The following is an excerpt from "Developing Leadership Strengths in College" by Donald O. Clifton and Edward "Chip" Anderson.

People go to college with an end-goal of assuming roles and responsibilities based on what they know and the influence they can bring to bear on individuals, groups, and organizations.

Many people view college as a stepping-stone to careers in which they will be leaders. This leadership may be in a classroom, courtroom, corporation, hospital, community agency, ministry, service organization or in their own business. This reality, plus the fact that virtually every college graduate will be supervising someone, points to the importance of learning how to be an effective leader.

By nature, leadership involves an influence relationship that is designed to produce real changes. And virtually every college graduate will be involved in some type of influence relationship where the goal is to bring about real changes.

We wish that every college professor, administrator and student affairs profession saw developing strengths for leadership as one of the most important goals of a college education.

Ready to discover your strengths for leadership? Click here!

Property of Edward C. Anderson and Copyright 2004. The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ.