For Nisha Patel, leadership is a lifestyle. On paper, she already has a solid leadership resumé as a business student in the first cohort to receive the U of A's Leadership Certificate and as former president of the U of A Debate Society, ranked 20th in the world in 2012. But being a leader is something Patel strives to embody every minute of the day.
Do you believe leadership is something that can be taught?
If you see it as a process of continual improvement and see it as something you opt into, I think that changes how you approach leadership. You can't teach a person to be someone whom other people find inspiring. But you can teach them to communicate, to be more self-aware and to be authentic.
How do you deal with the responsibility that comes with leadership?
I think it's about having priorities and realizing what your needs are within those priorities. There are going to be days when it's really hard to get up in the morning and be yourself all day - be who you want to be at every moment all day. You have to set your own standards for what you think is meaningful, and you can't let other things get to you.
You recently gave an address at the launch of the U of A's Peter Lougheed Leadership Initiative in front of many important community leaders. What was your message?
I got up onstage and I knew there were three rows of reserved seating in the front, so every one of those people was someone who'd done things in his or her life. I think the only way you can [be authentic] is to be really honest. So I got up there and I said, "This is what I believe and these are the values I'm going to try to follow through on in my life." I think leadership goes both ways and that you don't learn only from someone who is older than you. Once you realize [that], all the people attending stop seeming like scary dignitaries. They become people you can learn from and people who can learn from you.
We at New Trail welcome your comments. Robust debate and criticism are encouraged, provided it is respectful. We reserve the right to reject comments, images or links that attack ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation; that include offensive language, threats, spam; are fraudulent or defamatory; infringe on copyright or trademarks; and that just generally aren’t very nice. Discussion is monitored and violation of these guidelines will result in comments being disabled.