Most people upon hearing the word “Leader” have a stereotypical view of leadership, but most of us know that the idea of a “one size fits all” leader does not exist. So upon completing the True Colors test in class no one was surprised that each person had different responses and was assigned to a different color based on their responses. However despite our knowledge of the differences that each one of us brings to the table, it is often hard to put this understanding into practice in our daily pursuit of leadership.
After completing the True Colors in class I came across an article by Timothy Willard, a scholar currently studying the works of C.S. Lewis at King’s College, which introduced to me the idea of Imaginative Leadership. Willard defines Imaginative Leadership as “leadership that springs from men and women who understand the power of ‘being yourself.’” In today’s world there is an even greater need for leaders who are more than the stereotypical leader, who are willing to step outside the box, who are using their knowledge of themselves and the world around them to inspire change. Most often we think that this type of leadership will come from someone who has reached a certain status or level of achievement and due to their experience can lead those around them to undiscovered places, but Lewis and Willard suggest something different. They suggest that this leader will not come from the person striving for the success, acceptance, and status of elite leadership but rather be found in the person who is looking inward to understand who they are better and utilize this knowledge of themselves to be a leader right where they find themselves and to lead those whom they are surrounded by. In fact they even suggest that this type of leader can be found when no one is watching and when they exhibit leadership when there may not be anything required of them. I believe that what Willard has seen in the life of C.S. Lewis and his writing is something that we can apply to our understanding of leadership. As we have all been given the opportunity to take an initial step to know ourselves better through True Colors we can continue this inward search and truly begin to understand ourselves.
When we have developed this deep understanding of ourselves we can begin to watch as our leadership grows and manifests into something beautiful in the lives and situations of those that we are leading around us. And even more as we begin to work together as a class our leadership as a group will begin to grow. We will see each person’s colors become brighter and begin to mix to create a circle not of elite leaders, but of genuine, creative leaders who are working together to tackle the problems set before us in unique and creative ways.
However, as great as this sounds, it is not a simple task. We are all high achieving, extremely involved and busy student leaders and to reach this level of introspective leadership requires intentionality. To truly get to know ourselves and who we are as leaders we can take what we have learned about ourselves in True Colors, but we cannot stop here. We must continually pause and reflect on our personality and qualities and how they affect our actions and reactions in every situation. In his article Willard draws on the fact that Lewis reached this place of true imagination and creativity when he removed himself from the world. While this is not always possible for us, I think the idea still holds relevancy in our personal pursuit of imaginative leadership. In order to get to know ourselves sometimes we may need to step away from our busy daily lives to find a place where we can gain perspective and dive deep into ourselves to evaluate our leadership. Whether this be a walk or an escape through a good cup of coffee in the closest coffee shop it is something we will all benefit from when we make the time to do it. Despite the difficulty that may come in finding the time to get to know ourselves and our leadership better, when we take this time to get away, we can reap the rewards even more so when we come back together and reach this picture of colorful and imaginative leadership.
I am thankful to have had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of myself due to the True Colors, but have gained even more knowledge through taking the time to farther explore how I can use this knowledge of myself to better lead those around me and also to lead with those around me and would encourage others to do the same. I look forward to seeing how each person in our class uses the knowledge we have gained of ourselves to enhance not only our class, but our campus and world as well as we grow to be Imaginative Leaders.
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