What is leadership? According to the dictionary it indicates the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group. According to the US Army it is defined as influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation, while working to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. While both are excellent ways to describe leadership, it's actually much more than that. To accurately define leadership you need to hold a leadership position or have been fortunate enough to have a great leader. Luckily for me, I have had great leaders and held a leadership position. For as long as I can remember I have been a people person and have always wanted to be in charge. From an early age I asserted myself in the group and led the way, not because I thought I was better than everyone but because I honestly had the best of the group in mind. If we all work together, we all win. This is 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 were not taught specifically how to be a leader or what defined leadership, this is simply the way 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 at a movie theater where we had multiple managers who all displayed very different 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 you got your job done. The... center of the card... I'll care enough to show up and try. I respect that he follows the rules established by his leadership and has adapted to guide us to prepare for our future in ROTC. All in all being a leader to me means going above and beyond to make sure your soldiers are taken care of. and understand the mission. It means putting the organization and the group above yourself to make sure everything is accomplished and done correctly. Don't focus on yourself, but strive to create better future leaders with your actions. Don't just shout orders, but lead by example, go down and help your soldiers and show them that once everyone is involved more can be achieved and everyone does better. Being a leader is remembering that everyone started from the bottom but knowing that not everyone worked to get to the top but also that they didn't make it alone.