I now focus my philosophy on the idea that a leader becomes a leader through the mastery of skills, not by being born a natural leader. The first step to mastering leadership skills is having a foundation in leadership theory. I believe that once one is introduced to the dense and contradictory theories of leadership, it becomes easy to apply the teachings in real life situations. The theories presented simultaneously interrogate 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 its strengths, its style and its tendency to focus more on tasks or relationships. I believe our actions are guided by intrinsic tendencies to be task or relationship oriented. Yet, I believe that an effective leader is aware of their tendency to be task or relationship oriented and possesses the ability to adapt to the situation at hand. The ability to adapt to the situation requires self-understanding and variations in follower behaviors. I agree with Astin and Astin (2000) that the university classroom is the ideal environment for producing authentic, self-knowing, and diversity-sensitive leaders, as this idea fully supports my leadership philosophy. My leadership philosophy recognizes that leaders are born from the development of personal skills through the process of recognizing strengths and weaknesses and the inclination to respond to accomplishing a task or nurturing personal relationships. To achieve this, the leader must remain aware of situational leadership, with the ultimate goal being to elicit positive reactions.