Leadership is a concept often defined generally or phrased to encapsulate all scenarios. But this is simply not possible. To accurately define leadership, one must evaluate both the people involved as well as the context in which they will be working in. In doing so, a leader can begin implementing what I believe to be the most fundamental and key principles of leadership—listening, smiling, and remembering. To listen, is to learn, and learning about those around you is the first step in developing one’s leadership abilities in each group dynamic. Because each group is different, a leader must listen and learn about the people they will be working with on a person to person level and not simply on a colleague/peer/employee level. Once one has listened and learned, the next key principle of leadership is to smile and facilitate the smiling of others by reiterating what you have listed in learned. This is key to the development of leadership as it allows the person in a leadership role to gain more influence and build stronger connections with those around them. Moreover, this facilitates greater cooperation and understanding among all individuals involved both in and out of the leadership setting. The last key principle of leadership is as simple as it is difficult—remembering. From simply remembering names to remembering the passions or motivations of a person, if you remember others will notice and when they do, your ability to truly lead, influence, and empower others will know no bounds.

These key principles of leadership have not always been my definition of leadership. The truth is my understanding of leadership has drastically changed as I have grown and experienced countless leadership opportunities. For example, as a high school student I always believed it was a person’s position and power that would ultimately decide whether one became a leader or not. I believed the only way to be a leader was to reach a high position in a company or have a particularly powerful title. Over time this definition of leadership has drastically changed from positions and powers to the satisfaction of facilitating influence and empowerment of those around oneself. Leadership has become more of a skill than a given title, it has become something one works to develop and is not handed out with a position or a title. Ultimately, leadership is something that is unique to the person and context in which it is required, it is both an innate ability and an ever-developing skill.