Not by Accident: Leadership -Episode22

What is leadership and being a leader? While it involves many things -knowledge, judgement, persistence, discipline, motivating others, humiliy- it is fundamentally about serving those you lead and being willing to do the hard work alongside the lowliest follower. In fact, as a side note, one of the best ways to prepare to be a great leader is to be a great follower. In so many aspects of life, experiencing the opposite informs and qualfies us. Those who endure sadness and disappointment really comprehend joy and achievement. Those who are once lonely become the best and most loyal friends. The most successful usually expereicned great failure. The best bosses are those who were at one time a regular employee and worked their way to the top from position to position. So it is that great leaders spent much time perfecting themselves as a follower -learning the good and the bad from those who led them.

Leadership is not in a title like manager, captain, vice-president, boss, oldest child; leadership is in behavior. You don't need a title to lead, in fact you don't need your peer group or society to recognize you as a leader. You just need to get your hands dirty doing the hard work, mix that with active concern for others (meaning actually setting your wants and comforts second to the needs of others) and you are well on your way to being a leader. It may not happen right away and you may not have a title commonly associated with leaders, but true leaders don't need, in fact they don't care about a title. They care about others. This episode provides a couple examples of famous leaders and their behavior.