"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." - John C. Maxwell

Being goal-oriented sets a group's direction. It stems from analyzing and evaluating situations to develop and track progress toward objectives, growth, and development. As an initiator, a leader must have an idea of what, when, and how something should be done.

Example: In an online collaborative activity, it requires one student to lead the group for efficiency. One said, “Hello, everyone! According to the objectives, we should be able to present an effective marketing strategy. How about we aim to increase its brand visibility by 10%?” The other suggested, “We should target the student consumers to increase the page engagement by 50%.”

"The art of communication is the language of leadership." - James Humes

A leader must be able to appropriately communicate with their peers or colleagues to ensure the idea or premise of the discourse is clear and sound for themselves and the other party, especially when they bear the responsibility of imparting correct and smart information to others.

Example: Beth and Lana are students that live in the same condo unit. Beth noticed that Lana has been really messy and does not do the dishes lately. Beth said, “Hey, Lana. Have you been doing alright? I’m just wondering because you’ve been missing out on your chores. Your things are also disorganized and they distract me sometimes. Is there any way I can help you work back on them?”

"The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they're valued." - Ken Robinson

As a leader, open-mindedness maintains a stable foundation among the people they lead as it assists in clarifying or adding ideas and processes for better comprehension of the tasks at hand. Additionally, it can promote a healthy environment of sharing and participation among people.

Example: In their Business Communication subject, groups of 5 are tasked to creatively produce a narrative advertisement. Rob, the assigned leader, wanted to keep it simple just by thinking of a catchy phrase and explaining the product features. But then, his group mate suggested, “To make it unique, why won’t we make a short dialogue? That would surely stand out.” Another suggested, “How about creating a story?” Rob is a shy person and does not want to act a role. However, he still welcomed his group mates’ idea and made a compromise. “I think it could be difficult given the limited time we are given, but I think we can combine our ideas instead,” says him.

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." - Helen Keller

Optimism should be present in student leaders as they are the example people follow in doing their activities or tasks. Optimism reassures those under a leader that difficulties and setbacks are reversible and can help in achieving a grander result due to a morale boost or the notion of a will to be better or do better.

Example: In their Economics subject, students were devastated to learn about their low scores for their first group requirement. Someone in the block then said, “It’s alright, guys. There are bonus tasks we can rely on anyway. We did well on the previous quizzes too! Let’s just do better next time!”

"The best leaders are highly intentional. They know their priorities and organize their time and resources accordingly." - John C. Maxwell

A leader must have an organized nature to effectively and efficiently use resources and work power at an optimal level to not overload or under load efforts and ensure smooth progress while minimizing the chances of mishaps and overlaps.

Example: For their Management of Organizations subject, the students are assigned a multi-layered task to complete their final paper. It includes interviewing a manager, making a decision matrix, then writing the paper itself. One student said, “I’ll make a shared Google drive with our emails to save and share all our files there.” The other then said, “Let’s set an internal deadline for each of the tasks to avoid cramming.” One member also suggested, “We should assign roles on who should do which.”

"Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all." - Brian Tracy

A leader is decisive and can arrive at a conclusive decision to create resolutions or address the current challenges presented to them and enable the chance for others to understand what the new objective must be to reach the general goal.

Example: In a Marketing subject, students are tasked to propose a brand to which they will make a marketing plan on. A group of 7 members has their own suggestion with supporting pros and cons. None of the members chatted anything afterwards. Until, one member said, “I think Ben’s suggestion is the best one because it is a popular brand but you can rarely see it advertised in the media.” Seeing that perspective, all the members then agreed to propose Ben’s suggested brand.

"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

A leader must become a cautious person, in a similar manner to an organized quality; they must remain vigilant on the possibilities that some faults may occur; failure is inevitable, but they must encourage themselves and others to continue to triumph over said failures.

Example: Gem is a very hands-on leader for a Halloween project. She makes sure to tell her group mates to contact her for updates regarding their individual tasks. As the one who foresees everything, when she noticed that one of the members is not inclined with their theme, she messaged, “Hey, your work is great, but some of the details don't scream Halloween to me. Maybe instead of using blue, you can change them to different shades of oranges.” That member then had a hard time catching up with their other group mates. Gem said, “We can finish this perfectly, let me help you! And to everyone who is already done with their assignments, give us a hand as well.”

"In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." - Warren Buffett

A leader must have a set of principles and morality to ensure that they and their team righteously work to produce reasonable outputs and learn from mistakes, preserving integrity and correcting fallacies rather than adhering to them.

Example: In their Research subject, Leo and Dan are partners for an assignment within their group. Their leader told them to get the task done as soon as possible because she will check it. Leo whispered to Dan, “Let’s just use AI and put fake citations to get this done already. They probably won’t notice.” Dan immediately shook his head and said, “Even if they won’t, it’s not the right thing to do.” After they’re done, their leader also kept her word in checking their output.

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved." - George MacDonald

Trustworthiness is the start to becoming a good leader as it prompts a person to become a bearer of responsibility and be reliable to enable timely coordination and execution of plans with the faith of your companions.

Example: Tim easily understands Calculus, while his friends could not. Trish, one of them, approached Tim to teach them about the new lesson. Tim replied, “Sure! I’ll make sure to teach you guys by 5pm tomorrow.” The next day, Tim confirmed by messaging a meeting link to their friend group chat. His friends did show up as well.

"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." - Simon Sinek

A leader acknowledges the different circumstances their colleagues face, especially when it comes to conflicts with self and others, as the well-being of one should be as important as the rest; they view their system holistically and note when a piece slows down to address or fix rather than to ignore.

Example: Ria, a block representative, was asked by a professor if setting the deadline on Friday for an essay task would suffice. Knowing how hectic the week has been on her block, she declined. “Sorry sir, but is it alright if we move it next week instead? Our class already has so many deadlines lined up this Friday. I hope you understand, sir. It would mean a lot to us,” Ria said.

Similarities

1. Organized: This is the only characteristic we worded exactly the same. Both French and Filipino groups highlighted the relevance of organizing to achieve optimal results. Eva and Lola emphasized organization within oneself, while we focused on having an organized and unified group. Nonetheless, both expressed that being organized makes managing easier and ensures smooth progress.

   
   

2. Hardworking & Diligent: Being diligent is being positively hardworking. Both groups had similar examples that embodied being persistent despite setbacks.

   
   

3. Encouraging & Optimistic: Although worded differently, being encouraging to others and optimistic about situations result in a positive ambiance within a group. Both groups gave similar examples relating to poor school performance, then having a person who spoke up to uplift each others’ spirits.

   
   

4. Communicative + Listen & Good Communicator + Aware: Both groups agree that communication is an integral part of functionality. A good leader would know how to communicate well. We thought the other group’s Listening and Communicative characteristics overlap because listening is part of communicating. When you are a listener, you are a speaker as well. This also relates to a characteristic we included—aware. A leader will only be able to communicate well when they are aware of what is going on around people or situations that concern them.

Differences

• Eva and Lola’s chosen characteristics show what a person must have to be able to lead not just other people but also oneself. Their Padlet emphasizes that to lead other people, one must foster these qualities within themselves and apply them to their day-to-day life. During our talk, they also mentioned that “Leadership is taking the lead, while Managing is more participative.”

• Their examples are real-life. Meanwhile, our examples are made up but inspired by our real lives as college students.

• They used their own images. According to them, some images they got from their close friends. Meanwhile, we decided to use animated illustrations to better embody the thoughts we wanted to portray in our answers.