Identifying Leaders:

Who are the Leaders?

So much has been written about who are the leaders. People have been led to believe that leaders are great people occupying the most senior positions in an organization. In some cases the descriptions of these leaders have been so exalted that each is portrayed as having perfect knowledge inspired by a vision routed at some level in transcendental knowledge gleaned from a trip to nirvana. In that regard, we have spent an inordinate amount of time and money working to make people perfect and fully ready to be a leader, when in fact the cost of being a perfect person or leader is simply too high. Moreover, the complex challenges our society faces each day requires action today, we simply can’t wait for people to be perfect.

The fact is you are ready now, ready to be a leader! A leader is most often an ordinary person, who makes the decision leaders must make. Simply put, a leader chooses to make a difference, to get involved. With choosing to make a difference, a leader understands that as an agent for change the job will not be easy, involves risk, and oftentimes met with substantial resistance. Of course, this is why the term leader and leadership have become a most ennobling term in our language. It is the difficulty of doing leadership that makes leadership great.