How to Be A Leader
Have you ever wondered what it means to be a leader? Have you ever thought of yourself as more of a leader or a follower? Do you feel like you sometimes struggle with taking initiative? Well, by now you probably know the deal. If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this post was made for you.
What is a leader?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a leader is “the person who leads or commands a group, organisation, or country.”
There are many different kinds of leaders in the world today. From religious leaders and government officials, to bloggers and social media influencers.
Oftentimes, we look to the number of followers a person has in order to determine how great of a leader they actually are — this sometimes leads to feelings of inadequacy though, if we’re not careful. You see, one of the challenges we often see in people who desire to be a leader is that they look at leadership more as a position that you are put into by someone else rather than a posture that you put yourself into. Today we will look at what it looks like to be a leader, with or without external validation from others.
Practice Accurate Self-Assessment
Self Assessment is defined as “one's capacity for observing, understanding and accurately judging the quality of one's own skills and abilities based on their performance.” (The Academic Glossary)
In order to be a leader, it is important to understand your strengths and weaknesses, or the areas in which you still need improvement. Maybe you are a strong vocalist who is really good at creating musical content when collaborating with a stronger lyricist. Or maybe you’re really good at both. Knowing your strengths will help you build leadership skills, and knowing your weaknesses will help you identify the areas where you need help in order to be the best leader you can possibly be.
Commit to Serving Others
Another important note about being a good leader is this: leadership = service.
In order to lead others, you must be willing to serve them. For example, your service as a stellar vocalist may be to entertain your fans with new content, or to educate your clients or students through your skill. A community leader may serve their community by representing their voices on a larger platform in order to help create a desired or otherwise necessary change. Your leadership may look different depending on your skills and passions, however, it will always include acts of service towards the very people you lead. Which brings us to our next and final note… following through.
Follow Through
In an article published to Medium.com back in 2020, blogger Tullio Siragusa argued that the significance of follow through could “never be emphasized enough.” In expansion:
“Living up to your commitments is helps you earn credibility. It is something people notice immediately about you. If you mean what you say and do what you committed to doing, you will earn trust and respect from people.
On the other hand, if you don’t follow-through on your words, people will soon stop caring about what you have to say. For leaders, this behavior can translate into utter disappointment for the employees, and disengagement.” – Tullio Siragusa
Good leadership requires follow through, and while there may be no one-size-fits-all approach to leading a life well lived, it is certainly important that each of us strives to do what we say we will do, and work on improving our consistency and reliability.
So take what you’ve learned today, and see how it changes your life. Practice accurate self-assessment, commit to serving others, and always follow through.
Why sink when you can SWIM?