How to Lead with Confidence
By Alexandra Lourenço
Becoming a leader is challenging and multifaceted.
As the vice president of Animal Welfare at my school, the secretary of my class, and a leader of my fencing club, I have learned that confidence, respect, and what you bring to the table are three key characteristics of being an effective leader. People want their leaders to be strong, reliable, and qualified.
Feeling confident is not always so easy. I recommend, “Fake it until you make it!” If you put on a strong, confident façade, eventually you will BE confident. For more confidence tips check out this article “The Key to Confidence” by Jolene Murphy.
As for respect, something to always remember is that respect is a two-way street. You have to show respect in order to receive respect. This ties into what you bring to the table.
In high school, you will always meet new people and learn new things. Something I have found useful for gaining respect is building relationships with my peers. It can start with a simple compliment or a question, but these connections are very important. Additionally, experience can be a huge factor in whether people respect you or not.
As a student, you need to be open to trying new things to gain experience and the key attributes you need to acquire in leadership roles such as being organized, having passion, coming up with ideas you would like to implement within your position, and so on.
Wonder Girls Chairwoman of the board, Speaker, and Mentor Amie Lenkowiec has been a leader in so many ways. Whether it be in her current position as an Environmental Project Manager at HDR Engineering or during her time at the University of Essex, Colchester. She said that two keys to being a leader are active listening and emotional intelligence.
She has been nominated by her company to go to leadership retreats. Additionally, when getting her master’s, she led the undergraduates in her program during an expedition in Indonesia.
At first, she was unsure as to why she was endowed with so many leadership opportunities, but once she did her research she found her answer. “When I started to really realize that active listening and emotional intelligence are two of the most important things that a leader needs…I understood why people shoved me into [leadership] roles,” Lenkowiec said.
While working in Dubai, she dealt with a lot of misogyny. At times she would be completely ignored by her male coworkers when she spoke and they refused to shake her hand. She said that it was difficult to deal with the sexist attitude of her coworkers, but she was able to overcome this by pushing past this adversity.
“Other people’s judgments of me are only going to be maintained until I prove them wrong,” Lenkoweic said.
“You need to sit at the table,” Lenkowiec advises, especially for women working in male-dominated industries. “Try to be in those situations where you may not be able to contribute, but you’re still learning. Don’t ever think that your voice is any less valuable than anyone else’s in that room because all it is is a different voice, it’s just coming from a different perspective.”
In the end, Amie and I agree that being a leader is about helping others. Being a leader is about having the opportunity to make a difference in your community. Additionally, being a leader is a gratifying experience. It shows that others respect you because being a leader may be a position you can try to take, but when people follow you it shows that they respect you and choose you to be their leader.