How have the workshops and discussions on leadership this week changed your understanding of what leadership means?

Surprisingly, the workshop has also helped a bit with my research and studying the motivations behind the founders' outputs (ea sunt speeches, the constitution, classical references). Hamilton or Madison (It's certainly Hamilton because he believes in a stronger executive and is generally VERY heavy handed with his Classical  allusions in an attempt to have people respect him) famously writes in Federalist 55 "Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob." I definitely strongly disagree with this view of leadership, as Hamilton essentially argues that had everyone been a wise leader, nothing would have changed. But after the workshop, I think that leaders should know how to step back, compromise, and collaborate with other people, allowing room for debate while assigning roles to ensure things are done on time. But this workshop might help me recognize who is taking a leadership role and why in the Convention, where the overlap is with their idea of anacyclosis (Polybius' idea that the past repeats itself), and how that factors in to Constitutional thought on expansion.

How might you imagine applying one model of leadership during your Laidlaw summer on campus—either within the Laidlaw cohort or beyond this community? While we often associate leadership and leaders with seniority, how might leadership be modeled among individuals who are among the youngest people on campus (i.e. you!)?

I've always felt that my leadership strengths lie in planning events and bringing unique opportunities around the city to the group's attention. Although I'm not one of the group's co-chairs, I make sure to support their events, provide event suggestions and feedback, as well as post supplementary opportunities in the group space. A leader should be dependable and known as the kind of person that will show up and support regardless of their involvement in planning the event. I also feel that I've gotten a sense of my leadership weaknesses, as I tend to play into the worse of the Driver traits when I feel stressed as opposed to using my Analytical strengths. I definitely feel much more self-aware and hope that I will learn to use others' strengths whether planning upcoming events or balancing my own style of leadership out.

Serendipitous run-in with Claire at the Rose Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library!