Purdue Essay - "Superwoman"

This is the essay I plan to submit to Purdue University. Here's the prompt: "What are the qualities of a good leader? Use examples from your personal experiences to illustrate your particular leadership style."

Leadership is the ability to multitask - to effectively take on a myriad of distinct personas and use each to accomplish a goal. Taking on a leadership role means being an authority figure, a diplomat, a teacher, a student, a coach and superwoman all at once. A leader understands her team, role, power and most of all, herself.

As editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper, I march into school every day to manage an 80-person staff, leaving my problems and any negative attitude at the door. Knowing how to separate personal issues from business is vital for any leader. If I walk into the newspaper room unmotivated and preoccupied, the staff will feel the same way. Attitudes become contagious when working as a team, and proficient leaders can put aside individual predicaments for the betterment of everyone. Even though I hold a leadership position, I cannot put out a paper by myself. As a leader, I have to work harder and love what I do more so than anyone else on staff.

I walk a thin line between being a friend and a voice of authority to my peers on a daily basis. The best leaders know that mastering the former balancing act takes years of practice and fine-tuning. Working in a field that deals with deadlines and criticism on a daily basis, I have to teach, coach and learn in every situation. Dealing out criticism is often harder than accepting it. While perfection is unattainable, there is always room for improvement. Superior leaders recognize the opportunity for improvement and learn with every mistake or mishap. In these instances I am not only a teacher, but also a student and a coach, learning more about my peers and myself.

Managing an award-winning high school newspaper with a circulation of over 4,500 requires me to be organized, innovative, patient and flexible. Organization is necessary to manage all aspects of the paper, including every staff member. Innovation allows me to keep things fresh, facing new problems with creativity and good spirits. Handling deadlines, mishaps and minute details requires patience. A lot of it. In the end, something can always go wrong. Nothing is set in stone, and flexibility helps leave room for error even with deadlines lurking in the very near future.

Every leader must face each day with an open mind and a renewed passion for her work. I have to juggle between being the bad guy, a therapist, a problem-solver and superwoman. Efficient leaders know when to use and how to balance each aspect. Knowing and accepting this, I strive to personify Vince Lombardi's quote, "If you chase perfection, you will catch excellence." After all, I am superwoman.

serogers 32,

I think its great that you manage an entire 80 person staff. That is definately commendable. Also, your idea of being a "superwoman" is a unique twist to a modern day gal of success. Still, I believe your essay focuses a little too much on your theories of how a good leader should act and what personal characteristics they should have. I think your best shot at improving this essay is telling the admissions WHY you like being a part of the newspaper. Also I would instead of telling them what you do, describe an experience in which you exemplify great leadership skills and hardwork.

If your saying u manage a newspaper you should be able to wow them with your esssay with the unspoken assumption you are able to communicate effectively through your own writing. I would suggest creating an image instead of just a paragraph of words.

Best of luck! :)

I don't think this assertion is accurate. It makes it sound like leadership consists only of multitasking.

Taking on a leadership role means being an authority figure, a diplomat, a teacher, a student, a coach and superwoman all at once. --- ah, this is much better! Ha ha, I like it.

Okay, as I read the rest of it, I see that it lacks structure. When I was in high school I did not know what that meant, but now I do. It lacks structure if there is no clear theme. Your theme is that you must know yourself and do a lot of things to be a leader, but that is too obvious. I think you need to say something more distinct. For example, you can say something about a leader needing to play many different roles.

Try this: Rewrite the intro so that it says:
Leadership is the ability to multitask -- in every sense. This includes playing many different rolesd all at once.

Go on to talk about the various roles, and make the superwoman theme all about the ability to be many different people all at once. Give this essay a distinct theme, so that it does not seem like you are writing about every idea that comes to mind. Make it so that this is about one intriguing idea: Being a superwoman means being able to be many people all at once.

:-)