A big part of being a positive leader in the community is acceptance and open-mindedness. It’s important to be able to embrace the varying thoughts, cultures and traditions of everyone around you in order to provide the most positive environment. I feel that if more leaders took this into consideration, things like prejudice and discrimination could potentially be less prevalent.
There are a myriad of retired professionals who have years of experience and expertise in a particular genre. If these professionals volunteer their leadership abilities to the community, the community and the city will benefit.
Oftentimes, there are lateral positions in the community that are similar to the professionals that was left with plenty of energy left to begin another career. Positive leadership means that the city and the community benefit as well as the retired professional who would like to begin a new career.
This blog article is a branch out to life-optimizing readers like yourself that were kind enough to do a little question and answer interview survey with me. I’m still working on my interview skills (and some of these were done via email/not-in-person!), but I do promise good, raw, and honest answers from normal people like you and me. I do my best to NOT filter these answers, except for the bad words and hateful speech (which doesn’t happen often).
Topic of Interest: Positive Leadership in the Community
‘R’ = Richard N. Stephenson (me!)
‘I’ = Interviewee (anonymous by request unless otherwise noted)
R: Give an example of positive leadership in the community that has inspired you (from either internet/mainstream media examples or personal examples).
I: Positive leaderships is usually inspiring like in my community where an individual who is 60 years old still works by building and renovating houses for families that cannot afford to do so. He volunteers and does this with the church group but it is inspiring that he has been working there for so long and being a real leader in the entire renovation process. He is invaluable to the volunteer group and organization.
R: How do you think a better understanding of positive leadership in the community would help other people in their personal or professional life?
I: I think if people understand how to positively lead a community, then they are much better able to influence another group of people. If you understand how positive leaders function, this can help you relate to co-workers and your family members. Positive leadership is useful for getting co-workers to work together toward a common goal and also to get a family to work together to achieve a family goal. It can help you with your relationships with others if you learn to be a positive person.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community has helped you professionally or personally.
I: The positive leadership of sports coaches has helped me. As a youth I played a lot of youth sports and was often coached by a volunteer from the community. Usually these men were great leaders and this helped teach me good life lessons and how to overcome adversity.
R: Describe at least one way you think positive leadership in the community could cause trouble or hurt someone in their personal or professional life.
I: It could hurt someone if their company or family disagreed with the leaders beliefs. For example, a law firm might object if their paralegal is a leader for gay rights in the community. Or, a wife not agree if her husband is a leader for animal rights.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community has hurt you or caused you trouble in the past.
I: No man is an island. To seek to make a change without constituents would be a wasteful endeavor. I have tried to change the adherence to curfew that was being disrespected. Because I am a party of one, the curfews did not get adhered to and I was told that it was merely a civil matter. If a group had got together and approached the city officials, then a change would have occurred. There would have been adherence to the curfew instead of one person having to seek civil action.
R: How do you think positive leadership in the community could help you in a professional setting? Why is that?
I: Positive leadership in the community can greatly affect me as a professional because I deal directly with that same community. Having leadership with a clear and positive vision for the future of the community will help provide me with clear, concise goals for my work. These goals will help me offer better services to the community as well as address any needs that the leaders may foresee.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community could be useful at work. Why do you think this?
I: Positive leadership in the community may pressure business to behave correctly. With no one leading company may become too aggressive in a given community and become exploitative of the surround population. There was a lack of communal leadership during the Wal-Mart taker over of small town America where workplaces were destroy and everyone had to work a nonunion low wage Wal-Mart job.
R: How do you think positive leadership in the community could help you at home? Why is that?
I: I think positive leadership in the community could help me at home by improving morale. I think when there are positive influences; it makes people more confident and happy. I think I would be glad to have that positive force in my life.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community could be useful at home or in family life. Why do you think this?
I: My son was so proud of me when I creative a community initiative to help the poor. By enacting positive leadership in the community, you become a better role model for your family.
R: How do you think positive leadership in the community could help you in a personal relationship? Why is that?
I: It would depend on how close I am to the leader. If the leader were a leader of my church then I would feel like I could go to that person for help or ideas about how to improve my personal relationship. If the community leader is someone I don’t know or barely know, they are more of an abstraction. I could take inspiration from the idea of that person.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community could be useful in a personal relationship. Why do you think this?
I: Leaders are typically great at looking out for others. This translates well into personal relationships too since that person will be more apt to put others’ needs first too. Additionally, leaders are great at seeing the big picture and these skills can help a family balance their own budget and determine sound future decisions.
R: Describe at least one thing you would like to learn more about positive leadership in the community.
I: I would like to learn more about how the community works. How does a leader get chosen and what do people in the community look for in a leader? I would want to know how to influence people at the community level.
R: Give your number one piece of advice for someone looking to learn more about positive leadership in the community.
I: Volunteering is the best way to become involved in your community. You can find groups on-line, on your library/local bulletin board, in the newspaper. You just need to know where to look. These volunteer positions will give you a good look into the workings of your community, therefore presenting you ample insight into where to start improving the community, giving you the chance to be the leader and take initiative in doing these things.
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How was that for a nice little journey into this topic? I hope you enjoyed this interview and found at least one useful bit of information you can immediately begin to apply in your life. Yes, homework is never seen as a nice word, but it’s useful – give yourself an action to use at least 1 thing from this article to help change your life.
Please share your thoughts, experiences, or your own interview answers and let’s share some real life wisdom, okay?