Demonstrating leadership

It is a highly debatable topic - leadership. Amazingly, the people who talk most about it are people with management backgrounds. But managing and leading are two different things. You can teach management in a classroom. Leadership you learn by experience.

In the business world, leaders are admired, the ones who lead the path to wealth-creation, are worshiped. Quite often, gaining public visibility as a leader comes at a price, one that most of us are unable to pay. The real question is if we can find ways to demonstrate leadership in our personal lives. Can we make choices that make us feel that we are forging a new way in this world, a way no one has chosen before because you are unique, gifted with an original set of attributes that makes you think a particular way?

I regularly read a blog by Pamela Slim (www.escapefromcubiclenation.com)and find her writing to be incredibly inspiring. In a previous post she wrote about how we can each make a list that demonstrates how we show leadership in our lives. Her list included items like
- Only doing projects that energize me
- Only working with people who energize me and who share similar core values
- Not working more than my body can handle
- Leaning into my market and listening for what they want
- Actively looking for fun and joy in work

I thought it was time I make my own list. Here are some initial thoughts:
I demonstrate leadership of my own life by
1. Always enjoying the work I do
2. Building a niche brand and reputation in my business
3. Ensuring I have time to appreciate life while I make a living
4. Passing on words of encouragement or wisdom to those who need or ask
5. Never being too busy for the important people in my life
6. Keeping enough "blank space" in each day for contemplation and meditation
7. Always learning

Leading indicates movement and as I grow, so will this list.