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I’m sure that most of us aspire to be a leader at something at some point in our lives. This is easier for the self-motivated, Type A personalities, but it’s possible for anyone to become a good leader. Being a leader is challenging, but with that challenge comes great reward. It’s so great to have lead a group of people in the right direction knowing that you had such an instrumental part in it. I consider myself a leader because I’ve done many things in my life that have that lead role. One of my goals is to become sort of a leader with this blog to lead my readers in the right direction to self-improvement because I believe that we are on a journey in this life. In order to complete this journey in good standing, we have to focus on improving ourselves and becoming better people. Why should we all strive to be leaders?

Every leader starts off as a follower

You have to start somewhere. Ever leader has followed somebody whether it was parents, siblings, close friends, teachers, mentors, or a little bit of everybody. We learn how be leaders by the way others lead. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. A very bad leader would be somebody like Hitler, or Saddam Hussein. But that’s an extreme example. If we want to be good leaders, we have to be good followers. I believe there are two types of followers;

1. The ‘regular’ follower, who is probably the majority of us. We simply follow along and listen to what the leaders have to say and maybe do what they say we should simply because we trust them. There’s nothing wrong with being a regular follower. I’m a regular follower at times. But to become a different kind of follower, one that will eventually turn into a leader is the
2. ‘Effective’ follower, who is the person that follows with the intention of becoming a good leader. I think a good and effective follower really pays attention to the traits and qualities of the people they are following with the intention of implementing those traits in their own ways and using them to become a leader. An effective follower basically uses the leader as a source of inspiration. I like to consider myself an effective follower because I want to be a leader and lead people in the right direction.

Why become a leader?

A leader is someone who is inspirational to others. Who wouldn’t want to be an inspiration to someone else? Becoming a leader is an excellent way to fast track your journey to improving yourself. Since a leader leads by example, you’re pretty much forced to improve yourself and overcome the obstacles that get in the way of your development.

The journey to becoming a leader gives you some great tools that come as ‘bonuses’. When you’re making your way to the top, you get to meet some awesome people along the way. I’ve always been involved in my church’s youth programs. I do this so that I can lead others in their spiritual journey, but I do it to build a great network of people who are like-minded. I eventually became a leader after a while, and so I’ve been giving talks and leading groups of people on their journey. The people that I help are a great group of people that are not only friends, but mentors and people that are there for you all the time. I’ve come to realize that even as a leader, the people you are leading teach you a lot about yourself, which is pretty humbling.

Leading is a constant learning process

Becoming a leader forces you to learn (in a good way, of course). But it also points out your weaknesses and abilities. This is good because you can pinpoint those weaknesses, learn about them, and convert them into strengths. This is why I think wanting to become a leader is a big step on your journey to improving yourself.

But even the greatest leaders in this world never stopped learning. In fact, the more you know, the less you know. In other words, the more you know, the more you realize that there is more and more to learn. This keeps things interesting and it keeps you motivated to stay a good leader. By becoming a leader, you start to learn things that you never even had the intention of learning.

The more you learn, the more you become a leader. I say this because when we learn things, we naturally want to spread it to others. By spreading knowledge around, you are already on your way to becoming a great leader because leaders teach others. They want to spread the wealth of knowledge to help others out as well. This helps in every aspect of your life, whether it would be spiritual (teaching others about your faith) or career related, where you have a greater chance of becoming one the company’s top employees and maybe a manager, owner, or even the CEO.

You’re held accountable for your actions while staying motivated

Motivation seems to be one of the most difficult things to come by these days. I know it is for me. I get motivated to start an exercise program, but it just doesn’t seem to stick. Or I’ll get motivated to start up a project that doesn’t even get started because the motivation fizzles out. I connect this post that I am writing to another post of mine about getting and staying motivated. Leadership connects to motivation in that when you are a leader, you’re leading by example. Like if you are leading people in an exercise program, this keeps you motivated to keep up with your own health and fitness as to not look bad to the people you are leading, or more importantly, to not let them down and make them lose confidence in you. So if you’re wanting to drop a few pounds and become healthier, start up an exercise program with a group of people in your city. Be the leader of that group so that you stay motivated for a very long time.

The big part of staying motivated is that you’re held accountable for the things you do. Some people see this as one of the biggest challenges of being a leader. I certainly see it as a big challenge, but at the same time it’s a great way to stick with what you say. If you tell a group of people that you’re going to start a business and maybe even lead a group of people who want to do the same, you’re held accountable for that and people are going to expect you to do it. I told people that I wanted to start a blog when I had the initial idea. People kept asking me how it was going and that kept me wanting to go through with it so I could show them that I put action to my words.

Steps to becoming a leader

If you want to become a leader so that you can either jump start or take a giant step in your journey, then here are a few ways you can start to become a leader.

• Get involved

Get involved in your community. Get involved in groups, activities at school (if you’re in school), employee functions at work, and groups that do things that you are passionate about. I wouldn’t have become a leader for my church youth group had I not joined. So join as soon as you can. It will get things started very quickly.

• Keep your mind open to new inspiration

Good leaders have open minds are willing to do unconventional and creative things. Having an open mind means that you are creative and want to take the initiative to do things. Be open to what others say. A leader listens to his or her followers and his open to their needs. Made any adjustments necessary as you get feedback from others around you.

• Surround yourself with mentors

Meet people and make them your mentors. Even if they’re younger than you or less knowledgeable about the subject you’re leading. Even younger people have great things to say and can serve as a source of inspiration. This also keeps you humble. Instead of thinking that you are the wiser, more knowledgeable person, being open to what others say makes you more approachable and shows others that you care about their thoughts, opinions, and feelings.

Even be open to your opponents and your enemies. As a leader, you’re probably going to make a couple of enemies. This may be because people just don’t like what you have to say, or people just like to hate other people. But be open even to them. They might have a thing or two to say that you can learn from.

• Don’t hesitate to offer help

Helping others means caring for others. Being a giver is one of the greatest qualities of a leader because giving shows that a leader is also a helper and not just someone that sits on a throne and rules over people. The more you care about others, the more you can help them to become leaders as well because the world could use more great leaders.

What do you think?

Why do you think it’s important to be a leader?