2. Different aspects of leadership

One metaphor which strikes me while I think about leadership is a tree. In this metaphor, the leader is the trunk of the tree, the solid support system while followers, or collaborators, are the leaves who rely on the tree for support and guidance.  Another aspect of a tree is that it does not always have leaves on it which, in the leadership context, would mean that a leader is not always a leader in every situation. As a tree does not always have leaves on its branches to support; there will be times when a leader is a follower instead.

This metaphor is a fairly modern way of looking at leadership, which agrees with my views of contemporary emerging theories rather than the traditional roles of leadership. The newer views of leadership make more sense to me as a student leader rather than the traditional view that leaders control their followers to do whatever they command. I appreciate contemporary views which say that there is interaction between leaders and team members where they can influence one another towards their common goal; where ideas can be shared, critiqued, and used. This is how leadership should be.

A different part of leadership is looking at how the team functions. Being on the orientation leader team is both like a machine and a weather system. On one hand, the orientation leader organization is well ordered, with student directors guiding us orientation leaders, and with faculty members directing those student directors. There are guidelines, expectations, and regular communication to ensure that no one is left behind. However, this organization is also like a weather system because each of us orientation leaders manages our own teams, or labs, of students independently. Therefore, each lab will go differently as each leader chooses the activities that they see fit; but even in this there is some steering from our directors on how we should each lead our team of students.