THE QUESTION EVERY WANNA BE LEADER MUST ASK
My 10 year-old son has decided to apply for the Head Boy role in school, and he is in the process of crafting a letter to showcase his talents and explain why he’d made the perfect candidate.
Knowing that I work with leaders worldwide, he asked me to help him with it. As flattered as I feel that he’d want my input in such a worthwhile activity, I am more interested not in helping him create the best pitch, but in understanding his intrinsic reasons for wanting to assume such a key leadership role.
Our conversations often help me deepen my understanding of leadership, so I can simiplify it and break it down into easy to digest bits of information that everyone can appreciate. So allow me to share a summary of the great conversation I had with my 10 year-old son.
To summarize it, it all comes down to this:
Small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, and even people who just want to climb the corporate ladder all seem to want to know how to do leadership better.
A question that I love asking those in the quest of leadership is: Why do you want to be a leader?
If you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, you’ll never inspire people the way you must to really achieve success.
Many would-be leaders are in it for the wrong reasons, be it money, power or prestige. Nothing wrong with that, no argument. But if all you’re after is a bigger paycheck, you’re on the wrong track. There are many other ways in which to get big money without having to assume a leadership role, having to be responsible for what everyone else does, making the difficult decisions, worrying about the results you’re trying to achieve.
As appealing as a leadership role may sound, it’s not as fun – or easy – as it looks. So what are the right reasons?
If you have a dream of your own that you can’t achieve without the help other people, you’ll need leadership skills to get them behind you. Having a mission for your team or organization is one of best reasons there is for wanting to be a leader.
The best leaders put most of their time and energy into helping other people be more successful, by making connections, giving feedback, and providing the resources they need. Love helping people grow? Leadership will definitely be a good fit for you.
If you’ve started a company or landed in a management position, then you’re already in a role where leadership skills are needed for you and your organization to succeed. You have the responsibility of being a leader. You know you want to do it better.
You are happy to lead a cause, be part of solving a problem that you are passionate about, and you want to act as a role model for others to follow suit.
To me, that’s the ideal place to start.
Like I say to many wanna-be leaders, it’s OK to not be the person creating and driving the vision, aligning people and resources to achieve it. it is just as fulfilling and meaningful to join someone else’s vision that you resonate with and feel passionate about.
Whatever path you choose, do it for the right reasons.
Isabel is an experienced Peak Performance Strategist with over 20 years of international work experience holding senior positions within the hospitality industry in countries around the world, as well as Executive and Leadership coaching, mentoring and training.
She specializes in high performance strategy, leadership development and building organizational culture to help leaders and their teams learn, grow and succeed.
Isabel is passionate about helping empower business leaders with the mindset, performance, skills and strategies that they need to get ahead.
More available on www.isabelvalle.com
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