conclusion to a leadership essay

Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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Essays About Effective Leadership: Top 6 Examples and Prompts

Effective leadership is an essential trait that all people should strive to develop; here are 6 examples and topic ideas essays about effective leadership .

Many qualities make an inspiring and effective leader, such as vision, focus, and motivation. Like other skills, effective leadership can be innate or learned and practiced. When writing about leadership, include the strengths of an effective leader and how these qualities positively impact their team. You can also discuss weaknesses that can make a poor leader and how to combat these issues.

Here are 6 examples and 10 essay prompts to get you started on your next essay.

1. What Makes an Effective Leader? by Tony Gill

2. a guide to becoming an effective leader by yashi srivastava , 3. leadership: 5 practices of effective leaders by yvette gyles, 4. 6 characteristics of an effective leader by lauren landry, 5. six leadership lessons by order of the peaky blinders by andrew denton mbe, 6. leadership and the quest for certainty by keith grint,  1. what is effective leadership, 2. what does effective leadership look like in the corporate industry, 3. what to avoid to become an effective leader, 4. habits of an effective leader, 5. studying the mindsets of effective leaders, 6. effective leadership and its benefits to an organization, 7. indicators of strong and effective leadership, 8. poor leadership vs. effective leadership, 9. real-life examples of effective leadership, 10. how perception creates effective leadership.

“Work at using leadership styles that do not come naturally, styles that you find difficult. By becoming a well-rounded leader, it is easier to adapt your leadership technique for different situations.”

Gill uses a research-based approach to answer the central question of his essay. He looks at various sources that tackle the topic of effective leadership and stitch them together to make a comprehensive guide to effective leadership.

“Leadership is not a mystical quality, and anyone can become a more effective leader by developing some important skills.”

The author, Yashi Srivastava, defines what differentiates leaders from managers first. Then, she provides some dos and don’ts of an effective leader and how people could apply them in different situations. 

“Whereas as leaders, we need to be concerned about creativity and innovation, making positive changes, and seeking to challenge and push boundaries.”

Gyles specializes in leadership training for companies, so her approach to the essay is geared more toward company leaders. Nevertheless, it’s highly educational for all those interested in learning effective leadership meant for dealing with various people and guiding people to a direction or goal.

“Effective leaders don’t avoid the hard truths. Instead, they take responsibility for their decisions, maintain optimism, and focus on charting a new course of action.”

Landry’s essay focuses on her six top characteristics of an effective leader. Some of these characteristics are what you’d expect to see in an essay like this. Entries like transparency are less common but equally important in practicing effective leadership.

“Rolling your sleeves up with everyone else not only sets an example, it makes people want to follow you.”

Fiction mirrors life, and it’s one of the best sources to learn lessons that are otherwise too complex or vague to see in real life. Despite his penchant for crime and violence, Thomas Shelby is undeniably one of the most influential leaders on TV. This essay details the leadership skills used by a 1920s gangster character and how you can use them in modern life to become an effective and inspiring leader.

“Leadership is often associated with certainty; indeed, it is sometimes reduced to the decision-making process such that anything which smacks of uncertainty is categorized as weakness or a failure of leadership.”  

Grint’s essay on leadership explores the factors around leaders’ certainty or confidence. Of course, not all leaders have a clear answer to a problem, which is fine. The important thing is that they have a mindset to look for solutions and a modicum of honesty about their lack of uncertainty.

10 Essay Prompts on Effective Leadership

It’s your turn to express and explore your view of effective leadership. Use these prompts to work out your approach or steps to effective leadership. Here are ten prompts about effective leadership to help you get started on your essay.

Defining effective leadership is one way to explore your understanding of the idea. Remember that your definition of effective leadership could vastly differ from the other essays you’ve read. It’s also a great starting point for new people who want to warm up to the habit of writing essays about leadership.

Essay writing tip: If you’re new to writing essays, consider simplifying your essay. Try shortening it down to a five-paragraph essay .

You can find many leaders in the corporate industry, but some are more effective than others. Use this prompt to work out how you envision effective leadership in the corporate world. You can also apply the same idea to other fields, like at school, among friends or peer groups, or in the family. Consider carefully the field or organization you’d like to use for the essay.

You may have personal experience with a person who could have been an effective leader if not for their bad habits. You might have been that person and realized how your bad habits had held you back from practicing effective leadership. This is your chance to write about your experience, whether via observing someone else or through personal growth.

Practicing effective leadership goes beyond having direction and a vision for the organization. Becoming an effective leader also takes time and patience. Use this prompt to discuss the habits of great leaders and how these habits make them effective in their leadership.

Get into the mind of a leader and explore how such a person might become more effective in their leadership. This topic may involve discussing various people, whether real-life persons or fictional characters. Research how they think, handle their role and manage the people they lead.

Understanding the benefits of effective leadership is one of the best ways to drive someone to practice and adopt it. Use this prompt to detail how an effective leader boosts morale, productivity, motivation, communication quality, and confidence in the people they lead. It applies to all organizations, like businesses, teams, and networks.

How do you know whether a person’s leadership style and approach are effective or not? Use this essay topic to discover the different methods of measuring effective leadership. Read about the different measurements and indicators of leadership used in corporations and organizations.

Leaders can be good, mediocre, or bad in their leadership approaches and styles. This essay prompt will push you to compare bad leadership and effective leadership. You can also add methods of improving one’s leadership style to become more effective.

You can find a lot of excellent leaders throughout history. This idea focuses on discussing different leaders, their leadership styles, and levels of effectiveness.

Interpersonal skills are vital to great leadership. Perception of others’ feelings and thoughts can help you become an even better and more effective leader. Discuss how intuitiveness positively affects one’s leadership style. 

Check out our list of great essay writing topics for students for more topics to improve your writing.

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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A Full Guide On How To Create Good Leadership Essay

Attempting a leadership essay isn’t such a daunting task, provided you have a grasp of the necessary information needed for a leadership paper. To write this special essay, you’ll need to redefine what exactly an essay on leadership is, how to choose the perfect topic, what should be in the content, and how to organize and structure the paper. Let’s delve deeper!

What Is A Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a well-formatted, organized and specialized type of formal writing which elaborates on a generic leadership topic or a superior human figure exercising a great influence on people and transmitting desire and optimism to achieve goals.

What Makes A Good Leader Essay?

There are some peculiarities needed to infuse in your write-up if, for example, you’re trying to learn how to write a leadership essay about yourself.

Also, if you’re just trying to produce leadership essays for college, then you’d first and foremost, learn  how to structure an essay , among other skills needed for this type of essay. Here are some qualities which can be found in a good essay about leadership.

• Choose a creative topic
• Avoid the passive voice (the active voice sounds stronger)
• Search for and study leadership essay examples
• Follow the appropriate essay style
• Focus on the essay structure
• Review the essay

How To Choose A Topic And Make A Great Title?

To choose a topic for a paper on leadership, you need to do some research on the concept of a leader (whether in the corporate industry, political society or even in the criminal world). You have to know the current leadership tendencies in organizational groups or society. You can choose to make a leader the point of your reference by explaining the consequences of their leadership abilities or inabilities.

In the body of your essay, don’t forget to mention several types of leadership styles and point out which one the subject portrays. Finally, you should not rule out making comparisons of famous leaders in the modern world or in history. An example of a great prompt for a leadership essay that deploys the comparison technique would be the leadership styles of President Trump and The Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte as both leadership styles have been subjected to political reviews in recent times since their emergence as president of their respective countries.

Outline For A Leadership Essay

When writing a college or professional essay such as -long and short essays on leadership, planning is the key to perfection. The general outline for any essay, including leadership papers, include an introduction, the body paragraphs (which must be properly linked with transition words and/or phrases) and a recapitulating or finding-based conclusions. Here’s what your outline should look like:

Introduction

Knowing how to start a leadership essay depends on your introduction writing ability. The introduction is the gateway to the essay. Aided by punchy opening words, which are the hook, the purpose of the introduction is to draw the reader’s attention. The introduction presents the thesis statement and leaves the body paragraphs to sustain the reader’s interest.

Body Paragraphs

Having informed the readers of the topic of the essay in the introductory paragraph(s), the body paragraphs follow immediately.

Here, you can elaborate on the concept of leadership and do a meaningful interpretation of the subject – the topic or the thesis statement. Don’t forget to talk about your leadership philosophies and leadership experience in whatever capacity you might have found yourself in. Remember, people are more interested in personal experiences. They are great in helping to sustain readers’ attention.

Remember to state a thesis or hypothesis in the opening paragraphs – which is the intro. In each of the body paragraphs of the essay, try to relate your points to the thesis and use each point to prove its validity.

The conclusion is the end part of any well-structured essay. Its purpose is a no-brainer. You don’t want to leave your reader hanging by ending the essay cold turkey. Any standard essay without a conclusion is just as useless as an essay with no purpose. However, be careful not to present new ideas not mentioned in the body.

As mentioned, the conclusion serves to summarize the developed points, restate the thesis and/or present the findings. It is your last opportunity to create an impression on the reader, and this is where they take the message away. If your conclusion is weak, then we might say the essay’s objectives are not achieved.

What To Include In A Leadership Essay?

Here are some tips on what your leadership essay should include.

Your Definition Of A Good Leader And Why He Or She Is Important

Since your essay revolves around leadership and the traits of a good leader, you’ll need to define what it takes to be one. You may also take this opportunity to trash some common myths on what a leader is (i.e., a manager being confused for a leader).

For reference purposes, the concepts of leadership and being a good leader are explained:

Leadership is the quality of a leader and is that person capable of exercising a great influence on people and transmitting desire and optimism to achieve goals. A leader is a guide; someone with ideas and goals that can spread to a large group of people who still believe he or she can lead them in the right direction.

There are many types of leaders and therefore, of leadership since people generally always look for a person or group that shows them a direction to follow. You can find religious, political, social, or philosophical leadership. Leadership can be exercised in a traditional way. In many countries, there is a monarchy. The king or queen is a leader with limited political power, at least in western democracies, but still have the respect and consideration of the people. Their words continue to be heard and taken into account, especially in problematic times. There are other types of leadership that are not given by birth, such as legitimate leadership exercised by, for example, political leaders freely chosen by their people, or charismatic leaders.

In a way, charismatic leaders are what many understand as leaders since they are people who, by their way of behavior and characteristics, get many people to follow and adhere to their ideas. Some charismatic leaders can become legitimate leaders if they choose the path of politics. A traditional leader can also be charismatic. There have always been kings loved by his people more than others. But it can also be a person who prefers independent movements outside of power.

Charisma is the personal magnetism a person has. It is something very difficult to define but makes one capable of convincing others without too much effort, making people follow and trust the leading figure. Charisma can be used positively or negatively. The leaders of the most destructive sects are very charismatic people that are capable of convincing their followers of the eeriest ideas, including donating all their belongings or committing collective suicide.

Examples Of Your Leadership Style

In the content of your essay, you may consider giving an interpretation to your (or your chosen leader’s) leadership traits. Below are some examples of leadership qualities that separate a good leader from a bad leader.

What qualities are necessary for leadership

• Communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Strategic thinking
• Commitment and passion
• Knowledge and experience
• Leading by example
• Active listening
• Ability to enhance talent
• Setting goals and expectations
• People investment
• Discernment
• Concentration
• Positive attitude
• Problem-solving
• Self-discipline

Leadership Essay Example

To know how to do essay fast, you’ll need some ready-made essay examples for the sake of guidance and inspiration. You may find below a leadership essay written by Oliver Smith useful in your leadership paper.

Writing a leadership essay should be easy. A good essay on leadership starts from the hook, and the thesis statement in the introduction. The points developed in the body paragraphs help affirm the hypothesis. Finally, the conclusion offers the reader a summary through the restatement of the essay’s main idea.

As required for every essay type, your essay on leadership has to follow a definite style and format. Examples are MLA, APA, Chicago and AP styles. Take your time in choosing a creative but new topic and also in writing the content. By following this guide, everything should be as perfect as possible.

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• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)

Leadership is a complex concept, but it’s essential for boosting your career. That’s why a leadership essay focuses on applying the theoretical models and concepts of successful management to real-life situations. 

If you don’t know where to start writing such a paper, please read on for professional tips!

What Is Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a paper that analyzes leadership concepts and their application to real-life situations that may involve everyday business management, crisis situations, and other scenarios. 

Every essay on leadership is about defining a concept. Then, it’s either comparing it to similar management tools or proving that it’s useful (or not).

While some students enjoy writing such papers, other learners hate them. The below samples will come in handy, no matter which group is yours.

What Does Leadership Mean to You? (Essay Sample)

It is one of the most popular topics for a leadership essay. If you need to write a paper like that, ask yourself:

• Who is a good leader?  
• What style do they use?  
• What are the situations when they might switch styles?

You may take a more personal approach to such an essay if your professor allows you to. In the example below, you will see the academic approach to this topic. It analyzes three leadership styles to discover which one corresponds to the meaning of leadership if one thinks of it as guidance and support.

Why I Want to Participate in a Leadership Program (Essay Sample)

It’s another example of a popular topic. Such papers often have a meaning beyond the classroom since they may decide whether you plan to participate in a specific program. It’s critical to make them as effective and compelling as possible.

A personalized approach is the best when it comes to essays like this. In the example below, you will see the paper that relies on individual beliefs and a personal life story to explain why it’s so important for the specific student to participate in the chosen program.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

Like every other essay, this paper has an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion summarizing your thoughts. (1) The most important part of the introduction is the final sentence,  aka  a thesis statement. That’s where you state your claim to prove or develop in your leadership essay.

Each body paragraph should correspond to the purpose of your essay. To ensure you don’t stray from the aim you’ve established in the thesis statement, write the topic sentences for all your paragraphs in the outline . In simple words, write the first sentence of every paragraph to define its development in advance and see if you cover everything you need.

And now, to the conclusion:

Its most essential element is thesis restatement or the first sentence of that paragraph. It’s not just paraphrasing your thesis; it’s also considering the new information you’ve discovered while writing the essay.

Structure :

• Introduction (End it with a thesis statement.)
• Body paragraphs (Each one starts with a topic sentence.)
• Conclusion (Start it with a thesis restatement.)

Understand the purpose of a leadership essay

When starting to write, think about why you’re creating this paper. Before you sit down and type the words, think about the ideas you want to convey and their meaning in your life:

Can this essay teach you to take responsibility? Or maybe will it help you understand how to be a leader in crisis situations? When you’ve answered the “why” question, begin outlining.

Build a strong thesis

Always start with your thesis statement. It will help incorporate your answer to that notorious “why” question into your essay. Once done, you can plan out the rest of the paper and start working on the body paragraphs as soon as you finish the introduction.

There’s another important tip —don’t rush into writing the conclusion before you finish everything else!

It might seem like a good idea to create a thesis statement and thesis restatement right off the bat. However, you’ll find yourself with more refreshing ideas after completing all the research and thinking necessary for the introduction and each body paragraph.

Decide on a structure; format accordingly

Even if your essay about leadership seems not so formal, and you can use personal pronouns, you still need a clear structure.

The best way to write any academic paper is to keep your introduction and conclusion as short as possible. (But no shorter than three sentences and four lines of text). 

Another important tip is to try making all your body paragraphs equal in length. That way, you’ll give the same attention to all the vital points of your essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Leadership Now?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the most critical elements of a leadership essay. 

Remember the structure, grammar, and appropriate academic style to create a top-level paper. Please don’t forget to answer the “why” question and remember  why  you’re writing. Then you’ll impress everyone with your results!

References:

• https://lsa.umich.edu/onsf/news-events/all-news/directors-blog/writing-leadership-essays.html
• Essay samples
• Essay writing
• Writing tips

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A Professional Guide to Writing an Inspiring Leadership Essay

Quick Navigation

• 1. Leadership Essay – What it Means?
• 2. What Makes a Good Leadership Essay?
• 3. Topics You Can Explore for Writing Leadership Essays
• 4. How to Write a Leadership Essay – Pre-Writing Stage
• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.3 Conclusion
• 6. Leadership Essay Topic Ideas
• 7. Write an Essay That Inspires!

The power of leadership stems from its ability to make an impact on people, earn respect, and put words into action. As a result, students in schools and universities are often tasked with writing leadership essays to recognize the importance of leadership in both personal and professional realms. This assignment not only helps improve writing skills but also challenges critical thinking abilities by encouraging reflection on personal experiences or evaluating the leadership qualities and styles of prominent figures.

This leadership essay writing guide offers suggestions and tips for mastering the craft of leadership essay writing, including focusing on essay structure, clarity of arguments, and content quality. Additionally, this guide provides appealing essay ideas, topic choices, an outline example, and other resources to assist in crafting a thoughtful leadership essay. In case you have no time to write your essay, you can give us a nudge by saying ‘ write my essay ‘ and get well-researched authentic papers crafted by our accomplished writers on any topic.

Leadership Essay – What it Means?

A leadership essay is a type of academic or personal writing that focuses on analyzing, evaluating, or discussing the concept of leadership, its various styles and theories, and the qualities and characteristics of effective leaders. The purpose of a leadership essay may vary depending on the assignment or context, but it typically aims to provide insights into leadership, its importance in organizations and society, and its impact on personal and professional development. A leadership essay may also require the writer to reflect on their own experiences as a leader or evaluate the leadership qualities and style of a prominent leader.

To write a perfect essay on leadership, the writer must define and apply the main concepts of leadership to real-life situations. This involves researching the history of the term and the various leadership styles employed worldwide. The essay must also evaluate the researched information and its application to human behavior and attitudes. Personal strengths and weaknesses in communication and daily interactions with others should be assessed. This format is commonly required for entering a business administration major in college, with the goal being to understand personal traits as a leader and explain them in writing. Remember, the key to writing a good leadership essay is to write about something that will inspire your readers.

What Makes a Good Leadership Essay?

A good leadership essay should have a clear and concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument of the essay. It should also provide relevant and credible evidence to support the argument, such as real-life examples and data. The essay should be well-organized, with a logical structure that guides the reader through the argument.

In addition, a good leadership essay should demonstrate the writer’s critical thinking skills and ability to analyze and evaluate information. The essay should also showcase the writer’s writing skills, including their ability to use appropriate language, grammar, and style.

Finally, a good leadership essay should offer insights and perspectives that are unique and thought-provoking. It should encourage the reader to think more deeply about the concept of leadership and its significance in personal and professional contexts.

Topics You Can Explore for Writing Leadership Essays

A leadership essay can cover a wide range of topics related to leadership. Here are some examples of potential topics:

• Leadership styles and theories: Explore the different styles and theories of leadership, such as transformational, situational, autocratic, and democratic leadership, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
• Qualities of effective leaders: Discuss the key qualities and characteristics that make an effective leader, such as integrity, empathy, vision, communication, and decision-making abilities.
• Diversity and inclusion in leadership: Discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion in leadership, and analyze the impact that inclusive leadership can have on organizational culture, productivity, and innovation.
• Leadership and ethics: Analyze the relationship between leadership and ethics, and discuss the importance of ethical leadership in creating a positive impact on society.
• Women in leadership: Discuss the challenges that women face in leadership roles and analyze the impact that increasing gender diversity in leadership can have on organizations and society.
• Leadership and innovation: Analyze the role of leadership in promoting innovation and discuss the qualities that effective leaders possess to foster a culture of innovation.
• The role of leadership in change management: Discuss the importance of leadership in managing change within an organization, and analyze the strategies that leaders can use to effectively implement change.

These are just a few examples of potential topics for a leadership essay. Depending on your interests and experiences, you can choose a topic that resonates with you and allows you to showcase your knowledge and insights on leadership. Additionally, you can talk about your personal experience in your leadership essay. Here are some examples of how you can do that:

• Using personal experiences to illustrate your points: Here you can discuss how personal experiences can be used to illustrate key points in your essay. For example, if you are writing about the importance of effective communication in leadership, you can draw on a personal experience where you witnessed or demonstrated effective communication skills.
• Reflecting on what you have learned about leadership from your experiences: You can talk about the importance of reflecting on what you have learned about leadership from your personal experiences. For example, if you are writing about the qualities of an effective leader, you can reflect on how your own experiences have taught you the importance of those qualities.
• Tying personal experiences back to the broader topic and argument of your essay: In this section, you can discuss how to ensure that your personal experiences are tied back to the broader topic and argument of your essay. For example, if you are writing about the role of leadership in promoting diversity and inclusion, you can use personal experience to illustrate how a leader’s actions can impact diversity and inclusion in the workplace or society.

Whether you need a hand with writing a critical essay or a thematic essay, let us know and we will assist you.

How to Write a Leadership Essay – Pre-Writing Stage

The first step in composing a leadership essay is to understand what leadership means. Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence others toward a common goal. A leader is someone who inspires, motivates, and guides others toward achieving success.

Step 1: Define Good Leadership

Before beginning to write an essay online , take a moment to contemplate the defining characteristics of exceptional leadership. Consider the essential and impactful qualities of a great leader, such as the ability to inspire and motivate others, lead by example, and possess integrity, empathy, accountability, responsibility, humility, resilience, vision, influence, and optimism. If you are writing about yourself, reflect on your qualities as a leader. On the other hand, if you are writing about a prominent leader, conduct thorough research on the individual to gain insight into what makes them a great leader and why they are so effective in their role. Additionally, when writing about a successful leader, be sure to analyze the various leadership styles they employ.

Step 2: Select an Inspiring Topic

The key factor in creating a good leadership essay lies in selecting an appropriate topic. If you are writing a biography of a successful and prominent leader, it is crucial to focus on their leadership qualities and on what makes them an effective leader. The topic should align with the objectives of the essay and highlight your writing strengths. Conducting thorough research and reflecting on your leadership traits can help you identify a suitable topic.

To make your essay more compelling, you can compare and contrast different leadership styles, such as authoritarian and democratic approaches. It is essential to choose a topic that emphasizes the importance and relevance of your essay. The essay should also focus on practical strategies that can be applied in real-life situations to develop effective leadership skills. Providing examples of how your essay can be used to support future practice and study can also be beneficial.

Step 3: Researching Your Topic

Once you have chosen your topic, the next step is to research it thoroughly. This will help you to develop a deeper understanding of the subject and to identify key ideas and arguments that you can include in your essay.

• Determine your research question: Before conducting research, it’s essential to determine your research question. This will help to focus your research and ensure that you gather the information that is relevant to your essay topic. Your research question should be specific, clear, and concise.
• Use credible sources: You can research your topic by reading books, articles, and other relevant sources, as well as by conducting interviews with experts in the field.
• Consider multiple perspectives: When conducting research, consider multiple perspectives. This will help to provide a balanced view of your topic and ensure that you consider different opinions and viewpoints.
• Take notes: Take notes while conducting research. This will help to keep track of the information you gather and ensure that you don’t forget any critical points.
• Organize your research materials: It’s essential to organize your research materials to make it easier to access and use the information you gather. Some effective strategies for organizing research materials include creating an annotated bibliography or using a citation manager like Zotero or EndNote.
• Review and analyze your research: After gathering your research materials, review and analyze the information. Identify key themes, arguments, and evidence that support your essay’s main points.

Step 4: Create an Outline and Write the First Draft

Once you have gathered your research materials, it’s time to organize them in the form of an essay outline . To organize your thoughts and prepare for writing your leadership essay, it’s essential to create an outline. This involves summarizing and arranging all the information you’ve gathered into an organized structure that will guide your writing. The essay can follow a standard five-paragraph format or have additional body paragraphs as required. The outline should include the following sections:

• Introduction: Start with a hook to capture the reader’s interest and provide a clear thesis statement that highlights the main argument you’ll discuss in the essay.
• Body paragraphs: Include three to four paragraphs, each presenting a unique perspective that supports your argument. Use examples, evidence, statistics, anecdotes, and other supporting details to connect each paragraph to the thesis statement.
• Conclusion: Wrap it up by summarizing the key points discussed, reiterate the thesis statement, and with a strong statement that reinforces your opinion on what good leadership is and the importance of developing leadership skills.

Once you have organized your thoughts into an outline, you can begin writing your essay. In the next section, we have provided a thorough structure and an idea of how to write the introduction, body, and conclusion of a leadership essay.

Step 5: Editing and Proofreading

Once you have written your essay adhering to the outline, the next step is to edit and proofread it. This involves reviewing your essay for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, as well as for clarity and coherence.

Crafting a Leadership Essay – Complete Structure

Introduction.

• The introduction of a leadership essay is critical as it sets the tone for the entire paper and establishes the reader’s expectations. To make it engaging and persuasive, a hook sentence is essential. The first two sentences of the introduction should demonstrate the quality of the content and captivate the reader’s attention. It’s crucial to personalize the text by connecting it to your knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Incorporating a story in the introduction can also pique the reader’s interest by providing a background that will be further explored in the body paragraphs of the essay.
• If you are wondering how to title an essay , keep in mind to choose a title that is both attention-grabbing and informative. You may include a hook phrase that accurately reflects the content and avoid clichés.
• The introduction of a leadership essay should provide background information on the topic and set the stage for the rest of the essay. One way to do this is by providing a brief history of leadership and its evolution over time. This can help the reader understand how leadership has changed and developed, and how it is viewed in different contexts and cultures.
• The thesis statement in a leadership essay introduction should clearly state the main point or argument that will be discussed in the essay. It should be concise and specific, providing a roadmap for the reader to understand what the essay will cover.
• Example of a hook statement in a leadership essay:

Quotation hook: As John C. Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Interesting Fact Hook: Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. was only 26 years old when he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott and became one of the most iconic leaders of the civil rights movement?

Statistic Hook: According to a recent study, companies with a gender-diverse leadership team are 21% more likely to outperform their peers in profitability.

• Background information on leadership:

The study of leadership and its evolution can be traced back to the ancient philosopher Socrates, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that scientists began delving deeper into its development and impact.

• Thesis statement example for a leadership essay:

“Effective leadership requires a combination of personal qualities, such as integrity and empathy, and practical skills, such as communication and decision-making, to inspire and guide individuals towards a common goal.”

This thesis statement sets up the argument that leadership is a multifaceted concept that involves both personal and practical elements.

The body paragraphs of a leadership essay should contain the main arguments or points that support the thesis statement. Each paragraph should focus on a single idea and provide evidence, examples, facts, or statistics to support the argument. It is important to organize the body of the essay logically and clearly, such as through chronological order, cause and effect, or problem and solution.

Some possible topics for the body of a leadership essay could include discussing different leadership styles, examining the qualities of effective leaders, exploring the challenges of leadership, or analyzing a specific leader and their impact on their organization or society. Discuss respective topic sentences in individual paragraphs along with supporting statements and evidence and make sure to stick to the thesis statement.

The conclusion paragraph of a leadership essay should effectively summarize the main points of the essay and restate the thesis statement in a different way. It should also provide a final thought or message to the reader, leaving them with a lasting impression. The conclusion can also include a call to action, encouraging the reader to apply the leadership principles discussed in the essay to their own life or work. Additionally, it can suggest areas for further research or discussion on the topic of leadership. A well-written conclusion should leave the reader feeling satisfied and informed, with a clear understanding of the importance of good leadership.

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Leadership Essay Topic Ideas

Some various topics and sub-topics fall under the broad subject of leadership. If you are looking for some inspiration for your leadership essay, then here are some brilliant ideas that are worth exploring:

• Authentic Leadership: What it Means and Why it Matters
• A Comparative Analysis of Leadership Styles: Democratic vs. Authoritarian Leadership
• Servant Leadership: A Model for Effective Leadership in Modern Organizations
• The Importance of emotional intelligence in effective leadership
• The Impact of Leadership on organizational culture and employee satisfaction
• The challenges of ethical leadership in modern organizations
• The Role of Resilience in effective leadership
• The Impact of Diversity on Leadership and organizational success
• The relationship between leadership and innovation in the workplace.
• Overcoming Adversity: Lessons from Great Leaders Who Have Faced Challenges
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• The Role of Effective Communication in Leadership
• Exploring Transformational Leadership in the Workplace
• American Civil War Strategy and Leadership
• Contemporary Issues in Management: Gender and Leadership
• Impact of Gender Differences on Leadership Styles
• Authentic leadership: being true to yourself while leading others
• The Impact of Globalization on leadership practices
• Cross-cultural leadership: adapting to different cultural norms
•  A time when you displayed your leadership skills

Write an Essay That Inspires!

A well-crafted leadership essay should be inspirational and relatable. Writing such an essay requires a deep understanding of the subject matter and a careful selection of words and phrases that can effectively convey your ideas. At PenMyPaper, we understand the challenges of crafting a compelling leadership essay, and we are here to help. Our team of professional experts is dedicated to delivering high-quality essays that meet your specific requirements, exceed your expectations, and are delivered within your desired timeframe and budget.

A Blue Print for the best Leadership Essay

Leadership encompasses a variety of tenets. It includes leadership approaches or styles, leadership development, types of leadership, leadership principles, leadership values, and leadership theories. These are but a few concepts that any college student must be acquainted with to be able to complete an essay on leadership.

As complex as writing a leadership essay sounds, it is simple when you know how to write an essay about leadership. You must begin by understanding who a leader is and the entire concept of leadership.

When writing an essay about a leader, it is akin to writing a profile essay about a certain leader or yourself. Leadership essays for college require a special type of keenness. While there are many scholarly sources you can use, it takes expertise to knit together a great leadership essay introduction.

This guide helps you write the ?what is leadership? essay effectively. It also enables you to write the best nature of leadership essay. If you are stuck with choosing leadership essay topics, our guide has over 89 essay topics on leadership and ideas that you can use to brainstorm. From today on, write the best leadership essay conclusion. And if it is a leadership essay for a scholarship, admission, or personal statement, we have experts that can help. We also have proofreading and editing professionals to help edit and proofread your leadership thesis and dissertation.

Read on and see what we have for you.

What is a Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is somewhat a unique assignment assigned to college and university students. It can be part of the admission or scholarship essays or part of the coursework. Naturally, it is an assignment assigned to students pursuing different courses such as business, management, human resource, organizational behavior, economics, psychology, or political science, among others. A leadership essay encompasses exploration:

• The concept of leadership
• Nature of leadership
• Stories on prominent leaders
• Leadership traits and qualities
• The link between leadership and development, success, performance, and improvement
• Leadership abilities
• Facts and events of an individual?s leadership experience

To write a good leadership paper, a student must begin by reading the essay prompt and the rubric. A student should then think critically and logically on what to include in their paper. Like other exceptional essays, a good essay on leadership must have credible facts from scholarly sources. The instructor/professor is always testing for your evaluation, assessment, analytical, and presentation skills.

Tips when Writing Leadership Essays for College

Creating a perfect leadership essay is easy when you follow these predetermined success-assured steps.

1. Choose a leadership Topic that interests you

When assigning leadership essays, most professors and instructors alike give prompts with a list of topics to choose from. Go for topics that impress you and ones that you can find great information from books, journals, credible websites, and other scholarly sources.

2. Research Online and Get enough insights

After selecting a particular topic, ensure that you go a step higher to conduct research online. Gather as much information from the available literature as possible. The research process, when writing leadership essays, helps in generating ideas for the introduction, body, and conclusion of the essay. It also helps define the scope of your essay and come up with a thesis.

3. Create an excellent thesis statement

Your thesis statement in your essay on leadership should reflect the outlook of the entire essay. Format it to feature your major argument in an intelligent and reasoned way. An excellent thesis statement defines a good essay any day.

4. Draft the Leadership Essay Outline

Every great essay begins with an outline. Creating an outline for your leadership essay helps you draft a blueprint for the entire essay. Outline what will go to the introduction, the thesis statement, and the background information.

5. Write your First Draft

With the arguments reflected on the outline, you can choose to use any format for the body paragraphs. A common approach is to use the PEEL writing strategy for coherence in your paragraphs. You can also use the Schaffer strategy. The choice is yours. Above all, ensure that facts from scholarly sources are cited in-text in MLA, APA, Harvard, or Chicago formats.

6. Edit, Proofread and Revise your Essay

After writing your essay, it is always great to edit and proofread. If you have no confidence in your leadership essay, you can hire someone to edit your leadership essays . If you are an MBA student, we can help you correct mistakes on your paper. Always submit a paper you are confident will pass Turnitin and get you great grades.

How to Begin a Leadership Paper - The Introduction

You are probably reading this because the question of ?how do I start my leadership essay?? is bothering you. Well, even though the question seems ambiguous, we have an answer for you right here.

Every great leadership essay has an excellent introduction. Your introduction should be well-written to the extent that it grabs the attention of the reader and entices them to stay through the end. Ideally, the introduction sets the mood of the entire paper.

As with other types of essays, a leadership essay can commence with a great essay hook or a grabber . It could be an anecdote, a statistic, quote, phrase, or a catchy word.

The hook should be preceded by a few sentences that act as the background to your essay. The aim of the background sentences, in the introduction, is to set the context of the essay.

The background is then followed by an excellent thesis statement . The thesis statement gives a sneak peek into your essay in a snapshot. It can either be one or two last sentences in the introduction. The thesis differs depending on whether the essay is descriptive, classification, narrative, argumentative, or persuasive essay.

If you follow these steps, you will write an outstanding essay on leadership. Make it count right from the beginning.

How to Ace a Leadership Experience Essay

When writing application essays, scholarship essays, or school transfer essays, you can be asked to write an essay about your leadership experience. It is always imperative to make your essay as unique as the Costco application essay. Here are some tips to use when writing your leadership essay:

• Begin by reading the leadership experience essay prompt to understand exactly what you are being asked to write about.
• Come up with an excellent essay hook for your essay. It could be an anecdote, a quote from a great leader, a simple statistic, or an observation?.
• Write the thesis of your leadership experience essay, which should cover the gist of the entire essay.
• Write the introduction of the essay as though it is to be published among the best sellers.
• Make sure each of the paragraphs outlines your leadership experiences. Each of the paragraphs should have leadership experience, illustrations, and examples.
• Keep the flow within the paper by using appropriate transitions.
• Avoid using jargon in your leadership essays. In most cases, simplicity wins the day, and after all, a successful leader expresses themselves in just a few words.
• If there are references used, be sure to cite the essay in APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago.
• Make the conclusion count. Restate the thesis and write a summary of the entire paper.
• Most leadership essays can be anything between 150 words to 2000 words. Depending on the essay prompt, always be sure to meet the word count.

Remember, if the leadership experience essay is a scholarship essay, personal statement, statement of purpose, or an admission essay, it should be written in the first person. Otherwise, you must stick to the third person, which is a preference in academic writing.

Leadership Essay Topics and Ideas you can choose for your Paper

Are you wondering about the best leadership essay topics? We have your back on this. Here are some essay topics on leadership to kick start your topic choice process. We answer the question of ?what are some essay topics on leadership??

• The ability of women in leadership to successfully steer progress and success in organizations.
• Role of leaders in the community
• Charismatic, transformational, and transactional leadership
• Characteristics of a good leader
• Features of supportive leadership
• Leadership and Power
• Women in leadership
• Breaking the glass ceiling
• Role of ethics in leadership
• Gender differences in leadership
• Importance of team leadership in virtual teams
• Role of leaders in group formation
• How leadership brings diversity in an organization
• Corruption among public leaders
• Are leaders made or born?
• Can situations define a leader?
• Leadership succession and its importance in organizations
• Do you consider yourself to be a leader or a follower?
• An example of a 21 st -century exemplary leader
• Challenges leaders face
• Importance of listening for leaders
• Are transformational leaders better than transactional leaders?
• How to improve leadership skills
• Great leaders should be great communicators
• Who do you look up to as a leader?
• Importance of self-confidence among leaders
• Which leader do you admire? Please write a letter to of gratitude for their influence on your life
• The importance of leadership in schools
• Historical leaders
• Think of a leader you admire and list three of the qualities that make him or her a good leader. Which quality do you share with him or her? Which quality could you improve upon?
• How can you improve your own leadership skills?
• Role of military leadership
• Do entrepreneurs need to be leaders?
• An integrative theory of leadership
• The impacts of national culture on corporate and public leadership
• Leadership and organizational development
• How leadership affects the morale of employees
• Does leadership competence define the organization of choice for employees
• The link between leadership and organizational citizenship behavior
• Leadership and organizational loyalty
• Variation of leadership behavior depending on the culture
• Leadership processes and self-identity of followers
• Leadership style and organizational commitment
• The prospective of future leadership
• Role of strategic leadership
• The Influence of democratic leadership on Employee performance: A case in Saudi Public Sector
• Business leadership and culture
• The normative approach to business leadership
• Comparative analysis of the world?s greatest military leaders
• Understanding combat leadership
• Role of military leaders in strategy and policy implementation
• Meyers Briggs Type Indicator best for military leadership
• Understanding the art of command in military leadership
• How school leadership works
• Does the leadership styles of a school principle define the success of a school?
• Are collaborative school leaders successful?
• The role of power, culture, and people in educational leadership
• Leadership and policy implementation
• Leadership style of educators
• School leadership in the 21 st century
• Teacher leadership for professional resilience
• Qualities of exceptional school leaders
• How professional school leaders deal with dilemmas
• Leadership and the glass ceiling
• The performance of indigenous communities in political leadership
• Sustainable environmental leadership
• Corporate leadership
• The psychology of leadership
• African-American women executives and organizational leadership
• Ethics as the heart of leadership
• Servant leadership
• Leadership challenges in virtual teams
• Leadership development and growth
• Evolving human resource practices in succession planning
• Contemporary issues of leadership
• Leadership investment
• Importance of leadership for nurses
• Are leadership traits inherent, or can people be molded into good leaders?
• Are meetings the only effective way for sound leaders to disseminate information?
• Compare and contrast the effectiveness of dictatorial and servant leadership
• Explore the church leadership approach
• The foundation of biblical leadership
• Compare business and political leadership
• The bureaucratic structure of government and their impact on leadership in the public domain
• Best leadership styles for diverse teams
• Impacts of technology and social media on the leadership style of millennial leaders
• Compare and contrast formal and informal leaders
• The leadership philosophy of great leaders
• Critical analysis of leadership styles and organizational culture that enables the implementation of a proposed local project of advancing the Nursing practice

Contact us for the best topics and help with your MBA leadership essays or essays for school on leadership. Our professional essay writers can always help.

Top 30 Leadership Qualities to Include in a Leadership Essay

As a student undertaking a leadership course, completing an essay, term paper, or a research paper on leadership is mandatory. When asked to write an essay on leadership, it would be best if you used some of the leadership traits.

The common traits include

• Transparency
• Conscientious
• Excellent communication
• Decision-Making Skills
• Problem-solving capacity
• Accountability and responsibility
• Delegation and empowerment
• Emotional intelligence
• Creativity and innovation
• Decisiveness
• Unselfishness
• Dependability

These are some of the powerful traits of successful leaders . Of course, there are many other traits that you can research and include in your leadership essays. Effective leaders need to be very tactical when influencing their followers. They need to foster teamwork where necessary and use their wisdom to solve conflicts among the followers. It is great to have empathy or fit in the shoes of a leader when writing your leadership essay. Sometimes, even as simple as a biography essay, a leadership essay needs to be well-organized such that there is flow and a good explanation of the traits is inevitable.

Help with Writing Leadership Essay for College

You might have read the entire article but still cannot comprehend how to write a leadership essay. It is always time to get a great leadership essay sample to understand how one is written. If, even with the leadership essay example, you cannot write the essay, you need help.

Related Reading: Descriptive essay writing process and topics .

Luckily, we have writers for hire who write various types of essays on leadership. The leadership essays we can help with include: narrative, how-to, compare and contrast, classification, exemplification, descriptive, persuasive, argumentative, and reflection essays on leadership.

You can pay our paper writers to write the best leadership essays for school. If you are doing an MBA leadership essay, you can always consult with our writers for the best insights and advice.

Even with this ultimate guide for writing a leadership, things can get thick. Getting help with writing college essays is not illegal. Get a great homework helper or an assignment helper from our website to help you write a custom leadership essay, today!

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Writing an Essay About Leadership: A Complete Guide for Students

Leadership is typically defined as the capacity of a person (as well as a group of people or organization) to “lead” others, influence their opinions, or guide them. A good leader must be able to rally people around a shared cause or goal, help shape a vision, and motivate and inspire others to attain that goal.

For decades, leadership has been one of the most sought-after abilities. It is considered one of the primary driving forces of humanity and progress. Leaders foster innovation, growth, and a goal-accomplishing attitude. So, this quality is highly valued in all areas of our lives, including in school, at work, and in one’s personal life as well.

Being such a pivotal skill, leadership often becomes a topic for academic essays. Although the topic is incredibly popular, writing a compelling paper on this subject might be uneasy. Yet, this doesn’t mean that there are absolutely no ways to ease the process.

In the guide below, we are going to answer some of your biggest questions about this type of assignment and provide actionable tips for writing a good paper. Also, we are going to give you some leadership essay examples and ideas that should help inspire your own writing.

What Is Leadership Essay?

The first big question students face when assigned this task is ‒ “What is a leader essay, in the first place?” So, let’s start from there.

In a nutshell, a leadership essay is a short piece of writing focused on the topic of leadership. Just like any other essay, it can serve multiple purposes. For example, if it’s written as a part of your class or homework, it can be:

• Informative;
• Persuasive;
• Argumentative;
• Compare and contrast, etc.

Depending on the type of assignment, your task might be to define leadership, compare different leadership styles, reflect on real-life applications of this skill, etc.

Alternatively, this type of work can be a part of the college admission process. Leadership is a common topic for admission essays. In this case, the primary goal of the paper is to show the admissions officers that you are a true leader. You might need to explain what personal traits make you a good leader and showcase real-life examples of situations when you demonstrated this skill.

In both cases, this type of essay requires you to understand the nature of leadership and communicate it in your paper, following the provided prompts and guidelines. 

Read on to learn how!

How to Write a Leadership Essay Step by Step

Typically, a leadership paper is a short essay that follows the traditional essay structure. It consists of three main components: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Traditionally, an introduction and conclusion take up one paragraph each. The number of paragraphs in the body of your paper can vary depending on the given word count. In any case, there should be at least two body paragraphs.

The writing process for this type of paper is also pretty conventional. It requires decent planning and organization to convey your ideas efficiently. Here are the core steps that should be involved in the process:

• Reading and analyzing the prompt and assignment guidelines;
• Brainstorming ideas and selecting a relevant topic (unless you are assigned a specific subject);
• Researching the topic and collecting valid sources of information that will help you answer the primary essay question and justify your ideas;
• Crafting a detailed outline to organize your ideas and streamline the writing process;
• Writing the essay following your outline;
• Proofreading and editing your first draft until it looks perfect.

These are the main steps to handling this task, and they look pretty simple. Nevertheless, the task itself often turns out to be rather challenging. So, let us give you a few extra guiding tips to help you ace your essay.

How to Start a Leadership Essay

It’s hard to call a more crucial part of a leadership essay than its intro. This part of the paper aims to introduce the readers to your topic and make a logical transition to the ideas and arguments you are going to provide. But most importantly, this section should grab the readers’ attention and spark their desire to read your work to the end.

To grab the attention instantly, you should start your intro with a hook. Traditionally, there are six types of effective essay hooks:

• A rhetorical question;
• An impressive fact or statistic;
• An anecdote (as long as it’s relevant and appropriate);
• A common misconception about the topic;
• An imagery description of the subject.

Depending on your task, pick a hook that has the highest likelihood of engaging your readers. Then, use a few sentences to create a topic onset and give your readers an idea of what you will be talking about in your paper:

• If you are writing an admission essay, design the setting of your story.
• If you are writing an informative or another type of work for the class, provide some background info on the subject matter and state your thesis.

Most importantly, keep your intro short and straight to the topic.

The Perfect Length of a Leadership Essay

Now that you know how to start your paper, we also need to take a moment to clarify the ideal length of your work.

The length of this type of work can vary significantly depending on its type and purpose. Most often, if you are writing for an admission committee, schools will ask you to stick with a 250 word essay on leadership. However, if you are writing for a class, the word count can go up to 1000 words.

As was mentioned earlier, your essay might come with a specific word count. Whether it’s written for admission or a class, you might be given a set of instructions with a specific limit of words. In this case, you should carefully study the guidelines and stick to the word count indicated in them.

In the rare case that the word count isn’t specified, stick to the general rule of thumb and limit your essay to 500 or 600 words.

How to Write a Killer Conclusion for Leadership Essay

While the body of your essay will be unique, which means we can’t give you much advice on how to handle it, the conclusion always follows a traditional structure.

The conclusion of a paper is its final clause. It aims to wrap up everything you’ve discussed in your paper and give it a sense of a logical ending. Often, you will also leave your readers with some food for thought to ensure that your essay makes a lasting impact. Now, let’s define how to write this part of your work in detail.

The first and most important rule for writing a conclusion is to summarize the information from your paper without introducing any new data. Providing new information will only make your readers confused and destroy the effect your essay has on them. So, keep this tip in mind.

Also, when writing a conclusion for your college essay, you should begin with a restatement of your thesis. This trick will logically link your conclusion to the intro.

If you are writing for a class, you can end your final clause with suggestions for further research. For students writing an admission paper, the best way to finish this essay is to emphasize how you plan to apply your leadership skills discussed in the paper to your education, future career, and community in general.

Leadership Essays Examples: Ideas and Topics

Unless you are provided with a specific prompt, question, or topic that you need to address in your essay, you will have to generate ideas for your work on your own. This can feel rather overwhelming. So, let us give you a few thoughts on what you can write about in your paper.

If you are writing an admission essay, the best way to handle it is to tell a story about your own leadership skills. There are a few ways to do this. For example, you can talk about:

• A specific challenge that you faced, overcoming which required you to demonstrate your leadership abilities;
• Your leadership style and, if applicable, how it was shaping and changing throughout your life;
• What, in your opinion, makes an effective leader, and how you relate to the qualities and personal traits you provide;
• How your own leadership skills can be used to make a positive change in your community or the world in general, etc.

If you are writing a paper for a class, the choice of ideas can be even more extensive. Depending on the type of your paper, you can write about the great leaders from history, business, or other areas. Also, you can define and analyze different leadership skills, styles, theories, etc.

Winning Examples of Leadership Essay Titles to Consider

To help you get started with your paper, we compiled a list of good leadership topics that you can try for your essay:

Homework leadership essay topics

• The Difference Between Ethical and Unethical Leadership
• Leadership Throughout History
• The Role of Gender in Leadership
• An Evaluation of the Key Leadership Styles
• Theories of Leadership
• The Key Differences Between Autocratic and Democratic Leadership Styles
• The Most Common Myths About Leadership
• The Role of Leadership in Organizations
• Different Styles of Leadership Adapted to Cultural Differences
• The Role of Leadership in the Political Landscape
• The Key Leadership Skills and How to Develop Them
• The Roles of Ethics and Emotional Intelligence in Effective Leadership
• Female and Male Leadership: Compare and Contrast
• The Core Challenges of Leadership

Admission essay leadership topics

• What Makes Me a Great Leader?
• My Personal Model of Leadership
• Changing My Leadership Style
• A Challenge I Had to Overcome That Made Me a Leader
• My Personal Leadership Role Model
• How Can I Change the World With My Leadership Skills
• The Most Valuable Leadership Experience I Had in My Life and How It Changed Me

Now that you have some general topic samples, let’s look at the complete essay example to help you find inspiration.

The Concept of Leadership: Common Styles and Qualities of a Good Leader

Introduction.

“Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” ‒ John Peter Zenger. Leaders motivate, inspire, and guide others to greater achievements. They foster innovation, communication, and progress in every landscape. But what exactly does it mean to be a great leader? From Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln to Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher ‒ these exceptional leaders have been shaping the history of humanity for many years. They all had different styles of leadership, values, and vision. Yet, they also had a lot in common. Regardless of the type and style of leadership one chooses, it’s personal skills and traits that make a true leader.

What Are the Main Leadership Styles?

It’s possible to define over ten different styles of leadership. These styles have been shaping and changing throughout history, affected by a variety of factors, including the overall structure of the world and the mood of society. In the 21st century, one of the most widespread types of leadership styles is democratic leadership. This style implies that the decision-making power is never concentrated in one person’s hands. Instead, all subordinates of the leader with this style are given a voice in the process of making decisions. Yet, the responsibility for the actions of the entire group is still on the leader. Throughout decades, this form of leadership has been considered one of the most effective and humane ones. No wonder so many impressive leaders in history relied on it, including Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Barack Obama, and many others. Due to its nature, the key characteristics of a good leader with this style include teamwork, empathy, and a fair mind.

An opposite of the democratic style is autocratic Leadership. This style implies that the entire control, command, and power are concentrated in the hands of a leader. In this setting, the leader makes all decisions on their own, without giving their subordinates much room for negotiation or objections. And the responsibility is also fully on the leader. Due to its somewhat tyrannic nature, this style of leadership has a lot of detractors, especially in the modern world. Nevertheless, it still has some adherents. Some of the most famous leaders who used this style and believed in its effectiveness include Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, and others.

Apart from democratic and autocratic, there are also many other leadership styles, including transformational, team, visionary, strategic, and other types of leadership. Each of them has certain pros and cons. And each has its own adherents and detractors. Yet, in broader terms, it’s not a leadership style that determines a good leader but their qualities and the way they use their styles.

Top Qualities of a Good Leader

Regardless of the leveraged style of leadership, a good leader is determined by a set of personal traits, qualities, and skills. A good leader must be self-aware, resilient, accountable, and confident. Most importantly, they must possess such qualities as empathy and emotional intelligence. After all, a leader must motivate and inspire people to follow them, which is impossible without these two skills.

As for important leadership skills, they include decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Yet, the two essential skills are active listening and communication.

How to Start a Leadership Essay for College?

How to write a leadership essay step by step, what skill makes a good leader.

Leaders come in many shapes and kinds. Some of them are in-born, whereas others overcome a long and thorny path of self-exploration and development. They also use a variety of leadership styles, such as democratic, autocratic, and others. Yet, if you have to describe a good leader, it’s their qualities and skills that matter the most.

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In summation, the role of leadership and management can work in different capacities, yet be the same when developing an organization. Leadership is nothing if it doesn’t build a systems’ based management structure, and management would have no support without the work of leadership as the backbone of ideals.

A review of this chapter’s major conclusions, include:

• Being ethically sound and sacrificing comforts for goals and objectives (classical ideals) make leaders strive for innovation and the improvement of society (contemporary ideals).
• Developing and systematically organizing hiring philosophies, institutional policies, budgeting processes, rewards, and decision-making styles are effective measures for managing organizations into the future.
• Leadership and management are both the same and different.
• Using the iceberg analogy and the five disciplines, leadership and management are both independent and dependent from each other, especially when achieving goals in a learning organization.

To offer parting words after this journey, it is important to understand that whatever leadership or management style chosen, it has to relate to inherent beliefs. Essentially, the iceberg below the surface is not just made in one day, it is shaped and cultivated throughout life through natural and social occurrences, assumptions, and inherent beliefs. It is very important for leaders to find their own icebergs and self-reflect on what their beliefs mean to their leadership styles and how they develop their management strategies. As prospective leaders and managers in society, it is highly important to locate and cultivate a personal leadership style to become successful in a future society.

Leadership and Management in Learning Organizations Copyright © by Clayton Smith; Carson Babich; and Mark Lubrick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write Leadership Essay in College

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If there is one skill that is revered across educational institutions and organizations, it is leadership.

Being the boss or in a position of power is not enough to make you a good leader. Effective leadership comes from the impact you have on people, the respect you garner, and how you manage to walk the talk.

Owing how important the role leadership plays in our personal and professional life, it’s no surprise that students are asked to write leadership essays in college.

The purpose of this assignment is to get them to understand the concept of leadership, reflect on their own experiences, or even assess the leadership style of a prominent leader. Apart from writing skills, this assignment also puts students’ critical thinking skills to the test.

This article will tell you what goes into a good leadership outline, along with 12 practical essay writing tips.

12 Tips on How to Write a Good Leadership Essays

If you think you can go ahead and write an essay on your favorite leader, you are mistaken - grade 5 is long gone.

Leadership essay writing is a lot more layered. It requires you to demonstrate your understanding of the concept excitingly and back it up with solid examples and research.

Don’t panic. Here are 12 tips to help you write powerful and effective leadership essays.

Brainstorm interesting topic ideas

If you are fortunate, you will be given a specific leadership essay topic to write on, but most of the time, students are given the flexibility to come up with a topic of their choice.

Leadership essays need to be personal. By the end of it, the reader needs to understand your leadership abilities. Now you can throw light on that aspect of yourself by recounting your leadership experiences, relating it to the leadership style of a prominent leader, or even comparing two leaders. Regardless of your chosen topic, it’s important to connect it back to yourself.

So, start with enlisting potential topic ideas that would help you throw light on your leadership abilities. Don’t rush through this step - take your time to pick a suitable topic.

Think out-of-the-box

Surprise your audience by thinking of innovative topics and ideas for your leadership essay.

Plain and dull essays are predictable and can get boring after being overused by multiple students for their multiple essays. Your professors can also feel that you are trying to play it safe by not thinking outside the box and giving you an average grade for your essay.

Extraordinary and new ideas get the attention they deserve, and your readers are more likely to find them interesting and get hooked on your essay right at the beginning.

Hook the reader

The introductory paragraph is a crucial one as it lays the foundation for the rest of the essay. Does your introduction entice the reader to know more, or does it induce yawns? It all depends on how you choose to begin your essay.

It’s essential to start with a bang and write an interesting hook from the first sentence. A good hook is written in 1 - 2 sentences and manages to get the reader interested. You can start with a funny experience, raise a startling question, or state an interesting fact - there are various ways to begin your leadership essay and capture the reader’s attention.

Use active voice

“I performed the task with great precision” vs. “The task was performed with great precision” - what is more impactful in the context of leadership essays? The former one.

Unlike an essay or any other academic paper, leadership essays are meant to be personal. They are supposed to be about you. As you share your perspective or experiences, you should use an active voice to make a more significant impact and ensure your message reaches the reader.

Follow the format

Adhere to your academic institution's standards for formatting and styling your leadership essay because, first and foremost, your professors would want to see that you have tackled how to format your essay.

Secondly, it is always good practice to format your essays for an excellent structure and a good presentation of the content in the essay. Some institutions are very strict about their formatting standards and can choose to cancel or give unsatisfactory grades to students who do not follow their specific formatting guidelines.

Avoid cliches

Generally, in leadership essays, cliches are most commonly used to describe the person in the essay at large. Avoiding these set cliches will do you and your essay good.

Cliches like “leaves no stones unturned,” “ahead of the curve,” etc., have been used so much by students that they have become weak, lost their meaning, and have minimal effect on the essays.

Your professors are looking for originality and creativity, whereas an essay full of cliches will appear lazy and uncreative.

Select good references

Leadership holds a variety of sub-topics that addresses the quality of leadership, the style and attitudes that leaders have, historical references of the lifework of distinguished leaders, or how certain leaders influenced events.

That’s why researching is key for a thorough leadership essay. With credible sources and references to take inspiration and quotes from, your leadership essay will gain authority and stature. Each method, skill, or event can be further detailed through helpful resources such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, etc.

Ask questions

Ask yourself questions while re-reading your essay to identify any missing pieces you may have overlooked.

Asking questions also address your essay's efficiency and will help you figure out what your readers could ask while reading your essay. You can then confront each of these questions and create a more precise understanding for your readers.

Share anecdotes

Another element that can really strengthen your leadership essay and take it from good to great is anecdotes.

Yes, don’t shy away from sharing anecdotes and personal experiences related to leadership. It adds credibility to your writing and justifies the points you have made. It can be humorous or life-changing, but sharing anecdotes helps keep readers invested and adds immense value to the essay.

Here’s a helpful video by Matthew Singleton on how you can use anecdotes while writing essays

Focus on key qualities

We know how effective leadership constitutes certain key traits and qualities such as empathy, collaboration, good listener, visionary, ownership, decision-making capabilities, delegation, communicator, and more.

Your essay needs to reflect some of these traits. Instead of choosing to enlist all these traits and not focussing on either of them well, it’s important to first choose which are the traits you want to explore in your essay and then work towards highlighting them while writing.

Get feedback

It is always better to have more than one pair of eyes to read and evaluate your essay. Getting feedback on your writing is crucial for the betterment of your essay, as the limitations and problems that you may not have realized while writing your essay can be identified by a fresh set of eyes or a new perspective.

These errors or misses can be rectified, resulting in a quality, no-error leadership essay.

Edit and proofread

A leadership essay requires attention to detail, a set organized structure, and a logical flow of sentences. Editing your essay and proofreading it will overcome any misses that may come your way.

As you proofread, you can double-check the leader’s name and designation, dates, sources, factual, spelling, and grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, out-of-place references, and transition flows.

So, now you know that leadership essays are not as ‘vanilla’ as they sound. They need to be descriptive and logical while capturing your leadership abilities.

If you don’t have the time to write a compelling leadership essay or doubt your writing skills, don’t worry. We at Writers Per Hour are pleased to write an essay for you that will get you noticed.

From choosing a suitable topic to outlining and writing a thoughtful leadership essay from scratch, our writing experts promise to deliver precisely what you need - high-quality essays that meet your budget and deadlines.

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Feb 15, 2023

Essays on Leadership for Students | 200 - 500 Word Essays

Are you writing an essay about leadership? Check out these examples!

Leadership is often defined as "the action of inspiring others to act in concert to achieve a particular goal." It signifies the harmony in actions that lead to a common objective. A genuine leader not only exudes confidence but also paves the way for their followers towards triumph. Over the years, various leadership styles have been identified and discussed by psychologists.

 Qualities such as intelligence, adaptability, extroversion, innate self-awareness, and social competence often emerge as the hallmarks of impactful leaders. There's a consensus that these traits mold an individual into an effective leader. Interestingly, some theories suggest that extraordinary situations can thrust an ordinary individual into the spotlight, bestowing upon them the mantle of leadership. It's also believed that leadership isn't a static trait but an evolving journey. It underscores the belief that with dedication and the right resources, anyone can hone their leadership abilities.

 True leadership goes beyond merely advocating for a cause. It involves taking responsibility, igniting motivation in others, and differentiating oneself from just being a 'boss'. A leader's essence lies in their ability to inspire and propel people towards grand visions, whereas a manager typically focuses on oversight and operational aspects.

What Is a Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay falls under the category of student application essays and serves to provide student admissions officers with insight into your past leadership experiences. Despite appearing to be very specific, this type of essay acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can vary significantly depending on the individual and the context.

 If you find yourself in need of further insights or a unique angle for your leadership essay, consider exploring an expert essay-writing tool designed to assist students in crafting compelling narratives by analyzing vast data and generating fresh ideas within minutes. In this article, we'll also delve into various leadership essay examples to offer a clearer understanding of the genre and inspire your writing journey.

4 Examples of Leadership Essays

Qualities of a good leader, introduction.

Confidence is the most important attribute first of all. One of the most important qualities in a leader is confidence in one's own abilities. A lack of self-assurance is fatal to a person's leadership potential. If you want others to follow you, you need to exude self-assurance. It's imperative for a leader to have faith in his own judgment and actions. How can people want to follow him if he doesn't even know what he's doing?

Every effective leader knows that they need to be an inspiration to their followers. A leader needs to set an example for his team. In addition, he ought to inspire them whenever feasible. A leader must also maintain optimism in trying times.

What qualities a good leader must have?

Leadership is the ability to influence and guide individuals or groups toward a common goal. A leader must possess several qualities to be effective, including:

Communication skills: A leader must be able to communicate their vision and goals clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. This requires excellent listening skills, empathy, and the ability to adapt to different communication styles.

Emotional intelligence: A leader must be able to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as those of their team members. This includes being able to understand and respond to the emotions of others, and handling conflicts in a constructive manner.

Visionary: A leader must have a clear and inspiring vision of the future, and be able to articulate this vision in a way that motivates others to work towards it.

Strategic thinking: A leader must be able to think critically and creatively to identify and solve problems, make decisions, and develop plans and strategies to achieve their goals.

Flexibility: A leader must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be open to new ideas and perspectives. This requires the ability to embrace change, be innovative, and continuously learn and grow.

Integrity: A leader must have strong ethics and values, and be willing to make difficult decisions that are consistent with their beliefs. This requires honesty, transparency, and accountability.

Decisiveness: A leader must be able to make tough decisions quickly, without undue hesitation or procrastination. This requires courage and the ability to take calculated risks.

Empowerment: A leader must be able to delegate responsibilities, give team members the resources they need to succeed, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their team.

Conclusion 

These qualities are essential for effective leadership, and when combined with hard work, determination, and a commitment to excellence, can help leaders to achieve great things.

How one can be a Great Leader?

Leadership is the act of performing the duties of a leader. In the business world, for instance, it is essential to have someone in charge of a team to ensure everything runs well. Effective leadership is essential for any group that wants to maximize its prospects of success.

Leadership Comes from Experience

As we've shown, leadership can be innate in some cases but is more often learned through practice and exposure. Sometimes the best traits of a leader must be learned over a lengthy period of time, so that one can become a notable one, proving that leadership is not always about a person's innate qualities. Leaders should continuously be on the lookout for opportunities to grow their leadership skills.

Nobody can disagree that experience is a key component of leadership. Numerous examples exist to back up this claim, such as:

Instance 1:

Our school's head boy or girl has traditionally been an older student who has been around for a while and thus has a better grasp of the ins and outs of school politics.

Instance 2:

When there is a vacancy for a team leader, it is common practice for the employee who has consistently put in the most effort and attention to the office job to receive a higher number of votes than their coworkers. 

“The best teacher for a leader is evaluated experience.” - John C. Maxwell

How one can be a Great Leader/Skills to be a Great Leader?

Effective leadership is a skill that develops through time. Developing into a leader with all the qualities that are needed takes a lot of hard work and potential. Being a prominent leader calls for a wide variety of traits. Some of these characteristics are addressed in further detail below:

One should be a Good Communicator

To be an effective leader, one must be able to convey his thoughts clearly to his/her/its subordinates.

Should have Confidence

The individual should have faith in what he says and does.

Give Credit to other Team Members too

A leader not only needs to impose his viewpoints and opinions instead he must also hear to the suggestions of other members of the team and offer them credit if their concept is appropriate.

Good Bond with the Team

A leader's ability to command respect from his team members depends on his ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with them.

Leads with Responsibility

A leader needs to be completely committed to his position. It's important that he takes on responsibility so that he can effectively deal with the various challenges he will inevitably face.

Any group or organization needs a leader above all else. Leadership development takes time and effort. One needs to have lived through a lot to be an effective leader. It's not enough to simply have years of experience in the field; one must also have the traits that make one an effective leader. You can't be a great leader unless you possess certain traits.

What makes a Good Leader?

Trying one's hand as a leader appears easy when viewed through this lens. Is that so tough? Of course not; leading is difficult, and not everyone aspires to be a leader. The vast majority of us have settled into well-established careers where we report to superiors and make a living. Still, not everyone is content to go along with the crowd. They become leaders in whatever field they pursue. A leader is an example to followers and will prioritize the needs of those around them.

Some Unique Qualities of a Leader

Many individuals resort to their leaders to vent their frustrations, therefore it's important for them to be good listeners.

A leader ought to be completely forthright; they can't play favorites or give anyone preferential treatment. One of the most essential qualities of a strong leader is the ability to make decisions with integrity.

They need to be aware of the bigger picture and understand what makes an individual stand out or become a leader. It's their expertise in addition to other distinguishing traits. Their awareness of current events and the results of recent studies is essential. In many ways, this is helpful, and it's the leader's responsibility to stay current.

Since some might not understand them, they should utilize straightforward, easily comprehended language. Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively at all times. In reality, what sets them apart is their exceptional communication skills. Adolf Hitler was such a gifted orator that his followers believed every word he said.

No matter how you're feeling or what's going on in the world, if you listen to a leader, they may make you feel energized. Since leaders are in charge of inspiring confidence in their followers, they can't afford to be wary or unsure of themselves. People tend to blindly follow their leaders.

Whether you're a leader or a doctor, you should devote yourself completely to your chosen field. Everything we do is for the benefit of others; engineers, for example, spend much of their time designing and constructing buildings for other people. So, take pride in what you do, and if you possess the aforementioned traits, you are also a leader who doesn't have to rely on others to succeed. No matter what you do, aspiring to leadership positions will always benefit others.

What is Leadership in Management and what are the weaknesses and strengths of a Leader?

Simply said, leadership is acting as a supervisor or manager of a group. Different mental pictures pop up when we hear the word "leadership" used in conversation. One might think of a political leader, team leader, corporate leader, school leader, etc. Leaders facilitate order and efficiency in the workplace. Teamwork and success are fundamental to effective leadership. Leaders utilize their managerial abilities to establish courses and guide their teams to success.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership

Able to express oneself more clearly

Growth of character.

Self-awareness.

Possession of teamwork skills.

Gain assurance in yourself.

Weaknesses:

Acting favorably toward one's teammates.

Having no faith in the leader.

Thinks they're better than everyone else, but act hypocritically.

Not living up to the promised standard.

Insufficient morals.

Leadership and Management

Management and leadership are inextricably linked to one another. Leadership and management are both vital to the efficient operation of an organization; but, they accomplish very different things in the process. Leadership is a necessary skill for anyone aspiring to be an effective manager. The terms management and leadership are synonymous with one another. In this manner, we are able to draw the conclusion that a manager who demonstrates the traits of a successful leader is, in fact, a manager who is effective.

Leadership in School

Leadership is essential in nearly every group, as we've seen above. That group includes one's educational institution. Every school needs an outstanding figure to serve as its head of school. Class monitor, assembly captain, cultural leader, etc. are all examples of leadership roles that can be taken on at school, but this raises the question of what makes a person a successful school leader.

Any student hoping to be chosen as a student body leader will need to demonstrate a wide range of competencies. He or she needs to be a consistent student who pays attention in class and does well in extracurricular activities. For the simple reason that no intelligent and hardworking kid would ever be considered for leadership. Student leaders are most often selected from among those who participate fully in all activities.

Leadership in Organization

Leadership in an organization, also known as organizational leadership, is the process of establishing long-term objectives that further the company's mission and help it reach its ultimate destination. This is a classic illustration of how Bill Gates often works with his team: they agree on a strategy, and Gates implements it. To the same extent, it is the responsibility of the leader in each given organization to determine what it is that the group is trying to accomplish.

Leadership in Politics

Leadership in politics, also known as political leadership, is the process of becoming actively involved in a political party in the role of a party leader. Knowledge of political processes, their outcomes, and the political agenda is central to the idea of political leadership.

An effective leader can be developed in anyone who has the determination and drives to do so. Both the strengths and the areas for improvement should be nurtured. Whether in the classroom, the workplace, or the political arena, leadership is always necessary. Therefore, one can exercise leadership anywhere they like inside their own organization.

What are the types of Leadership?

The ability to lead is a rare trait that not everyone possesses. The ability to do so is a gift, so count your blessings if you possess it. It's recommended that you hone it even more so that you can propel your career forward and serve as an example to people around you. However, it is crucial to grasp the various leadership styles before you go ahead and polish your skills.

Types of Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership

In this style of management, subordinates are given a voice in decision-making. Although the subordinates' efforts are highlighted, the leader is ultimately held responsible for the group's actions. Many people find this type of leadership to be effective.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate and inspire others to adopt new behaviors and ways of thinking in order to improve their own performance and that of their teams and organizations. A transformational leader is someone who encourages their team to strive for greater things and works to boost morale and output.

Team Leadership

A good leader fully incorporates his team into the task at hand. Members of the team are motivated to reach their goals and advance in their careers thanks to the leadership of the group.

Strategic Leadership

It requires a chief executive who doesn't restrict himself to brainstorming sessions with his superiors. He contributes on every level of the team. He is well-liked for his ability to unite the need for fresh ideas with the necessity of grounding them in reality.

Autocratic Leadership

The leader in a command and control structure is the center of attention. The chief executive has absolute power in this setting. He decides things on his own, without polling his staff. He relays this information to his staff and stresses the importance of swift action. The buck stops with him, and he alone must answer for his actions. Not much room for negotiation exists. It's no secret that this method of leading has its detractors.

Visionary Leadership

This kind of leader appreciates the abilities and requirements of his team members. He describes his ideal outcome and the teamwork that will be necessary to attain it.

Coaching Leadership

Leaders who coach their teams do so regularly in an effort to raise output. He inspires his employees to do better and works to keep them motivated. This approach to leadership has been much praised.

Facilitative Leadership

With occasional guidance, a facilitative leader ensures that the process runs smoothly for his team. As a precaution in case his team is ineffective. If the team is highly effective, the leader will take a hands-off approach.

Cross-Cultural Leadership

The leadership of this type is necessary when interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds. Because of the wide variety of cultures represented in the workforce across the United States, many managers and executives hold cross-cultural positions.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

The members of the team are given responsibility in this style of management. They are free to choose how they spend their time at work, with minimal oversight from the boss. It's not a good way to lead, according to experts.

Transactional Leadership

An interactive approach is integral to this kind of leadership. When team members successfully implement their leader's ideas and choices, they are rewarded with immediate, material benefits.

Charismatic Leadership

In order to bring out the best in his followers, this kind of leader makes the effort to change their attitudes, values, and actions.

This article should dispel the notion that leadership qualities can't be further subdivided. It should also assist you in pinpointing your own personal brand of leadership so you can perfect it over time.

Final Words

In conclusion, leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept that involves various qualities and skills. Effective leaders possess traits such as integrity, vision, empathy, decisiveness, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. They are able to navigate challenges, make difficult decisions, and lead their team toward success. Leadership also involves continuous learning and self-improvement, as leaders must adapt to changing circumstances and remain relevant. Effective leadership can have a positive impact on both individuals and organizations, fostering growth and creating a culture of success.

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Essay Samples on Leadership

What type of leader i am: examining my leadership.

What type of leader are you? This question delves into the unique qualities, values, and approaches that define my leadership style. As a leader, I recognize that my actions and decisions influence others, and understanding my leadership style is crucial for effective collaboration and impact....

• Leadership Styles

How to Be an Effective Leader: Guiding with Excellence

Becoming an effective leader requires more than just holding a position of authority; it entails embodying qualities that inspire and guide individuals toward shared goals. Whether leading a team, an organization, or a community, effective leadership is marked by the ability to foster collaboration, motivate...

• Effective Leadership

How to Be a Good Leader: The Path to Effective Leadership

Leadership is a multifaceted skill that involves guiding and inspiring individuals or groups toward a common goal. While leadership styles may vary, there are essential qualities and practices that define effective leadership. In this essay, we will explore how to be a good leader, discuss...

Are Leaders Born or Made: the Nature vs Nurture Debate

Are leaders born or made? This age-old question has ignited debates, discussions, and exploration into the realms of leadership. The inquiry into whether leadership is an innate trait or a cultivated skill has intrigued scholars, practitioners, and curious minds. This essay delves into the heart...

• Leadership Development

Analysis of President Barack Obama as a Leader

Successful leaders possess distinct traits and qualities that set them apart. One such leader is Barack Obama, who exemplifies several key leadership characteristics. Inspirational communication, unwavering conviction, and a willingness to take risks are among the qualities that have contributed to Obama's success. Furthermore, Obama's...

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Leadership and Management: My Personal Philosophy of Leadership

Everybody can be a leader. Nevertheless, I feel that not every individual can lead effectively. I also believe that it is not a position but a process. Leadership is an action to influence other people to move and accomplish the same goal. Leaders are ineffective...

• Leadership and Management

Leadership Development: Analysis of My Leadership Experience

This reflective essay is an analytical look into my leadership experience not only as a leader but also as a member of a group. I specifically adopted the situational approach and the path-goal theory when presented with different leadership challenges hence the adoption of changing...

My Chevening Leadership: Leadership Skills that I Developed

I acquired leadership skills from early adulthood based on my experiences in church and my family. I developed organisational, resilience and other leadership skills which have been honed over the years. My leadership skills continued in secondary school when I started volunteering and campaigning against...

What Is Leadership For You

It is a general term that can have very different meanings with broader possibilities and scales associated with it, and it goes through some evolution with constant permutations and combinations that go on forever. It starts from ancient times and then into the Middle Ages...

Important Role of Leadership Quality and Professionalism

Dedication, strength, honor, and integrity, are just a few of the descriptive words that can be used to define a leadership role. Accountability, knowledge, as well as integrity are words used to help describe professionalism. Notice how the words used to describe these roles are...

The Meaning Of Leadership To Me: Qualities That Create A Leader

For countless millennia, we had witnessed the birth of several societies and organizations that had flourished from successful leadership. Today, in modern businesses you could immediately tell how the leadership it had evolved into at present and the leadership it had decades earlier. Take for...

• Personal Qualities

The Definition Of Leadership: What Does Leadership Mean To Me

My leadership philosophy is established about the need for a leader to encourage and inspire to do what motivates them. It can be accomplished by a leader and at the same time attaining the goals and the task of the team, department, institution, or corporation...

• Personal Beliefs

Chelladurai's Model Of The Leadership

The model that is used for leadership in sports would be the Chelladurai's model of leadership. Chelladurai's model is a framework which builds on research from non-sporting settings in order to analyze effective leadership in sport. The fundamental target of the leader is to achieve...

Example Of Effective Leadership In Jeff Bezos Life Path

Since the beginning of people’s lives, everyone makes choices and decisions which gradually define a person itself. It is often difficult to identify whether the decision was good or bad because each person has a different level of awareness of the importance. Some things which...

Leadership Style Of Jeff Bezos

Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American technology entrepreneur and the founder, CEO, and president of Amazon.com. Since high school, he has had an interest in computer science which led to him pursuing a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University in 1986....

Management Vs Leadership: The Good And The Bad Of Being A Manager

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• Knowledge Base
• How to conclude an essay | Interactive example

How to Conclude an Essay | Interactive Example

Published on January 24, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay . A strong conclusion aims to:

• Tie together the essay’s main points
• Show why your argument matters
• Leave the reader with a strong impression

Your conclusion should give a sense of closure and completion to your argument, but also show what new questions or possibilities it has opened up.

This conclusion is taken from our annotated essay example , which discusses the history of the Braille system. Hover over each part to see why it’s effective.

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

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Table of contents

Step 1: return to your thesis, step 2: review your main points, step 3: show why it matters, what shouldn’t go in the conclusion, more examples of essay conclusions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay conclusion.

To begin your conclusion, signal that the essay is coming to an end by returning to your overall argument.

Don’t just repeat your thesis statement —instead, try to rephrase your argument in a way that shows how it has been developed since the introduction.

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Next, remind the reader of the main points that you used to support your argument.

Avoid simply summarizing each paragraph or repeating each point in order; try to bring your points together in a way that makes the connections between them clear. The conclusion is your final chance to show how all the paragraphs of your essay add up to a coherent whole.

To wrap up your conclusion, zoom out to a broader view of the topic and consider the implications of your argument. For example:

• Does it contribute a new understanding of your topic?
• Does it raise new questions for future study?
• Does it lead to practical suggestions or predictions?
• Can it be applied to different contexts?
• Can it be connected to a broader debate or theme?

Whatever your essay is about, the conclusion should aim to emphasize the significance of your argument, whether that’s within your academic subject or in the wider world.

Try to end with a strong, decisive sentence, leaving the reader with a lingering sense of interest in your topic.

The easiest way to improve your conclusion is to eliminate these common mistakes.

Don’t include new evidence

Any evidence or analysis that is essential to supporting your thesis statement should appear in the main body of the essay.

The conclusion might include minor pieces of new information—for example, a sentence or two discussing broader implications, or a quotation that nicely summarizes your central point. But it shouldn’t introduce any major new sources or ideas that need further explanation to understand.

Don’t use “concluding phrases”

Avoid using obvious stock phrases to tell the reader what you’re doing:

• “In conclusion…”
• “To sum up…”

These phrases aren’t forbidden, but they can make your writing sound weak. By returning to your main argument, it will quickly become clear that you are concluding the essay—you shouldn’t have to spell it out.

Don’t undermine your argument

Avoid using apologetic phrases that sound uncertain or confused:

• “This is just one approach among many.”
• “There are good arguments on both sides of this issue.”
• “There is no clear answer to this problem.”

Even if your essay has explored different points of view, your own position should be clear. There may be many possible approaches to the topic, but you want to leave the reader convinced that yours is the best one!

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• Argumentative
• Literary analysis

This conclusion is taken from an argumentative essay about the internet’s impact on education. It acknowledges the opposing arguments while taking a clear, decisive position.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

This conclusion is taken from a short expository essay that explains the invention of the printing press and its effects on European society. It focuses on giving a clear, concise overview of what was covered in the essay.

The invention of the printing press was important not only in terms of its immediate cultural and economic effects, but also in terms of its major impact on politics and religion across Europe. In the century following the invention of the printing press, the relatively stationary intellectual atmosphere of the Middle Ages gave way to the social upheavals of the Reformation and the Renaissance. A single technological innovation had contributed to the total reshaping of the continent.

This conclusion is taken from a literary analysis essay about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . It summarizes what the essay’s analysis achieved and emphasizes its originality.

By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Your essay’s conclusion should contain:

• A rephrased version of your overall thesis
• A brief review of the key points you made in the main body
• An indication of why your argument matters

The conclusion may also reflect on the broader implications of your argument, showing how your ideas could applied to other contexts or debates.

For a stronger conclusion paragraph, avoid including:

• Important evidence or analysis that wasn’t mentioned in the main body
• Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
• Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion paragraph of an essay is usually shorter than the introduction . As a rule, it shouldn’t take up more than 10–15% of the text.

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• Winning Leadership Essay Examples and Writing Tips

What is a Good Leadership Essay?

What is effective leadership, writing essay on leadership qualities, how to write a leadership essay, leadership essay introduction, how to write the body paragraphs to leadership essay, leadership essay conclusion, 10 burning leadership essay topics, leadership essay sample, more examples of leadership essay, 1. how to write a leadership essay about yourself, 2. what is transformational leadership, 3. what is a short leadership essay.

A good leadership essay should include your own definition of leadership unlike a response essay . Also, express your views on how people become leaders. And don't forget to mention how society can benefit from its leaders. You need to outline essential leader qualities as you see them. Analyze the phenomenon from several distinctive perspectives. Feel free to use literary sources as an inspiration for your essay.

The definition of effective leadership had changed numerous times during human history. Most modern societies agree upon the most evident traits: 1. A leader knows how to preserve and increase the resources of the social group. 2. Effective leadership ensures that the common goals of the group will be reached. And the majority of the group will be satisfied with the results.  A true leader is an effective staff manager, smart businessman, and a good speaker.

You need to understand what makes a good leader before starting a leadership paper. Exploring this issue in detail may be time-consuming. That's why it will be much easier to pick some essential qualities listed below: 

• Ability to inspire
• Decision-making ability
• Positive influence
• Accountability
• Ability to delegate
• Transparency
• Communication skills
• Emotional intelligence

This case study should provide you with some traits and essential features. Let us proceed and explore top leadership essay writing requirements in detail.

If you need to write a leadership paper, but you have never done it before... Then check the comprehensive leadership essay guide below. It will help you to write a great paper.

Don’t know how to start a leadership essay? First of all, you need to come up with an intro and thesis. Good hooks for essays  and thesis statements are the two key features of any essay. Those are your primary ideas — make sure to compose them well. Both the hook and thesis statement have to be logical, convincing, and clear. The hook (up to 1-2 sentences) should grab the reader’s attention immediately. Here are some ideas:

• Tell an anecdote . Laughter motivates reading more.
• A quote : something from literature or said by well-known personas.
• Ask a question about the role of leadership. You can answer it at the end or just leave it open.
• Include an interesting fact or definition of “ leadership ”. It ought to be connected to the topic.
• There are other hook types a writer can use. Didn’t find anything positive? Feel free to contact the writing service or check out our article about the funniest homework answers. 

Another important intro part is a thesis statement . It is your #1 idea that you are going to support through the text (only one sentence). It should be strong and debatable to set the tone of your leadership paper.

Consider this guide to writing body paragraphs:

• Try including an argument and some evidence to support it in every paragraph. Use stronger words to show your personal skills as a true leader. Have you ever written an essay about yourself ? It may come in handy.
• Outline the structure of body paragraphs. It is better to put your strongest argument in the first paragraph.
• Add appropriate facts, anecdotes, and infographics examples . Writing about essential changes that true leaders make? Fetch an example of famous people’s influence on society.
• Don’t forget the references to your thesis statement in each paragraph. Your goal is to show your ideas’ importance! But leadership paper’s key points will seem vague without reference to the point.
• Include a topic outline in every paragraph of your paper. The top objective is to explain to readers what is going to be discussed in your text. Divide these traits into 3-4 paragraphs when you are describing leader qualities. Each of the topic sentences will present a new trait.
• Share your experience. Don’t hesitate to talk about your life in the leadership essay. Sometimes we don’t know how valuable our experience can be. Have you ever run a successful event? Or performed in front of a big audience? Describe it!
• Discuss only one main idea per paragraph. If there are too many ideas, the paper will be messy. This will have a negative impact on its readability in the end.
• Make sure to cite all the borrowed ideas to avoid plagiarism.
• Add transitional sentences — they make paragraphs easier to read.

Do your own research! Find more hints on writing a leadership essay. You can also consider contacting a writing service to get some help. In any case, there are more useful hints you need to check out. So just read further!

Here we have gathered several tips on how to end a leadership essay . Find hints on leadership paper conclusion below.

• Include a brief overview of the entire essay. For instance, you are stating the importance of time management for a leader. Review key ideas and state why managing time matters.
• Restate your key idea, i.e., thesis statement. But don't repeat them using the same words every time. Use synonyms as much as possible without losing the general sense.
• Don’t present any new information in conclusion. All the terms must be defined in the intro or the body paragraphs.
• Return to theme from the introduction. If you asked a provocative question there, you could answer it here.  
• Give your audience a broader picture of leadership. Show how it can be interpreted on many levels.
• Make your conclusion relatively short. A good ending should be neither too long nor too short: between 5-7 sentences. It’s best to finish with a nice outline than to bore your reader with long talks.

A conclusion is the part of the essay where you sum up all of your statements. It has to be less emotive and more logical. Keep those rules in mind when you write a conclusion. 

Many leadership paper topics can be challenging to discuss. Yet, students will never lack a variety of excellent topics. The issue of leadership can be researched in different contexts - business, studies, sports. Or you can just define what leadership means to you (otherwise, just contact writing service). 

Leadership essay topics all college students could use are:

• Key challenges of a leader in a new team.
• Top 10 do’s and don’ts to effectively guide by example.
• Why is leadership good for college?
• Leadership skills - can they be acquired, or one has to be born with them?
• My favorite female leader in world history.
• Top 3 reasons why I want to participate in a leadership program.
• Essay writing skills – are they important for a future leader?
• Why do people prefer to follow a leader?
• Which leadership values are most relevant for society today?
• The role of self-development in leadership.

A good leadership essay example will help you to get a better view on the structure and style. Pay attention to the details and means of expression. Think if you agree with the author and develop your own point for this issue. Check out our essay sample in the text document below.

Can powerful leadership skills be actually acquired? It is a crucial problem for everyone who is interested in mastering them. Let us define the leader notion and try to understand. A perfect leader is supposed to be influential, persuasive, trustworthy, and honest towards followers. Any of these qualities seems to be inherent for many. However, it is easy to see that not everybody can really become a leader.  Looking back at the history of our civilization, we can see numerous leaders: Caesar, Genghis-Khan, Tokugawa, Napoleon. It is often said that most of such persons were born leaders. However, a closer analysis of a historical figure’s well-documented biography – such as Caesar’s – displays a long path of struggle, sometimes followed by failures. Thus, history teaches us that even if some qualities are natural for a true leader, it is hardly possible to achieve significant results without a lot of effort. What is definitely crucial for a leader are abilities to plan and reach personal goals. You should be able to lead yourself in order to provide a fine example for others. Self-analysis, planning, and self-management are attainable for every grown-up human being. Therefore, the first step towards leadership can surely be taken by a properly motivated person. So, the dilemma whether true leader skills can be acquired is complicated. Of course, if you are born with proper abilities, this will make it easier for you. On the other hand, one can reach nearly anything with proper development and motivation. 

An essay on leadership for students is one of the many ways to create a thorough research paper, raise your voice in a group, or obtain students’ personal goals. In case of any difficulties with topics, just use this guide! Or pick a writing service and ask for help — our experienced authors can help you finish your leadership essay as well. Our top-notch writing platform is always at your service!

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To write a leadership essay about yourself, you need to narrow the topic down. For instance, “Why I want to become a leader”. You can also tell about the place of leadership in your life, etc.

Transformational leadership is aimed at the development of group members. A transformational leader unravels and actualizes the potential of the group members.

A short essay on leadership is a classwork assignment designed for 25-45 minutes. The short essay is about 500 words long. It has a classic 3-part structure just like the regular one. A short essay still has to feature multiple facts and points to prove your idea.

“Today, I would like to introduce several facts about myself you did not know. For instance, I had never told before that I used to volunteer my first salary to the organization that helps mentally sick children? I am a great painter. Out of all memories, I will share the most vivid episodes of my l...

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How to Write the UC Essay on Leadership Experience

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Vinay Bhaskara in a CollegeVine Livestream. You can watch the full Livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

What exactly is leadership, consider different types of leadership, mistakes to avoid.

The first of the University of California’s essay prompts states: 

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.

This prompt is all about conveying your leadership experience. However, keep in mind that your essay does not need to be limited to an example of school-based leadership. Many of the better versions of this essay convey leadership in ways that are about neither academic leadership nor direct or positional extracurricular leadership.

It’s really easy to get lost in a definition of what leadership means with this prompt. Remember that leadership has a very expansive definition. What leadership looks like to each student will vary drastically, but, in other words, the prompt is asking you to describe how you have utilized your personal experience for the betterment of yourself and others. 

This prompt focuses on concrete actions that create tangible benefits for members of an organization, or even for an individual within the organization. Many students focus on how they have inspired their classmates or helped to resolve a conflict. While these are good examples of being a leader, try not to limit yourself to formal leadership positions and actions when brainstorming your response.

Leadership can range from formal leadership positions, such as being president of a club, to informal positions, such as mentoring a younger peer. Some examples of more formal leadership would be leadership positions in extracurricular activities including athletics , academics, and even work with non-profit organizations. Informal leadership, on the other hand, is leading in any capacity that is out of the ordinary, specifically when you do not have an official title.These are events or instances that you may not think of as leadership, but discussing such examples may actually help your essay stand out even more. 

A really powerful example of this could be a student helping peers deal with and overcome mental health struggles. Another example could be a student taking on more responsibility within their family by helping a sibling with their homework. The most compelling essays tend to be about informal examples of leadership, which are then supplemented by the formal leadership positions on your resume . 

Though there is no right or wrong answer for this essay prompt, here are a few things that you should avoid in your response.

Cliche Responses

A cliche essay response is any topic that reviewers may see repeatedly, and therefore is something you want to try and avoid in order to stand out among the applicant pool. Cliche responses for this essay prompt generally include examples about a club, such as a sports team, orchestra, or group, failing at something initially, and then the student helping the group succeed. It is possible to tackle such topics if you are an incredible writer, but if you aren’t then it may be hard for your essay to really make a lasting impact.

Restating Your Resume

Always avoid using the leadership experience prompt to restate your resume! It often seems that the most direct way to complete this essay is to speak about the leadership that can be found in your Activities section. Remember, however, that colleges already can see what’s on your resume. Therefore if you’re only expanding on the information in your application and using your essay to further list the clubs you led or your accomplishments, you’re not conveying anything new. You are missing an opportunity to add additional context to your application by doing this.

What the schools are really looking for are the qualities of leadership demonstrated through your experience – not the accomplishments or awards that you’ve accumulated from leadership positions. Instead of focusing on a title, focus on the impact of your leadership on others or on the approach used to build personal dynamics and relationships in leadership. Remember you want your essay to show which of your concrete actions have driven tangible benefits for others.

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Transformational Leadership Essay

Introduction.

In any organization, the focus is based on yielding high profits. The key to this lies in the leader, who in turn inspires the staff. Leadership in an organization is usually classified into different categories based on the style the leader uses.

Different leadership styles are used to attain desired goals, but Bass (2006) pointed out in his work that the secret to an organization that is effective in achieving its goals lies in the use of transformational leadership. A leader usually uses power and influence to exercise authority. In transformational leadership, however, the idea is to emphasize influence to manage the teams and bring them aboard to understand the leader’s vision.

What Is a Transformational Leader?

Transformational leadership can be defined as implementing new ideas through adopting a more flexible and universal method of influencing and continually ameliorating those around them. This type of leadership calls for the leader and the staff to improve one another’s motivation levels.

Motivational leaders bravely work towards making the staff realize the need for higher ideas and their vision for the organization’s future. Transformational leaders naturally role model their followers and pass their enthusiasm by clearly letting them visualize their ideas and what he is doing, and by outlining their genuine personal beliefs, he shows the followers that he has these values. Transformational leaders can achieve these results by possessing certain qualities and characteristics.

Transformational leaders understand their abilities and confidently stand firm on their beliefs. Confidence in their abilities keeps them motivated and helps them connect emotionally to the organization. They have high levels of self-determination, which helps them attain a sense of direction for the organization and, in turn, influence the followers, and together they propel the organization in the right course.

They possess self-drive, which helps them to visualize themselves as achievers who do not have to rely on luck to achieve good results. It is this understanding of self that helps them to transform those around them (Chammas, 2010).

Another characteristic of effective transformational leaders is seen in their ability to understand those around them and particularly those under them. Transformational leaders carefully understand and purposefully influence and motivate the staff to understand the goals. Together, they are working toward attaining that goal since he assists them in realizing its intended worth.

This requires the transformational leader to have the right communication skills to relay their vision to the point of winning the willingness of the followers such that they, too, are excited and have the drive to achieve the desired change. Transformational leader fully understands what they hope to achieve, and the process of carefully relaying the intent to the followers requires idealized influence, which ensures the followers are not resistant to the idea.

To do so, the leader must also be willing to actively involve them in chatting the way forward towards attaining the goal. After they agree on the right course of action, the transformational leader again provides inspirational motivation to keep them going and excite their minds to have the urge to achieve the task.

After the transformational leader purposefully develops the ideas and effectively influences the staff to yearn to attain the goal, it only marks the beginning of the process. The work of the transformational leader is to keep the staff focused on the vision continually, help them stick to the agreed course of action to attain the vision, and continually be actively involved in influencing more and more colleagues to support the vision.

The importance here is to make sure that the staff clearly understands the vision the leader has for the organization’s future and make sure that they will support the course and keep abreast with the importance of the task even in years to come. The staff should not just be involved in doing their assigned job but engage in the job because they realize the importance of the outcome of the job.

The last characteristic of transformation leadership is a combination of three qualities requiring the transformational leader to think outside the box. According to Chammas (2010), a transformational leader is not afraid to evaluate the organization’s traditions and make changes without interfering with its core business.

This requires that they come up with innovative and creative ways that align with their vision for the organization. In their pursuit of change, they are seen as ignoring the present and yearning for a better future. A factor that works with this is their willingness to embrace innovations and ideas.

The transformational leader encourages others to develop new methodologies and innovations that align with attaining the vision. They do so as to keep abreast with the changing times and to demonstrate that they understand that new challenges in the future need new solutions.

Therefore, they encourage suggestions and offer appraisals for the best ideas. The third point on the same is that the transformational leader takes up their role as the advisor and the guide of the team. Their role here is to assist the whole team through the operations. This requires that they understand that each individual has their own personal strengths and weaknesses in given areas.

The leader also considers the individual’s level and will to adjust to new ideas. By understanding the readiness levels, the leader can establish the right timing for implementing the new ideas so that the resistance is minimal. The ability to forge ahead and achieve a new, transformed organization depends on the transformational leader’s influence levels on the staff and developing them in the areas needed to achieve a new organization.

Transformational leadership has proven effective by far compared to other leadership styles. This is due to its influential nature that seeks to have both the leader and the follower develop each other, and together they work towards attaining a vision and, in turn, a new organization.

The benefits of adopting transformation leadership are clearly felt in the outcomes. Transformation leadership increases the influence at the topmost leadership level. This, according to Cox (2010), is because transformational leaders act as role models to other employees in the organization and hence are obeyed, and their method of dealing with people is respected. The result is an organization where there is solid unity between the leader and the employees, giving rise to an atmosphere of mutual trust and effective communication.

This means that the executive is given a hearing by other staff. Therefore the implementation of ideas is fast, and the environment at the workplace is not tense or hierarchical. This is because more emphasis is placed on developing each other instead of arguing about bureaucracy. The leader concentrates on guiding the staff through the vision instead of spending most of the time trying to unite opposing groups in an organization. Results are achieved quickly once all the staff are on board and working passionately.

Another benefit of transformational leadership is seen in how the leader oozes the charisma and excitement they have to perform their duty. The rest of the staff can read clearly the leader’s aspirations, and consequently, they follow in trying to achieve the vision too. The energy possessed by transformational leaders is said to be a major contributor to the other staff’s willingness to join in because they are inspired by their leader’s genuine vision of taking the organization to a whole new level.

A successful and effective organization is able to be realized through two important aspects; a leader who has a clearly defined vision for the organization and staff who have the will to assist and work together towards the realization of that goal. Transformational leaders are enthusiastic about their vision and through their ability to bring other staff on board, realizing the vision becomes very easy and hence a successful and effective organization (Cox, 2010).

A major benefit of transformational leadership is how it can guide the employees bit by bit in achieving a change in the organization. They do this by gradually explaining and influencing the employees and taking them through the step-by-step process of attaining the desired change.

They can visualize the changes the organization should hope to achieve, e.g., introducing a new product, new operating methods, new technology adjustments, etc. They then embark on a mission to carefully engage the employees to understand their feelings toward the desired change. According to Xenitelis (2010), they do this by employing tactical approaches to reveal their thoughts on the same and involve them directly in defining the desired change.

They then attempt to make that necessary adjustment to make the employees clearly understand why the change is important and what it hopes to achieve. After the necessary change is made to propel the vision, the transformational leader then guides the process and ensures that everyone is on board. The leader keeps a constant check by evaluating the process as it continues and hence makes the necessary changes.

This step-by-step engagement of the process proves very successful and is the most effective way for the organization to realize changes. It is also an effective way of avoiding resistance to change which is usually a major hindrance to organizational progress. Its effectiveness is seen especially when the organization wishes to launch a new product or desires to make a complete change in its operating processes (Xenitelis, 2010).

Employees in an organization led by a transformational leader always feel the challenge to keep their energies going because they are inspired by the leader. This fosters a feeling of taking one’s duties and responsibilities personally and yearning to perform one’s tasks to the best of their abilities. This sort of inspiration by the transformational leader encourages the employees to come up with new ways of doing things.

Creativity and innovativeness amongst the employees are encouraged, which, in turn, brings out the individual’s full potential while still addressing the issue of self-development. The benefits of such a working environment trickle down to the organization, which has employees with self-fulfillment and give their best, and their creative input is enjoyed; hence the organization’s effectiveness is realized (Stewart, 2006).

Bass, one of the pioneers of transformational leadership, pointed out that the application of this style of leadership helps the employees push their abilities to levels they never thought they could reach. In addition to transformational leadership uniting and ensuring people agree Bass pointed out that it fosters a working culture where moral force flourishes, and therefore the level of employee turnover is kept at a minimum.

Employees who understand that the organization they are working for encourages them to give their creativity and allows them to develop to levels they never thought they could achieve are likely to stick with the organization for long. The benefits of such a working culture are realized in the organization’s success in achieving its vision since the costs associated with employee turnover and retention are cut, as well as the benefits of developed and satisfied employees (Bass, 2006).

Transformational leadership brings forth culture and climate in an organization whereby success is bound to prosper. When a transformational leader takes into consideration the abilities and needs of each employee individually and shares their genuine vision clearly and elaborately, it brings forth a culture of honesty and receptiveness.

The employees feel that their input is respected and credit awarded for their ideas. This, in turn, gives rise to a working environment where there is job satisfaction, and consequently, due to the absence of commotion, the environment is stress-free.

The employees are always in high spirits, and their motivation to work hard is on top; hence they freely express their abilities to improve in certain areas, and the areas where they are strong are emphasized. An organization’s success is bound to be realized in such a stress-free working culture with high motivation levels. Job satisfaction is high and personal abilities are given consideration.

Transformational leadership is beneficial in that it can help an organization cut costs. Through the transformational leader’s ability to connect with the employees and give them a chance to understand the task at hand, including allowing their ideas and creativity, job satisfaction is achieved, which means employees do not feel the need to leave the organization hence the reduced employee turnover. This, in a major way, saves the organization high costs associated with losing employees and having to employ new ones.

In a transformational leadership organization, the employees are given a chance to concentrate on areas they are strong in; hence, the unnecessary costs of training the employees in unfamiliar areas are reduced. This also goes for the fact that the employees are given a chance to develop, and as they work harmoniously, they teach each other by sharing ideas. Hence, in-training employees is unnecessary in most cases (Stewart, 2006).

Transformational Leadership: Conclusion

In conclusion, effectiveness in an organization highly depends on the leader’s ability to have a vision, build consensus with the employees, and adjust his leadership style to fit the vision and guide the whole team toward the desired direction.

Transformational leadership considers all this by having the leader clearly understand the direction he wants to propel the organization, influencing the employees, and making them understand how important the change is. Then together, they engage in the process.

Transformational leadership combines the right employees and the right motives. It inspires creativity and motivation in achieving a smooth flow of processes which, in the long run, ensures an effective organization that delivers its results and is consistent in achieving the desired changes.

Reference List

Bass, M. and Riggio, E. (2006) Transformational Leadership. New York, Routledge.

Chammas, A. (2010) Leadership Characteristics for Organizational Transformation Success, Transformational Leadership , vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 16-27.

Cox, R. (2010) The Benefits of Transformational Leadership . Web.

Stewart, J. (2006) Transformational Leadership: An Evolving Concept Examined through the Works of Burns, Bass, Avolio, and Leithwood , Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. vol. 27, no. 56, pp. 1-19.

Xenitelis, M. (2010) Transformational Leadership , Management. vol. 43, no. 12, pp. 11 -17.

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Leadership Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on leadership.

First of all, Leadership refers to the quality of leading people. Probably, it is one of the most important aspects of life. Above all, Leadership has led to the progress of human civilization . Without good Leadership, no organization or group can succeed. Furthermore, not everyone has this quality. This is because effective Leadership requires certain important characteristics.

Qualities of a Good Leader

First of all, confidence is the most quality. A leader must have strong self-confidence. A person lacking in confidence can never be a good leader. A person must be confident enough to ensure others follow him. The leader must have confidence in his decisions and actions. If he is unsure, then how can people have the desire to follow him.

A good leader must certainly inspire others. A leader must be a role model for his followers. Furthermore, he must motivate them whenever possible. Also, in difficult situations, a leader must not lose hope. How can a leader inspire people if he himself is hopeless?

Honesty is another notable quality of a leader. Honesty and Integrity are important to earn the love of followers. Above all, honesty is essential to win the trust of the people. Probably, every Leadership which loses trust is bound to fail. People will not work with full effort due to an immoral leader.

Good communication is a must for a good leader. This is because poor communication means the wrong message to followers. Furthermore, good communication will increase the rate of work. Also, the chances of mistakes by followers will reduce.

Another important quality is decision making. Above all, if a leader makes poor decisions then other qualities will not matter. Furthermore, good decision making ensures the success of the entire group. If the leader makes poor decisions, then the efforts of followers won’t matter.

A good leader must be an excellent innovator. He must display a creative attitude in his work. Most noteworthy, innovation is a guarantee of survival of a group or innovation. Without creative thinking, progress is not possible.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Real-Life Examples of Good Leadership

Mahatma Gandhi was an excellent example of a good leader. He was a staunch believer in non-violence. With his brilliant Leadership skills, he made the British leave India. Probably, this was the most unique independence struggle. This is because Gandhi got freedom without any violence.

Abraham Lincoln was another notable leader. Most noteworthy, he ended the slavery system in the United States. Consequently, he made many enemies. However, he was a man of massive self-confidence. His struggle against slavery certainly became an inspiration.

Sir Winston Churchill was a great patriotic Englishman. Most noteworthy, he led Britain in the 2nd World War. Furthermore, he was extremely inspirational. He inspired Britain to fight against Nazi Germany. His great communication motivated the entire country at a time of hopelessness.

To conclude, Leadership is required in probably every sphere of life. Good leadership is the door to success. In contrast, bad leadership is a guarantee of failure. Consequently, good leaders are what make the world go round.

FAQs on Leadership

Q.1 Which is the most important quality for being a good leader? A.1 The most important quality for being a good leader is self-confidence.

Q.2 Why Sir Winston Churchill is a good leader? A.2 Sir Winston Churchill is a good leader because he inspired Britain to fight in 2nd World War. Furthermore, his excellent communication also raised the motivation of his people.

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Essay on Leadership: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 7, 2023

The concept of leadership has been known to us since ancient times, from Ashoka: The Great to modern-day democratic leaders. Whether it’s politics or business, sports or entertainment, leadership is an essential part of human society, Leadership is the art of inspiring and guiding people towards a common goal. 

Critics might argue that being a leader is just about holding a prestigious position and living a fancy life. That might be 1 in 1000 cases, as leaders across the globe work for the welfare and development of their people and country. Below we have discussed some essays on leadership where the multifaceted roles of this position are highlighted. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Leadership in 100 Words
• 2 Essay on Leadership in 200 Words
• 3 Essay on Leadership in 300 Words

Also Read – Essay on Summer Vacation

Essay on Leadership in 100 Words

Leadership involves a set of qualities, values and actions, which are focused on the benefit of people and their country. A person holding the position of a leader plays a pivotal role in every facet of life, influencing the direction and success of organizations, communities, and nations. To become a leader, one must have a clear vision to understand a future state that is better than the present and communicate that vision to their team or followers.

A leader’s actions should be aligned with their words, and they must demonstrate their honesty, transparency and ethical behaviour. Trust is the foundation for any successful leadership, and it is built through consistent ethical conduct. 

Essay on Leadership in 200 Words

Leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept and is an essential part of developing a society or organisation. Leadership can involve various positions and types, from democratic to autocratic, where the leaders inspire and empower their teams, fostering an environment where individuals can thrive and achieve their fullest potential.

Effective leadership involves skilled communicators to can convey ideas, expectations, and feedback clearly and persuasively. They also listen actively to their team’s input and concerns. A great leader empowers a team of professionals by entrusting them with responsibilities and decision-making authority. With the formation of delegates, the power of leadership is divided among different authorities who are responsible for fostering growth and development among team members, making the organization more robust.

Some of the fundamentals of leadership are authenticity, integrity, ethical behaviour, a clear vision and other vital traits. Trust is the bedrock of leadership, and it is built through honesty, transparency, and consistency in actions and decisions. A leader who understands and cares about the needs and concerns of their team fosters strong relationships, promoting collaboration and cohesion.

At last, leadership is more than a title; it’s the embodiment of vision, integrity, empathy, communication and resilience. Effective leaders work to bring positive changes, inspire people around them and create a sense of purpose and direction in their terms and organizations.

Also Read – Essay on Cricket

Essay on Leadership in 300 Words

Leadership is a vital concept for the welfare of a society, community or country, depending on what the leadership is about. A leader transcends boundaries and is fundamental to human endeavours in various domains. Their job involves the ability to influence and guide a group of individuals toward achieving a common objective. Effective leadership is characterized by a combination of qualities, skills, and behaviours that inspire, motivate, and empower a team.

The first and most important aspect of a successful leader is having a clear vision. A clear vision works as a guiding light, outlining the desired future and providing a sense of purpose and direction for the team. Leaders with a compelling vision can inspire and rally their followers, creating a shared sense of purpose. 

The other cornerstone of leadership is integrity. Leaders must demonstrate honesty, transparency, and ethical behaviour. Trust, which is essential in any team or organization, is built on the foundation of integrity. When people believe that their leader acts with integrity, they are more likely to follow willingly and commit to the cause. 

Another trait that is essential for effective leadership is empathy. Leaders with empathy understand and connect with the emotions, needs, and perspectives of their team members. By showing compassion and actively listening, they create a supportive and inclusive environment that fosters trust and collaboration.

Apart from these traits, other important qualities for effective leadership include effective communication and interpersonal skills. A leader must be able to articulate their vision, goals, and expectations clearly and persuasively. 

In conclusion, leadership is a multifaceted concept that plays a pivotal role towards the positive growth and development of organizations, communities, and societies. Effective leaders inspire their teams, create a sense of purpose, and drive positive change. Leadership is not merely a position; it is a journey of personal growth and a commitment to serving the greater good.

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Some of the synonyms for a leader are: Coach, Captain, Principal, Chairman, Kingpin, Boss, CEO, etc.

What makes a good leader is their ability to persuade people using their effective communication skills, having a clear vision working towards the welfare of society, and taking responsibility for their actions.

Writing an essay on leadership in 200 words must include the fundamental aspects of leadership and the qualities they must possess. Effective leaders around the world create a supportive and inclusive environment where people can thrive and contribute their best efforts. They inspire a shared sense of purpose, foster collaboration, and guide their teams toward achieving collective goals.

For more information about such informative articles, visit our essay writing page and make sure to follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Gig workers are writing essays for AI to learn from

• Companies are hiring highly educated gig workers to write training content for AI models .
• The shift toward more sophisticated trainers comes as tech giants scramble for new data sources.
• AI could run out of data to learn from by 2026, one research institute has warned. 

As artificial intelligence models run out of data to train themselves on, AI companies are increasingly turning to actual humans to write training content.

For years, companies have used gig workers to help train AI models on simple tasks like photo identification , data annotation, and labelling. But the rapidly advancing technology now requires more advanced people to train it.

Companies such as Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring part-timers with graduate degrees to write essays and creative prompts for the bots to gobble up, The New York Times reported . Scale AI, for example, posted a job last year looking for people with Master's degrees or PhDs, who are fluent in either English, Hindi, or Japanese and have professional writing experience in fields like poetry, journalism, and publishing.

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Their mission? To help AI bots "become better writers," Scale AI wrote in the posting.

And an army of workers are needed to do this kind of work. Scale AI has as many as tens of thousands of contractors working on its platform at a time, per the Times.

"What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent," Willow Primack, the vice president of data operations at Scale AI, told the New York Times. "We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result."

The shift toward more sophisticated gig trainers comes as tech giants scramble to find new data to train their technology on. That's because the programs learn so incredibly fast that they're already running out of available resources to learn from. The vast trove of online information — everything from scientific papers to news articles to Wikipedia pages — is drying up.

Epoch, an AI research institute, has warned that AI could run out of data by 2026.

So, companies are finding more and more creative ways to make sure their systems never stop learning. Google has considered accessing its customers' data in Google Docs , Sheets, and Slides while Meta even thought about buying publishing house Simon & Schuster to harvest its book collection, Business Insider previously reported.

Watch: Nearly 50,000 tech workers have been laid off — but there's a hack to avoid layoffs

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South Korean Parliamentary Election Projected to Hand Defeat to Leader

The vote on Wednesday was a big test for President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has forged closer ties with the United States and Japan but whose domestic agenda has stalled.

By Choe Sang-Hun

Reporting from Seoul

In the two years since he was elected, President Yoon Suk Yeol has made his mark in foreign policy, forging deeper ties with the United States and Japan. But his business-friendly domestic agenda has been stalled by his own missteps and an opposition-controlled Parliament.

Now, Mr. Yoon is facing the threat of being a lame duck for the remainder of his single, five-year term.

In a parliamentary election held on Wednesday, voters were projected to have handed Mr. Yoon and his party a crushing defeat, giving the opposition one of its biggest electoral victories in recent decades. Polls closed at 6 p.m. and official results were expected on Thursday morning.

Dozens of parties were vying for the 300 seats in the National Assembly, South Korea’s single-chamber legislature. However, the contest was largely between Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party and the main opposition camp, the liberal Democratic Party.

This was the first general election since Mr. Yoon won the presidency in 2022, beating Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party by a razor-thin margin. While the results will decide the makeup of the Assembly for the next four years, they also serve as a verdict on the two rival leaders .

Exit polls conducted Wednesday by South Korea’s three major TV stations predicted that Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party and an affiliate would win no more than 105 of the 300 seats in the Assembly. Mr. Lee’s Democratic Party and a partner were projected to garner as many 197. A separate exit poll by the cable channel JTBC predicted a similar outcome.

For the past two weeks, candidates have greeted voters at subway stations, woven through their districts on trucks mounted with loudspeakers, and even knelt and bowed before voters, as is customary in the country. All that canvassing stopped as voters began filing into balloting stations across the country at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, which was declared a national holiday for the election.

The outcome of the contest is unlikely to have any immediate impact on Mr. Yoon’s efforts to expand security cooperation with Washington and Tokyo to deter North Korea, as foreign policy is concentrated in the hands of the president.

But Mr. Yoon’s long-stalled domestic agenda — corporate tax cuts and other business-friendly measures as well as his efforts to drastically increase the number of doctors — looks increasingly imperiled.

In contrast, Mr. Lee is likely to get a big push from the election if the exit poll projections are accurate. He hopes to run for president again in 2027.

The rivalry between the two leaders has become symptomatic of the deep political polarization in South Korea.

Mr. Lee’s party billed the election as an opportunity for South Koreans to punish Mr. Yoon over everything from rising consumer prices to allegations of corruption and abuse of power involving his family and the government.

“We must serve a warning that if the worker is not faithful enough, he can be driven out of his job,” ​Mr. Lee said this week​,​ a comment that South Korean news media said hinted at the possibility of impeaching Mr. Yoon if the opposition wins enough seats.

Under Mr. Yoon, Mr. Lee and his wife have been scrutinized by prosecutors and now face various criminal charges. The opposition for its part has passed bills that mandate investigations into allegations of corruption involving Mr. Yoon’s family and former prosecutors and judges. The president has vetoed those bills.

Each side, analysts said, focused on demonizing the other instead of offering policy proposals. Mr. Yoon’s party called Mr. Lee and his party “criminals.” The opposition warned that South Korea under Mr. Yoon was turning into a “dictatorship,” accusing him of using prosecutors and state regulators to suppress unfriendly journalists and politicians; at times, Mr. Yoon’s bodyguards have even gagged and carried away citizens who shouted criticism at him.

“I have never seen an election like this: No campaign promise or policy has become an election issue, except for the forces from the opposite poles clashing to win at all costs,” said Heo Jinjae, an analyst at Gallup Korea.

For one voter, in Seoul, the capital, the choice was between bad and worse.

“Instead of it being a battle of good policy, the election is about picking the least worst candidate,” said the voter, Hong Yoongi, 28, who lives in the city of Seongnam, just outside Seoul. “It’s a shame.”

Kim Eun-joo, a resident in her early 40s, voiced a similar notion but said she cast her vote as a warning against Mr. Yoon’s government.

“I don’t trust any party,” she said. “But I know that the economy has worsened and politics have become more disruptive under President Yoon.”

Nearly a third of the country’s 44 million eligible voters had already cast their ballots in early voting on Friday and Saturday. Experts said that the election would be decided largely by two overlapping blocs of swing voters. The first was people in their 20s and 30s. The second was the roughly 20 percent of eligible voters who hold the middle ground between progressives​ and conservatives. Many voters in their 40s and 50s are progressives, while people in their 60s and older tend to vote conservative.

The two main rival parties competed for swing voters by playing up their enemies’ gaffes and past remarks.

Mr. Yoon committed one such gaffe when he visited a grocery store last month and made a comment that left South Koreans wondering whether he knew how much green onions, a staple, cost amid inflation. Since then, opposition candidates have brandished green onions at campaign rallies as a symbol of Mr. Yoon’s supposed disconnect from everyday life.

Pre-election surveys showed that a majority of voters in their 20s and 30s and those who called themselves moderates disapproved of Mr. Yoon’s performance.

“If anything, this election serves as a report card on Yoon Suk Yeol’s two years in office,” said Jaung Hoon, a political science professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

Jin Yu Young contributed reporting.

Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun