For a few years now, I’ve been supporting people as leaders. Some of these people (quite a lot in fact) have come to my leadership programmes with doubts that they have the potential to be a leader. They all leave my programmes knowing that they are already a leader. So what changes? A lot of it is their mindset and a realisation about who they really are.
I firmly believe that we are all, every single one of us, a leader. Whether or not you agree with this may come down to what your definition of a leader is.
One person on a workshop I ran recently said that, in his opinion, there had only been one or two leaders so far in his lifetime. His definition of a leader was someone who made a huge difference to the world and was well respected by many people for this. His examples were people like Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama. Whilst I can respect this definition, mine is different.
I believe we are all leaders because we lead our lives and we influence those around us.
Sometimes however, we may feel like we’re not leading our lives and instead feel that they are leading us. Some of my coaching clients (and family, and friends) sometimes talk about how they feel like they’re not in control of their lives and are running on auto-pilot from one obligation to another. They don’t always feel like they are actively making choices in their lives. I’ve certainly had times where I’ve felt like this.
One of the people who attended one of my leadership residentials shared with me how they came to realise they were a leader and how it had impacted their life. They’d initially thought that to be a leader they needed to be doing things in their life differently, and to have achieved everything they ever wanted to achieve, and to be in a position to be showing others how to lead their lives. Thanks to some of the exercises in the course and feedback from the group, they came to realise that they already possessed a huge number of unique strengths that meant they didn’t need to do more to be a leader; they just needed to utilise them and be themselves (they needed to *be* more rather than *do* more). Once they started doing this, life became much more straight-forward, choices became simple, and they started to enjoy life again. They were in flow and they started to shine. People around them at work and at home followed their lead and took inspiration from them. By being themselves they had become a natural role model and a true leader. Simply by focusing more on being than doing.
Part of what I help people realise is that they don’t need to do more to be their best self. They are amazing and they are enough.
You are amazing. You are enough.
When we strip back all the negative energy which tells us we should be doing something different, or being someone different, we can see that we all have an inner leader.
Our inner leader is wise, and it guides us. Life is a joy and becomes so straight-forward when we are in tune with our inner leader. It helps us not only in our own lives but also how we support others (and through our behaviour they will see us as a leader too).
You are amazing. You are enough. You are a leader.
How can you tune in to your inner leader to let them guide you and let the real you shine?
Subscribe to my newsletter
Enter your details below to get regular self-coaching tips, advice and a summary of my latest blog posts sent straight to your inbox.