You're A Leader, Whether Or Not You're The "Boss" What makes a leader? If you think about it, the only real requirement for being a leader is to have someone follow you.
Look around: you have followers, whether or not you are officially labeled a "boss" of anyone.
One of my former colleagues was a member of a prominent consulting firm for his entire career.
In his firm, it's always been a "meritocracy," meaning no one's supposed to have formal authority over anyone else in the firm...
all ideas are heard and judged on merit.
In everyday practice, it doesn't really work that way; the senior folks do make suggestions that sound like directives to the junior folks, as you'd expect.
But my colleague once mused: "I'm fifty-eight years old, I went right to the firm from grad school, worked my entire career as a consultant there, and retired.
Now I'm teaching leadership...
and I've never actually been formally in charge of anyone.
Ever.
" But he was an outstanding leader.
People followed him (presumably, they still do).
Colleagues, clients, team members, and others continually sought this man's advice and were happy to have it.
You can be a leader without formal authority.
If you want to be an inspirational leader, as do most of my coaching clients, you'll find that formal authority actually sometimes gets in the way of being able to inspire people as much as you'd like.
(That said, don't turn down that promotion!) Leadership is, more than anything else, a mindset.
Some people are forceful leaders, and that's because they have a mindset that they'll do a project better than anyone else would, so they should simply take charge of every project or endeavor with which they come into contact.
My experience with leaders tells me those types often struggle to be inspiring.
People follow them, but only in compliance mode.
The forceful leader often doesn't win his charges' hearts and minds, and therefore he struggles to get their full commitment.
The mindset that makes a person a potentially-inspirational leader is one of (no great shock) personal inspiration.
When you are inspired yourself, you can't help but exude that inspiration...
and people follow THAT in commitment mode! Get inspired, and stay inspired, and you'll be inspiring to others.
There are two types of person out there, and in each of us.
Your inner Victim is never going to be an inspirational leader - in fact, he'll claim to "see through the hype" and never allow himself to be inspired at all.
So if you want to be an inspirational leader, you have to starve your inner Victim (taking away his favorite diet of complaining, criticism, and competitiveness) and feed your inner Entrepreneur (nourishing his appetite for celebrating, appreciating, and collaborating).
Even if you find yourself in a bad patch right now, start eliminating the negative and seeking out the positive, and you might slowly turn yourself away from victimhood and toward inspiration.
Some Entrepreneurs are inspired to start a business; others simply unleash the inspiring power of their inner Entrepreneur on making something better (their home, an initiative at work, a civic project, you name it).
If you allow yourself to become more like your inner Entrepreneur, you'll become inspired toward something, and you'll find you've become a leader whether you wanted to be one or not.
People follow you.
They watch your every move.
And if you're inspired, they'll become more inspired too.
Look around: you have followers, whether or not you are officially labeled a "boss" of anyone.
One of my former colleagues was a member of a prominent consulting firm for his entire career.
In his firm, it's always been a "meritocracy," meaning no one's supposed to have formal authority over anyone else in the firm...
all ideas are heard and judged on merit.
In everyday practice, it doesn't really work that way; the senior folks do make suggestions that sound like directives to the junior folks, as you'd expect.
But my colleague once mused: "I'm fifty-eight years old, I went right to the firm from grad school, worked my entire career as a consultant there, and retired.
Now I'm teaching leadership...
and I've never actually been formally in charge of anyone.
Ever.
" But he was an outstanding leader.
People followed him (presumably, they still do).
Colleagues, clients, team members, and others continually sought this man's advice and were happy to have it.
You can be a leader without formal authority.
If you want to be an inspirational leader, as do most of my coaching clients, you'll find that formal authority actually sometimes gets in the way of being able to inspire people as much as you'd like.
(That said, don't turn down that promotion!) Leadership is, more than anything else, a mindset.
Some people are forceful leaders, and that's because they have a mindset that they'll do a project better than anyone else would, so they should simply take charge of every project or endeavor with which they come into contact.
My experience with leaders tells me those types often struggle to be inspiring.
People follow them, but only in compliance mode.
The forceful leader often doesn't win his charges' hearts and minds, and therefore he struggles to get their full commitment.
The mindset that makes a person a potentially-inspirational leader is one of (no great shock) personal inspiration.
When you are inspired yourself, you can't help but exude that inspiration...
and people follow THAT in commitment mode! Get inspired, and stay inspired, and you'll be inspiring to others.
There are two types of person out there, and in each of us.
Your inner Victim is never going to be an inspirational leader - in fact, he'll claim to "see through the hype" and never allow himself to be inspired at all.
So if you want to be an inspirational leader, you have to starve your inner Victim (taking away his favorite diet of complaining, criticism, and competitiveness) and feed your inner Entrepreneur (nourishing his appetite for celebrating, appreciating, and collaborating).
Even if you find yourself in a bad patch right now, start eliminating the negative and seeking out the positive, and you might slowly turn yourself away from victimhood and toward inspiration.
Some Entrepreneurs are inspired to start a business; others simply unleash the inspiring power of their inner Entrepreneur on making something better (their home, an initiative at work, a civic project, you name it).
If you allow yourself to become more like your inner Entrepreneur, you'll become inspired toward something, and you'll find you've become a leader whether you wanted to be one or not.
People follow you.
They watch your every move.
And if you're inspired, they'll become more inspired too.