Leading Without Titles: The Power of Community Influence
How do you become leader? You hear about it all the time in a political, business or public sector context, but what about in a voluntary / community context? Indeed, some of the best leaders (if not THE best leaders), I have had the privilege of working alongside have been within a community setting; they’ve changed their communities for the better, they’ve inspired positive action, and all for zero reward… and here’s the interesting part… many of them don’t even realise that they are leaders and would even push back at the suggestion! None of these have a fancy title (many don’t have a salary), they’ve never been taught how to be a leader (if such a thing exists), and they’ve never been assessed if they have ability to be a leader (why on earth would they!), but here they are with a tremendous amount of influence in their community. Ironically, I once had a job title that contained the word “Lead”, I’ve attended plenty of leadership training sessions, and I’ve conducted multiple psychometric tests over the years to determine my apparent “leadership style” …and yet I wouldn’t consider myself as a leader. So what makes a leader?
- Leaders have a vision and are in active in pursuit of a goal. Growth, survival, and financial gains are NOT goals, they are subsequent results.
- Leaders are trusted and have integrity. Both take time to build and a second to lose. These only come with experience and consistency. No-one becomes a leader overnight; it’s not in a title, it’s not in our DNA, and it’s not taught… it’s earned!
- Leaders inspire. Leaders have followers (real followers, not social media followers). Followers voluntarily act on what they hear and see from their leader, not because they are told, employed by, or paid to do so.
- Leaders have a growth mindset; communities are complex and are the subject of constant change. Therefore leaders need to be agile and constantly need to flex with the demands of their community/society.
- Leaders stand out. They do something different. Accepting the status quo is not acceptable. They need to see change.
We have an abundance of leaders within our communities on a mission for social change.
Given the opportunity of the recent political change, isn’t it time we identified our community leaders and actively involved them in the #cocreation of our services?
Until next time!
Paul
P.S. If you want to bring services and communities together to cocreate fresh ideas for social change, follow Start Something Good on LinkedIn.
