WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A RESPONSIBLE LEADER?
By Sandra Lope Bello, Venezuela.
Leadership. It’s the art of influencing other people and showing them the way.
It’s a glue that puts all the knowledge, skills and passion into one. It keeps obstacles from setting us back to pushing us forward and closer to our goals. Being a leader means knowing when to take risks to move forward, when to pass opportunities and wait for better ones, how to fail and not give up, and how to strive for greatness.
A leader is a person that everyone relies on, trusts and believes in. He represents a person strong enough to guide the whole company, city, country or nation. A person who is strong and confident enough to stand and represent the ones that can’t.
A true leader has a vision, a vision where he sees himself and others at the apex of his expectations. To lead means to be able to seise that vision, share it with others and inspire and support them while they build their own.
A leader must have many qualifications to truly lead and inspire others to follow.
Firstly, he must be prepared to fail. Many times. Repeatedly. The success is built only after many ups and downs. A leader must be ready to face everything that is thrown at him, and he must have the necessary skills to react in the right way. Being a leader means accepting failure and letting go, to not let the bad influence the possible good that might come along. The gift of leaders is not only to survive, but to survive and strive, go forward, learn, to use the obstacles and turn them into experience.
Second, failure requires responsibility, responsibility to lead and protect others. A leader must be ready to act but also accept the consequences that come along and to be responsible. He must know when to take the blame for the bad, and when to reward others for the good. Along with responsibility comes trust. Trust is not a skill, it’s a privilege. In order to lead, there must be somebody to belead, somebody who accepts what is needed from him and is willing to engage fully to overcome obstacles and seise opportunities. A worthy enough leader will gain trust from his followers and only then can he truly lead.
Third, in order to be a true leader, one must know to listen. Simply put, a leader must know when his way is not necessary the right way. Even though leaders have a lot of responsibility it doesn’t mean they are always right. A leader must know when to listen to his followers and when to act differently from what he thought was the right way at first. Leadership gives you power, so lets keep in mind what Seneca once said: “He who has great power, should use it lightly”.
Also, in order to grow, a leader must know how to pass the knowledge and skills on his followers. The best leadership drives both change and long-lasting motivation. To lead means to push others out of their comfort zone and broaden their limits. To let them stand out and act as individuals who are trying to survive and surpass all the challenges that are put on their way. A leader needs to have the necessary skills to lead and to teach at the same time, because without being able to forward his knowledge and experiences, his leadership may triumph, but it will also fade along with him. Being able to teach, a leader can pass his visions and ways of accomplishing them to his followers that will activate a cycle and bring long-lasting growth and success.
To sum up, there is a famous quote that wraps up everything previously mentioned by Theodore Roosevelt, and it goes like this: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
#Leadership #Leader
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