What is leadership?
A common leadership definition is the process of social influence or the ability to organize a group of people to take actions together. Many people perceive a leader as an authoritative figure, who stands in the spotlight and makes decisions on our behalf.
This perspective on leadership is both limiting and misleading. It fosters a divide between leaders and the rest of us, suggesting that leadership is an exclusive privilege or a special skill reserved for a select few. In reality, everyone is a leader every single day. A leader acts as a journey guide, steering individuals, projects, or situations from point A to point B.
Then, what constitutes a journey?
Life itself is a journey. Nearly every experience that shapes our existence can be seen as a journey. Attending school to earn a degree is a journey. Launching a business and taking it from concept to profit is a journey. Entering into marriage and building a life together is a journey. Bringing a child into the world is a journey. Participating in a project is a journey. Commuting to work each day is a journey.
Leadership is the ability of creating a vision and transforming that vision into a reality. That vision can range from ambitious goals like eradicating poverty, providing job opportunities or stopping drug trafficking, to smaller objectives such as organizing a community cleanup or committing to read ten books a year. At the core, leadership is about making intentional choices and following through with consistent actions. The result of effective leadership is always change, whether it is lifting millions of people out of poverty or inspiring a single person for a moment.
Leadership can drive positive transformations or lead to destruction. Here, we focus exclusively on the concepts of positive and conscious leadership. The journey toward developing conscious leadership begins with self-leadership, with “self” as both the leader and the follower. Only if we can lead ourselves, we are qualified to lead others. Only if we can change ourselves, we can grasp the intricacies involved in facilitating change in others. The irony is those of us with most struggle changing ourselves are most eager to change others.
Take parenting, for example, it serves as a form of leadership and a pathway for personal growth. Our effectiveness as parents mirrors our skills in self-leadership. The deeper our understanding of how to love, accept, and respect ourselves, the better we can offer them to our children. Leadership is fundamentally an inside-out journey. Its capability increases as a result of personal growth. Starting from self-leadership, to co-leadership in a marriage, to parenting, to leading a team, an organization or a nation, the responsibility, complexity, scope and impact keep increasing.
When the stake is high and the crowd is big, more experience, competence, empathy and communication skills are required from the leader. Every effective leader is both a visionary and an influencer. To lead others means to offer a vision that aligns with the collective interests of the group, inspire followers toward a common goal, provide necessary guidance and support along the way, ultimately transform the vision into reality. Authority is not a necessary condition for leadership but an amplifier of leadership impact. Relying solely on formal authority to drive action often indicates a deficiency in true leadership ability.
The ability to lead others is rooted in the ability of self-leadership. Self-leadership involves making intentional choices, motivating ourselves to take actions and being responsible for the outcome. Transitioning from a life dictated by societal expectations to one grounded in self-leadership is akin to upgrading from public transport to owning a private vehicle. It brings responsibilities and challenges, as well as freedom and opportunities for personal growth.
Successful self-leadership hinges on three key elements: self-awareness, vision, and self-mastery (or self-management). Among these, self-awareness is often the most neglected part of our life’s journey. Just as we need to know our starting point (point A) to reach our destination (point B), understanding where we stand in life is crucial. Unfortunately, many people lack this self-awareness, leading us to underestimate our own potential, overlook our unique strengths and deny our weaknesses. Without this insight, even the most ambitious vision remains nothing more than a fleeting dream.
Many people drift through life feeling powerless due to a lack of a clear vision. This often manifests in two ways. First, we may spend valuable time on trivial pursuits or become engrossed in the lives of others, such as following celebrity stories or engaging with random news, simply to avoid confronting our own lack of focus. Second, we allow external influences—like social media, societal norms, or chance occurrences—to dictate our choices. Unless we are surrounded by fellow self-leaders, we may find ourselves on a conventional path: going to school, securing a job, starting a family, and eventually retiring, all while waiting for life to pass us by. This is the reality for many, but even this option will no longer be available as society evolves.
However, self-awareness and vision alone are not sufficient. To transform that vision into reality, we must cultivate self-mastery. Many of us struggle with it. For example, while the leader within us may commit to exercising for 30 minutes daily, the follower may prefer to scroll through social media instead. Even if we start for two weeks, as soon as there is difficulty, we look for excuses to stop. Time and again, we allow old, self-sabotaging habits to take control in life and in business. Whether it’s a lack of self-awareness, vision, or self-mastery, all these factors contribute to a deficiency in self-leadership.
If self-leadership is so vital, why do so few people adopt it? The answer lies in our resistance to change.
In the upcoming article, Everyday Leadership (2/2), we will explore the reasons behind this resistance and how to address it.