Where are you a leader?

Do you put your 'leader jacket' on before you leave home?
Maybe you become a leader when you walk in the front door of the building where you work.

Perhaps you wait until one of the team seeks your help.

No. If you choose to be a leader, you’re a leader – all the time.

When you understand that leadership is a set of behaviors, leadership is the way you walk through life.

Wherever you are, you’re a leader.

And it’s not hard.

How hard is it to live your values all the time, wherever you are? If honesty is a value at work, you’’re not going to pack the hotel bathrobe into your suitcase as you’re packing to leave the hotel (By the way, that’s a crime.)

How hard is it to do what you say you will do - to your children, your parents, your best friend and of course your partner?

How hard is it to share with others your belief of a future that’s better for all of us?

How hard is it to always be looking for better ways to do things, to make life better for you and of course those around you.

How hard is it to encourage others to be better than they thought they were, to enable them, so they show themselves and others what they are really capable of.

How hard is it to recognizing others for the good things that they do? That might even be a positive comment to the checkout operator in the supermarket, about what they’ve just done for you. Or someone in a customer service situation going beyond what they might normally do, just for you.

There are opportunities for most of us many times a day to tell others how well they are doing.

You are a leader and everything that you do every day is a reflection of your leadership.
It’s not just when you’re sitting in the corner office - with the door always open -.it’s also when you make your team feel proud about their achievements.

Once you decide to be a leader, you’re a leader.

Your vulnerability, and your authenticity, your relationships with others, even your purpose in life is with you. That’s what leadership does for you: you take it with you wherever you go.

And as a leader, you leave a positive impact on those you interact with… those you are leading.

Even in the shortest interaction.