Leadership is not something bestowed upon the privileged few. Leadership is open to all. So, what is it that stops us? First we must look at our view of ourselves as a leader. Not to let that voice in your head that tells you that ‘you aren’t up to it” and bully you in to a small life, not even to try. On top of that, what is your opinion of a good leader? How do you measure up? All these internal conversations keep you fixed and restricted from achieving your dreams. It stops from making a difference and having the feelings of self-fulfillment.
So what is leadership? Leadership is about making a stand for how we want things to be, a vision that inspires us to go beyond what we think we and others can do. Plus, the ability to enroll others in to your vision of how thing could be and for them to make it their own. It is something each of us can bring to anything with which we’re involved or is important to us. It may be in our work, our families, our communities, our nations. Leaders are ordinary men and women who dare to be related to a possibility bigger than themselves. They attract and enroll people to the world that’s opened up by their vision and their commitment.
To assume that leaders just started out as extraordinary people is to overlook what it took along the way. The majority of the time, leaders face being thwarted or think they may be inadequate for the task. Taking a stand for a future when it’s only a possibility is a purely existential act and exists only in language, when we say it will be. If we say something is impossible then that is how we relate to it. If we say it is possible then your brain has to work out how to do it.
The reality, conditions, and circumstances of the future do not exist as “facts.” They exist only as a product of our conversations, making language and communication the most important and fundamental access to fulfilling what matters, what’s important, what’s possible.
To lead is to have a vision of how you want things to be. To create something new and not to settle for recreating what has already happened, especially if it isn’t working.