A few days ago, in an interview, I got asked "how would you define leadership?". Even though I have been involved in leadership development programs and thinking critically about leadership for the greater part of my college experience, I always struggled in defining such an abstract concept in a one sentence. This time, however, and potentially due to the added pressure, I provided a definition that for the first time I am content with. For me, now, leadership is about Inspiring Change  being that change both on a macro level (such as teams, companies, etc) or on the micro level such as within oneself. This requires a combination of skills such as being able to empower others through communication and empathy skills and being able to understand oneself's strengths, weaknesses, emotions, etc.

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My view on leadership, however, has not always been like that. As I started my UW experience I had a bigger inclination towards "capital L leadership". For me it was more about the titles and the power you held then the results and changes you created. This changed throughout my experiences but, most notably, my "Key Learning Experience" number 3, in which I lost a leadership position I worked very hard to achieve and was not being able to generate all the changes I wanted to. This triggered a series of reflections that, in the end of the day, I believe changed my view on leadership for the better.