
Would you dare call yourself a leader?
How many of you would dare to call yourself a leader?
I asked this question to some of my colleagues and friends. Not many are willing to call themselves a leader. How unfortunate!
We all have come to believe that leadership is something huge, bigger than life and definitely not suitable for lesser mortals who wait for their monthly paychecks.
Some of us have even come to believe Leadership to mean arrogance, egoistic, dominant and so on.
The truth is, we are all leaders. We do something small and so insignificant everyday for someone that it turns out to make their day beautiful or better than it already was.
Everyday, knowingly or unknowingly we help people. Tiny acts of kindness and compassion that changes their lives for good. That is leadership in action in our everyday activities.
But, we have to come to devalue them, because we have habituated ourselves to celebrate only certain things that are considered leadership.
What is leadership?
It is not a title. (You know what I mean if you have read Robin Sharma’s The Leader Who Had No Title)
It is not a position.
It is not a corner office.
It not a fancy degree.
IT IS AN ATTITUDE.
It is an attitude to help someone with whatever little we have so that person is made happier, transformed or made to feel better.
But, we don’t see it anymore because nobody hands out a trophy for it on a pedestal. Hell, it doesn’t even count for appraisal!
Still, you have been the catalyst to someone’s happiness, at least once everyday, some how in some way, even if it is not part of your job description.
Be a leader. Do those little things for others to make them happy. Complement a co-worker who aced in a recent task. Complement your loved one. Smile at a stranger. If you have already done this, keep doing more of it.
They say leadership is about leading an organization or changing the world or managing a team and many other definitions by obscure personalities.
Hell no! I believe leadership to be something that changes the world of one person. When you do that on a daily basis, you contribute to the bigger purpose of changing the world. Like tiny droplets that make up the mighty ocean.
We need to get over our misconception of leadership being something gigantic. We need to stop thinking of leadership as something that is beyond ourselves.
Each one of us have within us the power to be an everyday leader. You can be a green warrior. A smile supplier. A complement warehouse.
