What Does It Mean To Lead Others?
As a leader, to be asked the question what does it mean to lead others can be very tricky to answer. This is due to the fact that people these days are more concerned with the accolades being showered on them so much so that they totally forget what it even means to lead others. Asking most leaders this particular question can lead to them providing a lot of options which are nowhere near what it really means to be a leader. This is mostly associated with those who have lost their focus as leaders and are drawn into the circle of deceit associated with power and authority.
This article is therefore aimed at helping you to come to terms with what it means to lead others. Read on and find out what is expected of you that you might have forgotten along the way.
To lead others means to serve: There are various instances where leaders within certain organisations are almost worshipped by their followers. These leaders do not do anything with regards to ordering the followers about as to what is required of them in order to achieve the targets set by the organisation. This is however something that should never be allowed to happen and the evidence to buttress this assertion can be found in the lives of leaders like Buddha and Jesus Christ. These people were leaders over a large number of people during their time but each of these people made it a point to ensure that they rather rendered their services to the people rather than expecting the people to serve them. Leadership, according to some books, is a service and as such whoever gets the call to be a leader should bear in mind that he or she is expected to serve the followers and not the other way.
To lead others means to guide: To be given the chance to lead a group of people is also seen as a way of providing guidance to those people. As a leader, you are expected to show those who follow you the ways through which things need to be done. It is your duty to make sure that you guide the people to make use of the best and most efficient ways to achieving the goals of the organisation. Being a guide does not however, warrant you to control the actions of those who are following you. It rather gives you the platform to make use of your interpersonal skills in guiding the people towards the desired goals.
To lead means to take the initiative: That is the first thing that should come to mind when asked of what it means to lead others. This is mainly because as a leader you are expected to be the one who takes the initiative for the other members within the organisation to also replicate. This goes to show that to be regarded as a leader over some people means that you should be the first person who undertakes an engaging activity, shows a lot of commitment to the task at hand and through that inspire the other members of the organisation to also emulate what you are doing. It is therefore rather unfortunate to most
at times come across leaders who sit somewhere comfortably and order their members to see to the performance of tasks which they themselves should have taken the lead in doing. This disqualifies such people who do that from being regarded as leaders at all. An example of a leader taking the initiative is shown by Jesus Christ when he chose to drive away all those who were buying and selling within the church premises.
To lead means to integrate a variety of ideas and concepts: This is something that is very
basic and as such should not even have been mentioned here. However, this is also one thing that most leaders do not make use of throughout the entire leadership career. A leader is the person who has the ability to look at different ideas from different places, put them together and create a very big picture that has all the ideas integrated within. This means that as a leader, you should be ready to integrate a variety of ideas, opinions and views about the targets that have been formulated in order to see to it that a unified picture
or motive is created.
Now you do know of what it really means to lead others.
About the Author
Dr. Jeff Evans
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