THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK

Cheryle O’Brien

Leadership is quite a conflicted topic in today’s society. It can mean a variety of different things for different people. I would say leadership from what I have seen is about leading people to fulfill their hopes and dreams.

We all have a leadership role to do everyday whether that is in your work or family life. I personally don’t want to be a leader. I want to be a progressor to help young care experienced people to help make a change not only in their lives but elsewhere.

I have faced many challenges in life and have heard the word leadership so much but never felt the power behind it. That is why I was attending college to complete a HNC working with communities to become a community development worker. I don’t want to be a leader, I want to be a professional helping young people make effective changes without the whole ‘I am the boss’ or ‘I am the adult, you do what I say’ stereotype around it.

I want to help make positive and helpful changes to people’s lives. Leadership is a powerful word with so many different meanings but what does it actually mean really? I feel it’s such an overused word in work life it is seen as you have to follow the leaders rules but how does this help young people? We speak about having a good relationship with participants and volunteers so why do we speak about leadership? This isn’t about us leading change this is about the young people at the heart of the work we do and the changes they make we are only there to lend a guiding hand.