I now focus my philosophy on the idea that a leader becomes one through the mastery of skills, not by being born a natural leader. The first step to mastering leadership skills is to have the foundation of leadership theory. I feel that once you are introduced to the dense and contradictory leadership theories, it becomes easy to apply the learnings in real life situations. The theories presented simultaneously question and support each other, just as leaders and followers do in their interconnected relationship. An effective leader-follower relationship depends on the leader's self-understanding. The leader of a group must know their strengths, their style and their tendency to focus more on tasks or relationships. I believe our actions are driven by inherent tendencies to be task or relationship oriented. However, I believe that the effective leader is aware of his or her tendency to be task- or relationship-oriented and has the ability to adapt to the situation at hand. The ability to adapt to the situation requires understanding oneself and changes in follower behaviors. I agree with Astin and Astin (2000) that the college classroom is the ideal environment to produce authentic, self-aware, diversity-sensitive leaders because this idea fully supports my leadership philosophy. My leadership philosophy recognizes that leaders arise from the development of personal capabilities through the process of recognizing strengths and weaknesses and inclinations to respond to completing tasks or maintaining personal relationships. To achieve this, the leader must remain consciously aware of situational leadership with the ultimate goal of bringing positive results