Leadership Examples

Throughout my search in the LBJ library, I found many traits that I would love to have, but I didn’t realize I passed up something more than just a trait. It wasn’t just a trait. It was a combination of heart and passion. It was a combination of leadership and ethics. What I passed up and eventually went back for was a fine work done by Lyndon B. Johnson.  Johnson “worked so hard to make life better for so many” and these people weren’t even related to him or close to him. They were just people, strangers in particular. Johnson still helped no matter what. In my thoughts, why would someone do such a thing? Why would I help another person when I don’t even know them, not even so much of an acquaintance? Well to answer my own question, it is because Johnson believed in hope and wanted his people that he was leading at the time to “have a healthy and rewarding life.” He didn’t care who we were, but what he did care for is we, the people who put our trust in his leadership.

Johnson believed that they people should be “given a fair chance to develop their capacities, “ which is why he advocated education, housing, and other essentials that developing communities need for growth. Johnson wanted to see the best in people; he wanted to see everyone’s potential. It wasn’t what he could do to make a difference. He viewed it as what we the people could do to carry on the legacy and make the chance ourselves. This is what I call leadership. This is exactly what I want. He trusted us. He guided us through the process. He was the motivation. He is exactly what I want to become.

Along with Johnson, however was President Hoover as well. He had to trait of “command… and persuasion.” This is something I really need to work on myself. When I was a freshman mentor for my high school to help others adjust to the high school transition, I realized that I didn’t have one thing, and that one thing was being bold enough to take charge and take command in a situation. Thus, I was lucky that I had other leaders in the room. Now I realized that if I were Hoover back then, I would have made an even greater difference it the students around me.

Citations:

Image [1] by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson

Image [2] by author.

Image [3] by author.