Being a leader is difficult. I feel that many a times we throw around the word but don’t really think about what it means in the context that we use it. When I think of leadership one of the qualities that comes to mind, especially after our recent discussion in class, is credibility. A leader must be credible and do what he or she says she will do and tell the truth or else there are trust issues that arise and the people that look up to that leader may to become skeptical of the his/her ability to lead.
Something that was interesting to learn about this past Tuesday was the definition of a lobbyist from a lobbyist (to be honest with you I have never really fully grasped what exactly a lobbyist does but I feel I have a much clearer idea now). One of the things our speaker mentioned was how important his credibility is, how important it is for him to be truthful in doing his job. If he’s not credible than the people in Washington and Harrisburg will not want to work with him and that would really curtail his ability to do his job.
Last night we had a French club conversation hour as usual and it just did not go as planned and I was pretty frustrated by that. Since the end of last semester we decided that the French club was finally going to become more organized and more concrete. We wanted to make it into a club where people would want to come and practice their French, no matter their skill level and feel comfortable doing so. We got all ready for the involvement fair, we created a new website and promoted like crazy. Many people that I talked to about it that were interested in practicing their French said that they had been a few times the previous year and that it was just so unorganized that they thought it was a waste of time. I ensured them that this year things would be different. This year we would be well organized and have more events. I truly believed it and I still do.
Then comes last night’s meeting. Frankly, it was an utter mess. It was not well organized and it just flopped. As an officer of the club I was embarrassed. There happened to be a new member who had never been to French club before, someone that I had invited and had told that it would be really beneficial to him. Unfortunately he had to see a meeting that most closely resembled the old, unorganized, un planned French club meetings. This is where I could see French club’s slowly growing credibility weaken a bit. Who knows if that person will decide to come back again? He may have decided that French club isn’t worth his time because we didn’t keep our word just like the people in Harrisburg may decide to not work with our speaker again if his word is no good. Last night’s meeting hurt my personal credibility and also the credibility of the French club as a student organization.
I know it’s not the end of the world. Just because one meeting didn’t go well doesn’t mean that we can’t have other meetings that do. It just made me think about credibility and how important it is to leadership. Can you really be a leader without credibility? I don’t think so.
