Its been an interesting few weeks here adjusting to everything that has been going on. During my stay here I have been reading for my Long Vanderburgh scholars  class, we are looking at the life of one of the most famous leaders; Nelson Mandela. Reading this autobiography has been very interesting, within it Mandela gives lessons about how leadership should be and traits that a leader should have when leading.

I have been forced to think about what leadership means to me as I read the book which has been changed by some of the things I have read. For example the most recent chapter we read was about  leading from behind and I thought to myself who in the world could you do that. Of course as I was reading the material I understood more about how Mandela would make others feel as if they made decisions themselves. Author Richard Stengel talks about how Mandela would rarely share what his views were on certain subjects but he would rather summarize what everyone else would mold the opinion and gear it towards action. 

Reading this I thought to myself that he was the most effective Resident Assistant that there was. All joking aside he really proved himself to be a great man and leader, which is something that many people strive but never achieve at that level. Does that make them less of a leader? No it doesn't. 

Everyone has their own way of leading and Mandela's might not work for everyone, but it is good to know about other ways of leading, to see see which is most effective for you. During my time here and being the RA I have noticed that it is easy want to tell people what to do and how to do it and being part of everything that people are doing, but it's more difficult letting people do them while you are doing something completely different.

Looking through my phone I was able to find a picture that I took with a statue of Mandela. I did not realize that I had this but I thought it would be fitting for this post. The statue I think captures who he was as a person in the since that he was always open and the power he radiates it very visible in the picture. I can say that when I saw the statue I was surprised to see it, but I thought why not he did meet the queen and the presence of his leadership was felt over all of the world. So far so good.

Come on London!!