How to Become the Leader Who Inspires Others

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams

Many people aspire to become leaders in their various companies and organizations. Various factors drive people to want to become leaders. The common drivers are power and money, as well as being able to tell other people what to do and not having to take direction from others.

Not everyone wants to be a leader and that’s okay. If everyone on the team is the leader, then no one is the leader and true chaos ensues. In every team sport there are positions that require leadership, such as a quarterback calling plays and making split second decisions on behalf of the team.

Some people feel that as a leader, they have to be the smartest person in the room. No one can know more than they do and the only people they want on their team are people who will agree to everything they say or do, without challenging them. This is very common in organizations and it’s guaranteed to be a recipe for failure. The leader can’t know everything and needs to rely on a network of experts. This is particularly true for those who are on the front lines interacting with customers. True leaders should want to surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are in certain aspects so that an array of the best ideas are presented and debated until the leader can weigh the pros and cons of each alternative strategy before settling on one to take.

The leader who chooses the right path should be grateful to the support team who presented various scenario options. However, sometimes the leader will choose the wrong path and the outcome might be a failure. The leader should still thank their team for presenting various options and then own the failure, just as they would own the success. Great leaders own their decisions and don’t blame others for faulty ones.

In my blog on How to Maintain Overall Happiness in 2021, I talked about the importance of saying two very important words — “thank you.” The power of those words, especially used together carries significant weight for employees, especially coming from their superior. The bosses that I worked the hardest for were the ones who showed appreciation for my work and thanked me for my efforts.