Leadership has changed a great deal in more recent years. In the past leadership was viewed as you being the expert and everyone following you. Leaders of today not only build their business but create products and services that help improve people in all walks of life across countries and diverse societies.
A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
~ Nelson Mandela
Contents:
Leadership – Managing People
I find this quote from Nelson Mandela to be inspirational because it confirms that leadership in today’s world does not require you to be the expert at the front of the pack. In fact, you may find that in developing your leadership skills, you may actually lead better from being behind.
Leadership means different things to different people around the world, and different things in different situations. For example, it could relate to community leadership, religious leadership, political leadership, and the leadership of campaigning groups.
The focus of this series of blog posts is on developing your leadership skills in the realm of being an Entrepreneur or Small Business Owner.
As an Entrepreneur or Small Business owner, you must have a vision for your business. Whether you have employees or build a team of freelancers, or even have partners as you grow your business, you will need to be able to enroll others in your vision so as ensure that you arrive at the correct destination.
What it Takes
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
~ Ken Blanchard
To be a leader takes hard work, courage, and a willingness to take risks. You must be able to find solutions to problems and make things better while not falling apart yourself.
Being a leader means being a role model for people to follow and doing things that will help your community, your employees, or even extend to the larger worldwide community.
Examples of Influential Leaders
Examples of Leaders whose influence affect the larger worldwide community:
- Steve Jobs built the Apple empire where the products are used worldwide.
- Mark Zuckerberg and his social network, Facebook. He led the company to become the network that connects over 2.89 billion people worldwide.
- Elon Musk is a visionary and transformational leader who innovations in the motor vehicle industry and tech world.
- Oprah Winfrey is the ultimate self-made business leader. “Her basic leadership style is unparalleled and incredibly effective.” “She is uniquely able to inspire her team and execute her vision while maintaining mass appeal.”
The job of a good leader is to help others do their best by demonstrating specific attitudes, behaviors, and skills that inspire and guide others to follow you.
The 3 C’s of Leadership
We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face ... we must do that which we think we cannot.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Leadership requires the three “C’s”: courage, confidence, and communication. A good leader is passionate and committed, with a strong positive attitude.In addition, good leaders have success rituals that get them into an empowering state of mind so that they can focus on the work at hand and make wise decisions that will affect, not only their personal output, but all of the resources, including people, time, and money, that they’re responsible for and to.
After reading this information, do you see yourself as a leader? Are there skills you need to improve on? I believe there’s always room for improvement and we can choose to work on one area at a time or multiple areas. Getting constructive feedback from others can help as well.
Thank you for reading. In my next post, we will look at 5 skills that a Leader must embrace.
