Leadership is one of the most important aspects of any organization and community because it helps guide, provide structure and organize the outcome of the company or group. The goal of any leader should be to properly motivate followers to engage in productive and efficient tasks towards achieving specific goals. Many cinematic films show leadership in sports and the military, while very few works outside of the academic community discuss leadership in terms of the corporate environments. Leadership is highly prevalent within these settings and is absolutely crucial to creating a close-nit group environment and motivating individuals to work together to achieve the goals of the organization or group. The leadership and followership experiences I have faced have played an important role in my understanding of leadership, and the readings of the course have also become important factors in developing my concept of leadership and followership.

There are several leader and follower roles that I have performed during different times of my own life with different individuals and in different circumstances. For instance, I have been a team captain for my sports team in a number of situations, including high school and youth athletics teams. It is always important for the team captain, and leader of the team, to help keep the rest of the players organized and motivated to persevere during difficult times. There were situations where our teams faced adversity, but myself and another team captain were able to work together and share the leadership roles to keep our team motivated and working together. I have also been involved in youth groups in church where we were responsible for following the youth pastor during our church groups. Followership is important, especially when thousands of youths are convened together within a church concert. I took many demands and followed the instructions of the youth pastor to help provide a successful concert and the entire event was a extremely fun and exciting.

From the story “Lessons from Geese” there are many valuable leadership lessons that can be taken from the behaviors of geese. For instance, it is said that by flying in a ‘V’ formation, each goose flaps its wings to create uplift for the other birds that follow behind. As each goose works together and follows the one in front, the entire flock can add a much larger flying range than if each goose were to fly alone (Ambler, 2006, par. 1). This lesson truly shows the importance of working together and following the leadership of others. If people work together in a group, they are able to achieve so much more than if they were to work alone. In addition to this lesson, there is another that states that as the lead goose begins to become tired and weary from flying in the front, it will rotate to the back of the pack and allow for another goose to take the lead position (Ambler, 2006, par. 3). Essentially, this action is telling us that it is very important for leaders to understand that leadership can be shared with others that have various skills. This is very similar to my previous situation as a team captain where I shared leadership responsibilities with another individual. In order to ensure the best results for the entire group, the leader must be mature enough to admit his or her weaknesses and allow for others to take the lead during difficult times.

The lessons gained from this story are important, and I will actively apply them to my own workplace now and in the future. Although I have very little power, leadership is not necessarily the power that a person has in the infrastructure of an organization, it can be the impact that a person has on a group of people. There are many projects in my company that require much research and the examination of tedious details. By asking others for help, I can help instill a teamwork mentality that can help apply the leadership and teamwork lessons learned from the story of the geese. Furthermore, I can also offer my help to people around the office whenever I have spare time. By doing these two simple actions it helps people to begin to think about how they can help me and others, as well as how I can be of service to them. Working as a team is crucial and we cannot always take on the entire workload as many people would like to believe. As the lessons from geese show, sometimes it is best to avoid being prideful and admit when we are not strong enough to perform a given task so that someone else can help pick up the slack. By asking others for help, we are not showing a weakness in character or inability to perform; we are simply putting the organization ahead of ourselves.