On May 12, 2020, I conducted an introductory leadership training for the Women’s Enterprise Development Center in Westchester County, New York. The webinar (our adjustment due to the pandemic) was engaging and interesting.
What made it interesting is the sharing and receiving of the knowledge that we all have leadership responsibilities whether we want them or not. It is obvious for people, organization and process managers, but not so obvious for parents, business owners with no employees and progressive thinkers.
Leadership is INFLUENCE; and if there are others that depend on us for information, services and assistance, then we are lead to a leadership calling. Lead to and embrace is two different concepts, but it is important to embrace, as it is agreed that everyone needs GOOD leadership.
The adjectives we used to define good leadership are vision and mission-driven, accountable and responsible, decisive, self-motivated, passionate, people-oriented, empathetic, step up, accessible, solution provider, transparent (there are many here more) and NOT always appointed! This is important as it means that we can be leaders without an official title. The good news is that although you don’t have to possess every trait; you can learn those that are missing but necessary. Also, what is not mentioned, but is just as important, is that you can be extroverted, introverted, soft-spoken, humble, gregarious, etc., and still be a good leader. Just be yourself – with the proper skills, and you can find, embrace and enhance the leader in YOU!