Your rights to anything are always conditional. Every “right” you have or believe you should have, comes with a corresponding responsibility attached to it. Rights do not exist without owning and exercising those responsibilities. When you forget or choose to overlook this relationship, you find that your rights become fragile and can evaporate right before your eyes. Even so-called inalienable rights can be lost or taken away. Your responsibilities as a leader are what define your right to be a leader.
Being a leader doesn’t require that you even have the slightest idea about leadership.
For many people, it is a title for an attained or even self-appointed position. Some leaders exhibit the kind of rare qualities necessary for taking on the responsibilities of leadership. They are more the exception than the rule. Beyond the required competencies, leadership is a mindset. Leadership is defined by who you are, not what you do.
Most people who are successful business leaders are just good managers. They excel at managing things but struggle to lead people. You can manage the things that help people perform well, but how they ultimately perform is a function of how they choose to apply themselves. No amount of incentive or coercion will get someone to apply themselves to their full potential. People only do things that they can and want to do.
The responsibility of leadership is to spark the inspiration that drives people to willingly engage at a high level. Or at the very least the level required to achieve your aims. Exceptional leaders show others what is necessary and possible. It is how well-led organizations accomplish the things that matter most. Leadership is what guides people to identify and align with a cause and commit together to its success.
To lead a cause, you must know and also be guided by an indelible sense of purpose.
Your purpose is driven by the beliefs at your core that shape your values. Your values are what point you clearly to what is necessary. From purpose comes vision.
You must have an unshakeable commitment to something that matters deeply to you. If do you don’t, that weakness will be easily exploited by those with some other purpose in mind who will usurp your ability to lead.
Charisma might help get people’s attention, but to gain their trust, elicit their loyalty and win their advocacy, people must feel that they believe what you believe and that you serve their interests through the cause you lead. People don’t follow leaders into battle because they like them. They follow leaders who they trust because they believe you will accomplish what matters most to them. People are loyal because they believe you care about the things they care about, and they advocate for your cause because they know it is their cause too.
Leadership isn’t something others can teach you. You learn leadership by taking responsibility for leading a cause and leading others.
Leadership is not what you do; it is about who you are. How you feel and think about things shape you as a person, but they do not define you; what you accomplish does. While what you do may undoubtedly matter more than what you think or say, it is what you accomplish through the actions you take that will define you as a leader or not.
No-one has a “right” to be a leader. You may find that you have the privilege to assume the role and take on the responsibilities. The test of your leadership will come down to what you prepare yourself to accomplish. It’s not about balancing your rights with your responsibilities; it is a matter of understanding that you only earn your right to lead by serving your duty to your cause.
If what you care about is how your success or failure will reflect on your leadership, you have already failed. But if your sense of duty is to something greater than your own needs or interests, and your commitment to this cause is unshakable, as if it has its claws deep in your flesh —you might have what it takes to be considered a worthy leader. Whether you are or not will ultimately be decided by how you are looked upon by those you serve.
