Thoughts 4 Friday – So You Think You Want To Lead?

Everybody wants to be a leader, or so they say. There is a misnomer when it comes to what leadership is that people think that being in a position of power makes you a leader. While position can give you power, it does not create real influence. Only you, through your words and much more importantly your actions, can you truly become a leader.
 
So you think you want to lead? First ask yourself these four questions.

1. As a leader, do my followers work for me, or do I work for them?

 

2. As a leader, do I seek to enrich the lives of others or myself first?

 

3. As a leader, do I aspire to be liked or respected?

 

4. As a leader, Am I willing to give credit to others for success, and accept the blame for when we fail?

What are your answers? Here are mine…

1. As a leader I work for my followers. To guide, to inspire, to motivate. It isn’t about me, it is about them. (Servant Leadership)

 

2. As a leader, I become enriched through enriching the lives of others. If my priorities are first then what I am doing is not leadership.

 

3. As a leader I know I cannot be liked by all. Seeking to be liked should not be the goal. It may happen from time to time, however I seek to be respected as an honest, fair, and empathetic leader that motivates and drives the highest level of performance from my team.

 

4. As a leader I am willing to fall on my sword. I am willing to defer credit, and take blame to yield greater outcomes.

Leadership is brilliant, but it is hard, and often misunderstood. It must be done for the right reasons, or it really isn’t leading at all…

So you think you want to lead? Why?

Author: Daniel Newman

Daniel Newman is the Principal Analyst of Futurum Research and the CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise. From Big Data to IoT to Cloud Computing, Newman makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology projects, which leads to his ideas regularly being cited in CIO.Com, CIO Review and hundreds of other sites across the world. A 5x Best Selling Author including his most recent “Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy,” Daniel is also a Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post Contributor. MBA and Graduate Adjunct Professor, Daniel Newman is a Chicago Native and his speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.