Building Community: Are you Really a Leader?
By Angel Santiago
According to Forbes, leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal. It is not about being a senior executive, having a title, or having personal attributes. Leadership is about being able to lead people and create positive change.
How we do things is as essential, and sometimes more important, than what we do. So, it is vital to notice how you, as a leader, are showing up for yourself and, more importantly, how you’re showing up for others and your community. Elysia Petru Hulings, Executive Director of The Ballet Conservatory of South Texas, understands that a leader achieves goals by working with others harmoniously; therefore, being a great leader is largely dependent on how well you work with others. “An exceptional leader holds themselves accountable as much as they hold their team accountable, someone who invests in their team as much as they invest in themselves,” said Hulings.
Leadership is about social influence; this means it requires building and nurturing relationships with people, not only in your businesses but also in your local community. A community is a fundamental building block of society. Business owners are the leaders in their communities and must make an effort to get involved and interact with their customers and prospects outside the walls of their establishment. Your involvement makes a difference.
As a leader, how well are you leading yourself? According to leadership expert Craig Groeschel, self-leadership is the most essential quality that a leader can develop, and it takes practice. Issues within teams will surface when there is poor self-leadership, and how you show up in your community will also suffer. It all starts with you. You must step into responsibility, be accountable for your behavior, and realize that it will be challenging for you to lead others unless you are succeeding at leading yourself.
Being a leader means that you have committed to leading your own life, a life of meaning and purpose, and are contributing to others and positively impacting their lives. It all starts by choosing that you will reach your full potential, then you can lead others to do the same.
Dave Ramsey says, “Organizations are not limited by their opportunities; they are limited by their leader.” So, any limitations, conflicts, or challenges within you as an individual will surface in how you lead. Your success as a leader depends entirely on how successful you are at being your best and most authentic self, bringing all your gifts, skills, and talents to the table. Being a leader is realizing and becoming the person you were meant to be.
Leading yourself requires that you invest in your development and make self-leadership a practice. When you fail at leading yourself, you fail at leading. If you don’t, you will struggle to become great.
My name is Angel Santiago, and I’m a teacher of transformation, a mindset coach, and a leadership facilitator. Feel free to connect with me via social media under the hashtag #LIfeCoachAngel, or you can email me at angsanti@icloud.com.
Blessings,
LifeCoachAngel
