Taking the lead..

One of the oral activities we had for our Public Speaking class was speech delivery. We were asked to do a read speech. We were assigned to an occasion and would then make a speech about it. The occasion assigned to me was a culminating activity for a youth congress in Cebu City. I had to assume a persona for this one. Here is a copy of the speech I made.


Fellow SK officials, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon!

Today marks a significant milestone in this Youth Congress. Despite the vigorous efforts exerted in discussing the main purpose of leadership, at least at the end of the day we can say that our labor is not in vain. We can be proud that even at our young age, we can discuss issues that would enhance our leadership qualities and would make us effective as servants for the youth in our community. Let me congratulate you all for a job well done!

Leadership would always be leadership. Time does change. Technology continues moving forward. Culture varies from place to place. But the true principles of leadership are constant and will always remain constant. Leadership principles stand in the test of time. They cannot be questioned. They are irrefutable.

Leadership guru and author John Maxwell in his bestselling book entitled “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” believes that Leaders may be born but leadership can be developed nonetheless.

Globally, as well as locally, there are a lot of people filling prominent roles who are not qualified at all. Without any doubt, there are numerous leadership positions in our country currently occupied by people who are just placed there by any unjustified means and reasons that they are leaders. Politics, particularly in our country, ironically explains the lack of reliable government leaders today.

And so, as we now completely understand the positive qualities of leadership like: self-confident but humble, decisive, creative and innovative, visionary, good-motivator, independent, has a good sense of humor and so on, we are now challenged to develop these as we serve our constituents. Let us be constantly reminded that we are elected in this position, as SK officials in our respective barangays for a noble cause. I hope that these words would stick into our minds. We are here because our people trust us. We are here to serve the youth of our barangay. We are here to lead by example.

Giving up our responsibility in exchange of our personal interests is just like betraying the trust of the people, frustrating the ideas or perception of our youth today.

I challenge you to pursuit your high-minded or worthy goals for the prosperity and success of our youth. If we will not do the right way of modeling them to be good leaders, if we would not take the lead, who would do it for them?

Thank you and good day!