Positive leadership in the community means someone, or some group, is looking out for everyone and the community. They want to improve the state of the community and leave it better than they found it. They want to make everyone’s lives better and improved. They lead by example and tell others what to do to help improve things. They are the people you go to when you want to help out and they know what it takes to make things better.
Volunteer at soup kitchens or helping the needy in a church group gives you a sense of happiness as you see their face widen with tears of joy as they received a necessity. Your life may be down and depressing, but helping others and see them happy will spark your own happiness. This spark will change the way you look on your life and wish to see more happiness by pursing a job in healthcare or social work. The posibilities are limitless, my friends.
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: The leadership of Malcolm X has greatly inspired me in my life and in choices I make. It brought African Americans closer together. It showed them how to unite and stand as one. Although i might not agree with everything said by him I admire his movement.
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 that one of the things that had led to the demise of our society is that close communities are less common. I think that people should strive to be a positive leader in their community. In addition, I think those same people should be open to learning from other leaders in their community. When I was raised, we lived in a very cohesive neighborhood. My father ended up getting sick and dying when I was 7. The entire neighborhood stepped up and helped to raise me. One neighbor would help us with our lawn care, another would take me to the “father-daughter dance each year, where others were just there for anything I might need. It was amazing and I know how very blessed I was. I think we all would be better off if people realized that their impact on others can be so important.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community has helped you professionally or personally.
I: There is a church leader in my community that routinely goes around to our local homeless shelter and donates pastries and breakfast goods free of charge. This church leader is a clear example of how taking initiative and being a leader for change in the community has helped me grow personally. It taught me that sometimes you can give and still feel good about not receiving anything in return. It taught me that being a leader is often sacrificing your own needs for the greater needs of others.
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: While positive leadership in a community is generally a good thing, it is an unfortunate fact of life that such leadership can adversely affect a person’s professional life because of the reaction of the person’s clients or customers. For example, attorneys are encouraged to provide no-cost legal services for those individuals who cannot afford to pay for them which, attorneys generally describe using the Latin term “pro bono” services. It might seem that an attorney who specializes in real estate law would find fulfilling opportunities providing services to indigent tenants and renters. While clearly an abstract social good, that activity might be viewed negatively by the attorney’s paying clients, who are likely to be landlords and property owners. So the attorney would have to weigh whether leadership as an attorney in the real estate field would hurt his or her professional practice. He might choose to pursue pro bono opportunities where he was less qualified to be a leader, such as social security disability claims. This would be sub-optimal for society because it would not be using the attorney’s deep expertise, but very likely it would be in the attorney’s professional self-interest.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community has hurt you or caused you trouble in the past.
I: Someone once made the executive decision to install a stop sign where none had been. I ran it several times during the first week. This of course led me to a few near misses, road rage, and a nice little traffic ticket.
R: How do you think positive leadership in the community could help you in a professional setting? Why is that?
I: Professional setting or office or work areas where one is getting paid to handle themselves in a civilized manner. The attitude of professionalism helps in communities as well as on the jobs because of the idea of working together to reach a common goal. The common goal for the community could be to keep a clean environment which is different from the goals of some businesses. But the idea of working together is a professional way of using positive leadership to help the community.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community could be useful at work. Why do you think this?
I: Work is to accomplish goals in the workplace and is headed by a supervisor or a boss. If the leadership is positive then more production would get done and the business or the company would benefit. Positive leadership in the community is an added incentive to perform work productively because it involves teams working together to promote a clean environment, for an example.
R: How do you think positive leadership in the community could help you at home? Why is that?
I: Leadership means that the followers are in favor of the views of the leader and no dissension would exist. Therefore if the home situation is based on keeping peace without a disruption of arguments, then the positive leadership would have been the answer. Leadership is not only needed in the government or political realms but also in the family unit that is found in most communities.
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: When this leadership is evident it means the community will be a better place. Neighbors will reach out to neighbors and this will allow home life to be improved. Family life will benefit as the community that family lives in will improve and be some place that is safe to live. Family life will benefit from the improvements of positive leadership in the community, wherever that leadership comes from.
R: How do you think positive leadership in the community could help you in a personal relationship? Why is that?
I: Positive leadership in the community can be beneficial because it would encourage me to do things that I do not normally do. In the same way, by having that positive reinforcement, I would be much more likely to have a stronger relationship because I would be much more of a go-getter. Positive leadership is a good means of giving self-confidence to people that might otherwise never get that type of reinforcement. If someone is more self-confident, they will be more inclined to have higher levels of confidence in their relationship and help it blossom more.
R: Give an example of how positive leadership in the community could be useful in a personal relationship. Why do you think this?
I: You might Learn something useful from that leader that can help you in all aspects of life including relationships. Positive role models are very influential in the decisions we make in life and seeing the way they handle a situation might help you handle something differently.
R: Describe at least one thing you would like to learn more about positive leadership in the community.
I: When it comes to positive leadership in the community, the hardest thing to learn (and I’m still learning it) is how to motivate people to join your cause. The right marketing technique is hard to come by.
R: Give your number one piece of advice for someone looking to learn more about positive leadership in the community.
I: Within the community you must become a role- model. You must be a person that people respect and want to follow. Your personal characteristics should inspire people.
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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?