The art of Leadership

The Art of Leadership

The art of directing or guiding a particular group of individuals toward the fulfillment of a task, objectives, or goals, or assisting them in setting them, is referred to as leadership. Leaders are frequently distinguished from rulers by the latter’s propensity to exert total authority without question as opposed to the former’s propensity to weigh the opinions of others before coming to a decision. Despite the reality that leaders are not born, certain people have a tendency to have what may initially seem to be instinctive leadership skills.

My Experience as a Choir Leader

The discussion that follows includes a description of a situation where I believe I displayed excellent leadership. I have always enjoyed singing from my childhood and I was part of several children choirs right from elementary school through high school. My passion for singing was re-ignited when I was a freshman but did not enjoy being a soloist. I always enjoyed singing in groups thus looked around for people that share similar interests with me regarding singing. No sooner had I began my search that I discovered a group of two colleagues while attending church one Sunday morning.

Challenges and Resolution

One of them was male and the other one was female and an African-American. We met after church an asked if I could be part of them and they agreed. Just after a few weeks of singing together, two other extremely talented colleagues also requested to join our singing group. The problem was that these two new entrants were not staunch Christians thus preferred singing secular music. That was not the only challenge, they were all Americans of Chinese heritage, a culturally sensitive country. Due to my zealous, ambitious plans and exceptional talent, I was entrusted to be the leader of the choir, a position I wholeheartedly accepted.

Navigating Differences

After just two weeks of being together, I realized that the two Christian friends preferred singing church-related songs whereas the two Asian-American preferred singing secular songs. That sparked arguments and misunderstandings within our five-people choir that it almost broke-up after just two months. That was the time I took on the mantle of making things right as a leader.

Achieving Consensus

I convened a meeting and steered the choir towards a middle ground that would make everyone in the choir at least happy. After a heated debate, we developed the objectives and future goals of the choir one of which was to sing on social gatherings like birthday parties and the proceeds would help us open a charity that we hoped to open up after getting enough savings. From the meeting, I suggested to the group that for us to continue singing together, it was imperative that we minimize on singing religious-related songs, desist from singing about culturally sensitive topics and never to sing about politics. Luckily enough, the group agreed to my proposal unanimously and we reached a conclusion. After obtaining the opinions of the choir members, we agreed that we would sing popular songs that suit the occasions and scenarios for which we were to sing about. Thus, in the subsequent choir practice meetings, each member would be encouraged to suggest a song from which the choir would suggest its next item.

Growth and Success

The choir continued to flourish as new members came on board and by the time I transferred the mantle to another person, we had reached 20 members and were planning to start an orchestra together with a group of instrumentalists at the university. My charismatic and visionary leadership coupled with exceptional talent won the trust of all the choir members. I strongly believe that it is those qualities that led to the growth of the choir to such tremendous levels and zealous ambitions.