YMCA Speech

In this modern time, the 21st century, leadership has already become a concept that is
naturally understood by people. The meaning and nature of good leadership has already been
instilled in the minds of the people belonging in this present generation. For the past years, people
have already defined leadership based from their personal experiences, their ideas and opinions.
Thousands of prominent and successful leaders have already shared their knowledge on leadership
through speeches, lectures and written works.
Socrates’ definition of leadership is based from his concept of teaching, the Socratic
Method. It is believed that the Socratic method of leadership is a means of helping a team develop
by making the members understand their own knowledge and beliefs. According to Walt Disney,
“Leadership is the ability to effectively and passionately communicate a vision.” Which means a
leader must be able to influence and motivate members in viewing a vision the same way as you
do. Takenori Akagi, a famous center of the basketball team Shohoku believes that leadership is
about sacrifice, determination and having the ability to guide the team to the top. Thousands of
speakers have already stood up in a stage like this delivering an inspirational speech on leadership
shouting out lines like, “Being a leader is making a change in someone’s life” or “Leadership is
inspiring and motivating people in achieving a common goal” These are the established definitions
of leadership. The standards that needs to be reached in order to be called a good leader.
These norms caused the development of different types of leaders and each type has a
special characteristic that differentiates itself from others. For example, in the school, one can
observe different kinds of leaders with different kinds of behaviors and strategies of leading. These
kinds of leaders are very obvious from the perspective of an average student like me, and through
observation I was able to identify 5 types of leaders in the school.
The first type of leader is The Bouncy Leader. This is the kind of leader that is energetic
and usually very loud. They possess personalities that are liked by everybody and attracts different
kinds of people. The Bouncy Leader, are leaders that are usually friends with everybody therefore
the members greatly trust him or her and follow his or her orders. But, The Bouncy Leader is
habitually weak in controlling and organizing the group.
Second type of leader is The Introvert. This kind of leader is the complete opposite of The
Bouncy Leader. He or she is a very shy and reticent leader. Most of the time, The Introvert are
people with great potential as leaders and full of ideas. There are times when they attempt to
volunteer but retreats in the end because they either got scared or because The Bouncy Leader
completely takes away the spotlight.
Third type is The Does Everything Leader. These are the hardworking leaders who does
most, if not all, of the work and makes sure that the work is done perfectly and submitted on time.
There are two kinds of The Does Everything Leader, the first one is the silent type. After doing
the work, he or she doesn’t usually talk and just acknowledges that all of the members did their
job. The second type is the bragger, they are the ones who tells the whole world that he or she
contributed the largest.
The fourth type is The Rager, they are the type of leaders that are easily irritated and
displeased. In situations where the group gets out of control, they start to stomp their feet loudly,
walks out of the room and slams the door. After 5 or 10 minutes, The Rager comes back, sits in
front of the group asking questions like, “What’s the problem?” or starts a sermon about behavior
and attitude.
The last type of leader is the ideal leader, The Servant Leader. The Servant Leader is
basically the combination of all the good qualities of the 4 leaders identified earlier. This means
that The Servant Leader is energetic and has a magnetic personality, a person that can connect with
any kind of person. The Servant Leader is also someone that is full of ideas, someone that also
participates in the discussion and the activity and not a leader that only supervises and facilitates.
The Servant Leader is someone that does everything that he or she can for the success of the group
and still remains humble in the end. A leader that can communicate freely with its members to
know what they are thinking and feeling. That is The Servant Leader.
Just like any type of leader, The Servant Leader also possess unique characteristic that
differentiates itself from others. There are many characteristics that defines a servant leader but
there are basically elements that differentiates The Servant Leader from other types of leaders; first
is, silence. The Servant Leader is a leader that has the ability to listen without judgement, and by
listening The Servant Leader understands and empathizes with his or her members. Second, the
desire to serve. Robert Greenleaf defined The Servant Leader as servant first. It is not about being
servile but replacing self-interest with service for others and having the natural feeling of wanting
to serve the highest priority needs of the people. A true servant leader guarantees that through this
service, the members grow as a person, they become wiser and freer and develops in becoming
servant leaders as well.
What kind of leader are you? What kind of leader am I? It all comes down to this question.
I have identified five common types of leaders and I’m sure you tried to look for the category that
perfectly describes yourself or your friends. But I am standing here, just like any other speaker
who stood in a stage like this, reminding everyone that we should aim to be the fifth type of leader,
a servant leader. Just like what Andre Malraux said, “To command is to serve, nothing more and
nothing less.”

YMCA Speech

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In this modern time, the 21st century, leadership has already become a concept that is

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