What Makes a Leader a Leader?

Why are some people considered leaders and others not?  I can tell you in two words. 


Leaders initiate!

There have been volumes written about qualities of great leaders, one of the best in my opinion being The Five Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell, but ultimately you can't lead if you don't initiate!  When a leader sees something that needs to be done, they don't wait for someone to tell them it needs to be done.  They don't sit around complaining saying someone should fix this.  Leaders step up and say this needs to be done, let's figure out how to do it, and then they do it.  They take the lead!

This reminds me of a great story called That's Not My Job.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.  There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.  It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

A leader steps up and initiates the process to make sure the job gets done when it is important and somebody needs to do it.  Let's rewrite that story using I/me/myself in place of somebody, because if you want to be a leader, that means you are somebody!

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Me, Anybody and Nobody.  There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that I would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  I got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.  It ended up that Everybody blamed Me when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

If you want to be a leader, realize YOU ARE SOMEBODY and Step Up!