What is leadership? According to the dictionary, it refers to the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group. According to the United States Army, it is about influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while working to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. While both of these are great ways to describe leadership, they are actually much more than that. To accurately define leadership, you must either be in a leadership position or have been blessed with a great leader. Fortunately for me, I have had great leaders and been in a leadership position. For as long as I can remember, I have been a people person and always wanted to be in charge. From a young age, I asserted myself in the group and led the way, not because I thought I was better than everyone else but because I honestly had the best in the group in mind. If we all work together, we will all win. That's my philosophy anyway. To do this, I had to know what everyone else in the group wanted and how to express that I wanted to incorporate everyone's ideas into whatever project we had. Growing up we weren't specifically taught how to be a leader or what defined leadership, it was just how we did things, someone was in charge and it was usually the person who spoke first. Now that I'm older and have had jobs and other situations that required leadership, I can accurately describe a good leader and how to be one. My first job was in a movie theater where we had several managers who all demonstrated very different abilities. leadership styles. Some were great and some were toxic. You would have a friendly manager who would let you do whatever you wanted as long as your job got done. The... middle of paper...... I care enough to show up and try. I respect that he follows the rules set forth by his leaders and has adapted to lead from that to prepare us for our future in ROTC. Overall, being a leader to me means going above and beyond to make sure your Soldiers are taken care of. and understand the mission. It's putting the organization and the group above yourself to make sure everything is accomplished and done correctly. Don't talk about yourself, but strive to create better future leaders through your actions. Don't just shout orders, but lead by example, go down and help your soldiers and show them that once everyone pitches in, more can be accomplished and everyone does better. Being a leader means remembering that everyone started from the bottom, but knowing that not everyone worked to get to the top, but also that they didn't get there alone..