Arun Kumar R

Can anybody become a Great Leader?

This world has always witnessed great leaders and personalities who never ceased to inspire us. These are the people who dared to be different, people who pushed their limits, who are brave enough to create their own path and leave a legacy. The best part is they leave us with a bewildering thought “One day can I become someone like Steve Jobs? Martin Luther King? Elon Musk? “ But that spark never incarnated into a fire! That rush fades away once the article or video ends. But little we know that we’re already a Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Martin Luther King. And little we notice what they have in common. This article pivots on Why leaders are Leaders, What is common and How we’re already equipped and performing as a Leader!

“Leaders become great not because of their power but because of their ability to empower others”- Glen Maxwell

Why leaders are Leaders?

As Glen Maxwell pointed out that perfectly, Leaders tend to inspire, motivate and most importantly they share what they believe rather stuffing what they do. Leaders empower people to become the next potential leader. They give authority to the team members/ followers. They efficaciously understand one important fact: “Leaders are ‘Leaders’ only when they have followers.” A TED talk by Derek Sivers explains this fact brilliantly.

This is the most irrevocable fact that no leader can revolt. If they do, they are failing miserably. It’s not the leaders who become a great leader, it’s the followers who empower them. And Great Leaders have great followers and they’re agnize of it! Completely!

What is common?

If you notice the people who have achieved greater heights, you can see they are great visionaries, ambitious, highly optimistic and they never give up! But these are the common traits that we know. If you dig deeply, if you observe, there is something else that makes them who they are!

They are expedite observers. They are cognizant of their niche. It is that special perspective that helps them to observe the richness that comes with struggle makes them proactive. They are always looking for a way to translate what they were seeing around them, in their own language but with eloquence. They do not care if they succeed or fail! All that matters is, when the people who trust them were able to feel what they feel about their dream.

How we’re already a leader?

Every human in this globe, be it a person with single digit IQ or Albert Einstein, at some point of time in their life, must have performed as a leader. Every single day you are left to decide on what happens to you in the next minute next second!

“ At some point of time in the day, when it’s their time, when their skills, when their opinions where their expertise actually is called on that they actually step up and take in-charge. And that’s what leadership is about.” – Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox

It’s about what you relive and how far you’re willing to travel for what you believe. The road is definitely trodden, has lot of wax and wave but it is totally up to oneself whether to cross the demarcation between success and failure. And being leader is not as complicated as you think, as CEO of Xerox mentioned everyone is a leader at some point of time, we’re just too busy to notice that.

“Be the change you want to see in this world”- Gandhi Ji

It’s very simple, all you have to do is choose your field, be primitive, observe and be the change you want to see. All successful leaders were once great followers and as Lao Tzu said, “A journey of thousand miles begin with a single step”. Go out and make your further steps, you already took your first.