Leadership

You Possess the Ability to Lead
Leaders: Born or Made?
Think of someone you hold in high regard as a leader, and as you picture this person in your mind, answer these questions:
What specific personality traits or characteristics does this person possess?
How does this person relate to others, professionally and socially?
After you’ve thoroughly examined the traits and characteristics that you think make this person an effective leader, ask yourself one more question:
Was this person you hold in high regard born with such well-developed leadership traits?
The answer to that question is emphatically no! Leaders are not born, they’re made. The qualities that define a good leader such as vision, focus, motivation, curiosity, discipline, positive attitude, perseverance, analytical thinking, excellent communication skills, and so forth are most definitely developed and not inherited. These skills can be developed by a leader to a high level of effectiveness or left to wilt, unrecognized as well untapped. How you develop these skills and channel them into a specific direction will determine your future. With this in mind, realize that the degree to which you succeed and achieve lies in your hands. There are three ingredients for success: goals, attitude and skills. As you begin your journey through this leadership development process, be encouraged by the exciting fact that you were born with all of the potential you need, wrapped up in your purpose to lead, achieve, and succeed. You already possess it; you simply need to cultivate and nurture it, so it will grow.
You also possess something of equal importance. You possess the responsibility to develop your potential, and it’s up to you to realize your full potential. You can’t ask anyone else to do it for you, and you can’t blame anyone else for holding you back. Of course, you already know that. In fact, that’s the very reason you are participating in this leadership development process. You are committed to developing your innate leadership qualities so that you can articulate, strengthen, and utilize them to the fullest extent. The quality of your leadership not only determines your future of your family, your organization, your community, and potentially the world.
This development process provides you with proven methodology to identify your purpose in life and to pursue it. You will learn how to develop the attitudes and skills you need to succeed. The Action Plan contained with this process will enable you to map out your goals within your purpose, create a plan to accomplish them, and help follow that plan to completion. When you create an Action Plan uniting your purpose with a personal goals program, you launch the rocket of self- motivation that can propel you to a richer, fuller life.
Remember, the three ingredients for success as a leader include well-defined goals, the necessary skills, and an appropriate attitude. But realize these attributes must be enfolded into a fourth ingredient which is purpose. In order for you to be productive, your goals, skills, and attitudes must align with your life’s purpose. You will enjoy unlimited success and fulfillment when you live a purposeful life- a life that is on purpose. The quality of your personal and professional leadership will determine the quality of your life. With a well-defined purpose, you will increase your ability to make positive contributions.
Finally, remember, everyone has leadership potential. Leaders are not born, but made. It is up to you to develop the leadership quality and thus have the potential of success. To become a more effective leader, you must understand what is required of a successful leader, but more importantly, you must understand and practice your leadership skills and qualities such as having a vision, being focused, being a motivator, displaying curiosity, discipline, having a positive attitude, perseverance, analytical thinking, being excellent in communication skills. Having these attributes lead you to the path of potentially being a great leader and displaying great leadership.