UGRAD - 'Who would be born must first destroy the world.' - LEADERSHIP APPROACH

Everyone's approach to leadership is different.
How would you describe your personal leadership style? What values do you consider the most important when leading others? How do you inspire and influence others to get behind your vision?

I am having a hard time writing this essay. I have so much info I want to put in this writing but I don't know how to organize them. Also, I'm worried that I'm mentioning too much about the person I invited, in writing about my efforts.

'The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy the world.' The quote from Demian by Hermann Hesse directs the goal of my life. The 'egg' is a comfy place. However, if you do not endeavor to hatch from the egg, the shell will be cracked by external forces very soon. When the team has its goal ahead and things are stuck, as a driven leader I try to move on to the way no one has ever gone before.

During my internship, I participated as a staff for the conference called 'AAA Forum' hosted by the news network, where experts and politicians from all around the world gather and discuss Korea's future policies. Due to the pandemic, speakers we wanted to invite were reluctant to travel abroad and every condition was very uncertain to host an international event. Also, even when speakers agreed to come we were receiving declines from the upper management and were exhausted to proceed with any fresh good ideas. I assumed our event would not get any better in the current condition and seized to act more actively towards our purpose. To conclude, I managed to invite two speakers from US and England, first-ever as an intern. One of them was AAA, an American climate justice activist currently serving on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council as the AAA

I first started off analyzing every session in detail and pointed out the problem that all the speakers in the environmental debate session were composed of similar expertise and generation, which was not appropriate for constructive discussions. Then I undertook researches on environment-related industries and young activists who are leading this world towards change. Among them, I contacted AAA. With the inauguration of the new government and their freshly organized climate policies, I expected America's active climate movements would cross all over the world in multilateral perspectives of global issues. Also, Korea's presidential candidates were participating in the conference and I wished to raise their awareness since none of them seemed to be interested in climate issues. Mentioning these reasons I continuously persuaded AAA in earnest for a month, and he finally accepted to come to Korea.

Then I visited our executive team office and asserted that future generations should not be excluded and that we need a person from worldwide perspectives since environmental issues are not confined to one certain country. After days of persuasion, the team accepted my idea and I could finally invite AAA over. He was one of the most enthusiastically responded speakers of the year and I also worked as an interpreter for his two exclusive news interviews in Korea. I found the interview very meaningful to encourage young Korean activists, who are not yet appreciated for their efforts.

A great leader should also know how to organize every person's talents to make a great harmony in teamwork. My fellows willingly supported my ideas and we could efficiently work on following procedures after. To build healthy cooperation, I believe a leader should be qualified in her prudence. Not rushing nor acting dogmatically, I studied and worked harder suggesting multiple options to change the situation. Being a self-starter, I reasoned our team into compliance.

You were not a leader in this case. The movements you undertook were that of an individual who was not working with his team. Not in a consultative capacity, not in a team participation category. The narration within is not about leadership, it is all about taking intitiative, which most people tend to mistake for a leadership ability. A person with intitiative moves as you did in this essay, alone and with determination. A leader, knows how to take the initiative to inspire his co-workers and teammates for the shared success of the project. A leader does not take the spotlight alone. He knows how to assist his team so that they can shine both individually and as a group. None of which you showed in this essay because it focused on the "Me, me, me!" aspect of your participation in the project. The last paragraph defines who and what a leader should be. However, your essay does not support that definition. Remember, a leader does not require compliance, he requires cooperation and group effort of his team members. He does not do the work alone and then forces the team to do as he says. This was not an open team effort. This was a solo rogue movement you chose to undertake without consultancy, but requiring compliance from others.