So what does it take to be a leader. Maybe you don’t even think of yourself as a leader. The truth is that if you influence anyone you are a leader. If your a parent, you are a leader. If you are married you are a leader. If you are in a serious relationship you are a leader. If you have a job you are a leader. If you have friends you are a leader. If you have brothers or sisters you are a leader. If you are dating someone you are a leader.
Basically we are all leader’s, because we all have influence with someone. The question is what kind of influence do you have. Are you a positive leader or a negative leader? Do the people around you benefit from being around you or suffer from being around you? Whether it is at work or at home, you are influencing people.
You can influence people just by the way you go about your daily activities. The people you have influence with are watching you. It could be your children, your spouse, your co-workers, your neighbors or your friends. How you handle conflict, how you talk to people, how well you listen and where you spend your time all have an affect on the people around you.
To be a positive leader, you have to believe the best about the people in your life. The words you use determine a lot about your leadership. If your words tend to encourage and lift up the people around you, people will benefit from your influence. No one likes to be around a negative person, or a person that is always thinking the worst about you.
Since all of us are leader’s to some degree, it helps to be aware of the way you are influencing people. Do your actions, words, habits and priorities help or hinder the people in your life?
Choose today to be a positive leader. To influence the people in your life in a positive way. Choose to believe the best, and watch your influence go up.
We are ALL leaders. Some lead from the front, some lead from the middle and some push from the rear. A good link referencing this topic is http://www.mncn.org/EventMaterial/LeadingMiddle.pdf by Alan Cohen. It is well worth the read! His point is that leadership occurs at all levels and also that in order to lead, you must follow. While these may initially seem to be contradictions, Alan makes a single point that greatly clarifies this…"Everyone's actions either help or hinder a change process. You don't need to be in a formal postion to influence others." Further reading on this can be found in Maxwell's book "The 360 degree leader" – a great book and a good read – http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2008/ca20080610_214857.htm