What Does It Mean to Be A Leader?
By: Shaan Rais
Tags: Leaders, Leadership Skills, Leadership Development, Leadership, Leadership Coaching

A Leader is one who has influence with other people, or someone who is being followed by others, for the purpose of reaching a specific goal. If you are a parent, you are a leader. If you are the Chief Executive Officer of a company, even if it’s a company of two, you are a leader. If there are people behind you for any cause or purpose if you are the front runner in a sales contest at work, or in a club you are a leader.

To be a leader means to have people who defer to you for advice, wisdom, instructions, the benefit of your experience, etc. This is always done for the purpose of reaching a goal that they have. Leaders are sought out, they are rare, they are always improving themselves and the people around them. The really good ones are mainly concerned with the progress of those entrusted to their influence.

How Do You Know If You’re Doing It Right?

There is no one way to influence, as each person has their own personality, preferences, traits, and characteristics. However, there are some commonalities in quality leadership:

· People are growing through your inputs

· Goals are being met and objectives are getting accomplished

· You are not the only one winning

· Some of your ideas are new and unconventional

· You are not easily influenced by others and you color outside of the lines often

Leaders are people who forge their own trail. You don’t become a leader by doing the same thing that everyone else does; that is defined as a follower, an imitator, and someone who just wants to be safe. A leader is one who dreams differently, thinks differently, and moves differently.

It is not easy being a leader because you are going to be trying new things. You are going to make people feel uncomfortable. You are going to fail from time to time, but the more comfortable with that — the more you are going to learn from it, and the quicker you are going to gain wisdom and experience. This wisdom and experience will, in time, lend the odds to your favor.

How Can One Become A Better Leader?

One can become a leader by taking the initiative. There are opportunities to lead everywhere and in everything. In every situation, there is an opportunity to lead. Do you know how you can tell when there is an opportunity to lead? Everyone is quiet, looking at each other and waiting for someone to move or speak.

Let’s say your Boss has a new initiative, and they are having a meeting. In that meeting, they say, “I need a volunteer for …” When everyone else lowers their head and looks at their watch or their shoes, there’s your opportunity to lead. If you’re a student, and the Prof. says, “I need someone to step up and run the presentation, who’s going to go first?”, and everyone acts like they are studying too hard to hear, there is your opportunity to lead. You may be sitting at the table with your siblings, and your Father says, “I need someone to wash the dishes,” and your brothers and sister sink deeply into their chairs. There is your opportunity to lead.

There is always an opportunity to lead. The more consistently you take the initiative and step up to the plate, or take responsibility the more a couple of things are going to happen:

· You are going to become keen on opportunity; you will sense and see opportunities to lead more frequently and before others do, and

· You will begin to receive requests for your leadership, and last but not least..

· You will become better and more successful at it.

3 Things Every Aspiring Leader Should Do

There are three things that every aspiring leader should do.

1. Seek out those more experienced than yourself and model their behavior.

2. Read everything you can find on quality leadership, leadership that failed, the kind of leadership you are interested in, and information related to personal development, professional development, and most importantly, Leadership Development

3. Get involved in a Leadership Development Program. That can be Executive Coaching, it can be education, it can be a personal curriculum of study and going to seminars.

The point is…

You must get better, and you only get better by doing. Knowing this, you must experiment, raise your hand, get comfortable saying, “I’ll do it”, and get comfortable failing.

Failure is your friend, however, it is a friend you are destined to lose. This is where the real lessons are learned.

One of the main keys to successful Leadership is consistency, because as you persist you will eventually perfect, and as you learn all the ways that a thing cannot be done, you will trip over the way it can.

Ultimately, you will become better at this process of Fail, Tweak, Learn, and Succeed.

Now Get Out There and Lead!