Leadership

What is the essence of Leadership?

Leadership is influence.At the end of the day, the significance of our life boils down to "how many people have better lives" because you lived? And i believe that's the question every aspiring leader should ask himself. Leadership is not about how many people serve you, its about how many people you have served despite all the circumstances that you came across. When you shine through these challenges of life and take people's excuses away and show them a better way to live their lives, you are a leader.One thing that a leader should always keep in mind is to give a hand down to somebody who's following him and have a hands up to whoever he/she is following. It should never be lonely at the top.

A leader sees people not as what they are but as what they can be? He gives them shoes that are way bigger than their size but also gives them the time and the environment to grow into those sizes. That's the essence of leadership. He pumps life into 'em, uplifts 'em, edifies 'em and shows them what's ahead of them when they themselves can't even see in their wildest imagination.

Moreover, i believe a leader dreams big. He has a vision, a goal in his mind and he is reminding his people of those vision and pumping belief into them. An average person's dream expands as far as his material possessions and well being whereas a leader's  dream covers hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. A leader is constantly thinking about how he can serve other people and help them achieve their goals and dreams, the bigger the dream you have, the more people you help. Zig Ziglar once said" You can have anything you want in life, if you help enough people what they want". That's what leadership is all about. Its about rising above your self centered deeds and inspiring people, sharing dreams and giving hope to people. Afterall, the greatest gift that one human can give another human is the "Gift of Hope".

Finally, a leader is not afraid to take risks. They say, everything that you want in life is just beyond your comfort zone". So, our goal is to strectch ourselves every single day and expand our comfort zone and the only way i know of if is by taking risks. In his book, "A Radical Edge" Steve Farber talks about Oh Snap Moments (OSMs) in the life of a leader. How many "Oh Snap Moments" did you have in your life last couple of weeks? If you had a comfortable, predictable week, it is very likely that you are not growing and you are not prepared for Leadership. There are countless minefield in the path to Leadership and that's what these moments prepare you for.

Another essential characteristic of a leader is have "Positive Mental Attitude". Your attitude determines your altitude. Your attitude towards a certain work determines your achievement in that specific field. Greatest author and philopsopher Normant Vincent Peale puts it this way, "If you think in positive terms, you'll get positive results, if you think in negative terms, you'll get negative results ". So, check regularly how your mindset is, read and listen everyday to keep your attitude positive. You will be on your way from survival to stability,from stability to success and finally to a life of significance.


-Manish Thapa

11/22/2010