Did you know that leadership is not just identified with professionals or our careers?
When someone says are you a leader or a follower, did you ever consider that the answer to that question is really about a choice and a decision, and not what we are capable of just because of who we are? Have you ever heard “Leaders are born to lead”?
As quoted in the book 13 Secrets of World Class Achievers by Vic Johnson “The rewards we receive in life come as a result not of your potential, but rather are a result of your performance”.
As Richard Leider states so clearly in his chapter (“The Leadership Mirror: Why Should I follow you?”) in the book edited by Marshall Goldsmith and others titled, Coaching for Leadership (2000), the real difference between success and failure can be traced to internal reasons and not external reasons. In other words, how well do leaders engage the hearts and souls of their followers? It’s about what’s inside you and not outside you that really counts.
We are born with many traits and qualities, but we are in charge of what and how we train our hearts to feel and react to situations. Every person in every role has the capacity and the ability to lead no matter what we are tasked to do. The problem is that society has taught us that leaders are in roles related to responsibility and positions. If we embrace the thought that “I can be a leader no matter where or what I am doing”, we will change the way we live our lives and what happens to us throughout our lives as life happens to us.
Brene Browne put it best in her book “Daring Greatly” by stating a Leader is “Anyone who holds her – himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes”
In everyday life we are presented with choices in our decision making processes, and while making those choices if we viewed the importance of finding potential in people and processes as our core thought process we would make better choices and ultimately better decisions. This all derives from being a leader who is holding themselves accountable and realizes that their success is not based on their potential, but their performance.
In my life there have been many crossroads where choices and decisions had to be made in very difficult personal circumstances where my ability to practice this process made all the difference in making the right choices and decisions. What leaders know that others don’t is that they don’t have all of the answers, and if they seek others out and collaborate together they will not only find solutions that never seemed possible before, but they will create processes that will position themselves to continue to make better decisions because of that experience. Leaders also know that sometimes they have to be the follower to be the leader and therefore, they know when to make that choice that inevitably makes them a leader to be the follower.
If you would like to be in a position to make better choices and decisions in your life and grasp a better understanding that we were all really born to become leaders and not born to hit the ground running as a leader, there is an exciting change about to happen in your life. When we change our hearts and souls those around us will be changed too.
