The best leaders don’t depend on a position of authority to lead—they understand their power to affect the people on their teams and motivate them to achieve their potential, and they have a vision for unifying their teams around a common goal.
Think about the most successful leaders you’ve encountered throughout your career—the ones you respect the most. What enabled them to build a strong, cohesive team?
What Leadership Is Not
The best leaders don’t depend on a position of authority to lead—they understand their power to affect the people on their teams and motivate them to achieve their potential, and they have a vision for unifying their teams around a common goal.
If we want to understand what defines true leadership, we have to acknowledge what it is not.
It’s not a reliance simply on the years spent in an industry.
While experience is clearly a valuable aspect of your background, years in a position or within an organization does not equate an ability to lead. Knowledge does not signify leadership. In fact, understanding a specific job or industry is not really related to a person’s capability of directing a team or department.
It’s not a reliance on an ability to control the actions of the people who work under you.
Authority can be a helpful tool, but it’s not the key to inspiring people to exceed expectations. If you rely on power to require action from those around you, your aptitude for creating impact will be severely limited.
Don’t Wait to Lead
Preparation for the roles you ultimately want begins before you’re given a position that enables you to guide a team, because it’s not contingent on the control you’ve been given. Whether or not you think of yourself as a natural leader, recognizing the ways that you inspire those around you to achieve allows you to cultivate those skills and position yourself for future opportunities.
The mistake that many people make is in believing that they have to wait to receive a certain position or title before they can truly lead. Here’s the problem with that type of thinking—it stunts your growth, and it prevents you from actually learning to lead from a place of influence.
Whether or not you think of yourself as a natural leader, recognizing the ways that you inspire those around you to achieve allows you to cultivate those skills and position yourself for future opportunities.
In fact, having a position of authority is not the determining factor in whether you’ll succeed as a leader. Not even close. True leadership does not depend on a role that you’ve been given. If you want to develop an outstanding management style that reflects your capacity to deliver results, strive to grow your competence to influence and inspire in your current role.
Influence and Inspiration Are the Foundation of True Leadership
True leadership does not depend on a role that you’ve been given.
The most successful leaders are those who have learned the art of influencing those around them, without relying on mechanisms of control. They inspire their teams to exceed expectations, rather than pushing employees to reach a goal.
Earning respect, loyalty and buy-in is far more beneficial than pressuring team members to adopt a process or driving them to produce. When people understand the purpose of their work and the impact it can achieve, they tend to produce better work in a shorter timeline. It’s a natural effect of having team members who are clear on the desired outcome and committed to a project’s success.
Now Is the Time
When you begin to understand your ability to empower the people around you, you start to flex your leadership muscle. Your insight into motivating your team, along with your ability to put systems and processes in place, will prepare you to transition into a leadership role. Your influence and guidance can begin now, before you get a position of authority.
Now is the time to develop your capacity to lead, regardless of your current role.
Your insight into motivating your team, along with your ability to put systems and processes in place, will prepare you to transition into a leadership role.
Focus on increasing your capability to inspire action.
Seek to expand the competence and opportunities of those on your team.
Create cohesion and unity among your colleagues.
Highlight the ways you lead—on your LinkedIn profile, on your resume, and in your conversations.
As you exercise your capability to lead, you will position yourself for future success. Don’t wait to be recognized as an authority; use where you are today to increase your leadership impact.