Leaders at all levels

Quick review: the only essential trait of a leader is that a leader has followers. Everything else is commentary.

I’m certainly not the first to say this sort of thing, and on the surface it looks like a simple statement. It is simple to say, but the ideas behind it are profound.

It means, first, that no one can give leadership to any other person; you cannot be made into a leader by taking a new assignment or moving to a new position. You can be promoted into being a manager, a vice president, a president, or a dean. You can be elected to Congress, or to the governor’s mansion. You can start your own company, and make yourself chairman of the board. But you cannot make yourself a leader by giving or getting a title.

But you can develop your leadership skills, and that’s what this project is about.

Leadership is not about titles, fame, money, power, or position. It’s about followers. A person is a leader because other people follow the example he or she sets. It really is that simple.

The most important implication of this idea is that it means there are leaders everywhere. They are all around you, at all levels of any organization, club, company, class, university, school, gang, or collection of individuals. You are probably a leader in at least one sphere of your life. In your personal, professional, or academic, most likely others are watching what you do and say and following your example. Whether you are in school, at work, in church or synagogue or mosque, temple, or shrine, headed to happy hour, heading up a charity fundraiser, or just organizing a group of your friends to go to the soccer game, odds are you are leading—influencing the actions and attitudes of those around you—and you don’t even know it.

You can start to become a more effective leader right now by simply taking responsibility for the leader you already are.