Are YOU a Leader?
The old fable talked about turning a frog into a prince, but the point here is that you don't need to become a king to show leadership. No position is necessary, so even a lowly frog can show leadership. It helps to distinguish between BEING a leader and SHOWING leadership. The latter is much easier to do on an occasional basis. You just need a good idea that you can use to convince your colleagues or boss of a better way.
Looking up to people as role models is fine as long as it doesn't create an unhealthy degree of dependency thus being disempowering and disengaging.
Because we look up to people to an unhealthy extent, we disempower ourselves, thinking that they are so far above us why bother even aspiring to reach anywhere near their level. This is self-defeating before you even try.
When you think of leadership do you have a particular ideal in mind? What is your image of the ideal leader?
Do you think its possible for management to shed its negative image and be reinvented for the 21st century and, even better, finally differentiated from leadership? See article that tries to show how this is possible: Leadership and Management Reinvented. How can you show leadership now?
