During my senior year of high school a teacher told me that I was “a born leader.”  Over the years, I have learned that being born with an aptitude to be successful at something does not make you successful at that something.  I have also learned that the opportunities to use that something may present in spaces and in ways you never imagined.

For me, leadership meant taking the lead as a caretaker of family members, leading initiatives to address specific needs of community groups, or directing the course of spontaneous moments of challenge in my personal or professional life.  There was a time when I didn’t see my investments of time, emotion, and resources into the lives of other people or institutions as leadership.  At times, the tasks were labor intensive or emotionally draining so I felt burdened.  I asked God more than a few times over the years, “Are you for real right now?!”  Apparently, God intended to provide new and continuous opportunities for me to discover the gifts and blessings of being “a born leader.”  Thankfully, I have learned that embracing what was naturally me gave me perspective driven by gratitude and purpose.  I became grateful for the opportunities and for my ability to serve.  I became focused on the honor bestowed upon me when other folks entrusted important decisions and concerns into my care.

For most of my life, I accepted challenges, created action plans, and executed steps to reach goals.  Often, I moved through this process without ever considering the depth or value of my ability to lead charges repeatedly.  I didn’t consider why I found myself in positions of trust when there were generally other people who could step up and lead. I began to evaluate my leadership style and that of others in leadership roles.  I learned that universal truths existed regardless of the forum, the institution, or the relationship that offered the opportunity for leadership.

1. Leadership can be lonely.  Sometimes the vision to attain the mission is not popular or readily visible to anyone other than the leader.  There is also the likelihood that the decisions that get the group to the goal are not acceptable to anyone except the leader.
2. Have a short memory as it relates to failure, criticism, and judgment.
3. Be flexible in your thoughts, your analysis of circumstances, your strategic planning, and your decision making.
4. Take ownership of your decisions and the decisions of those you empower to make decisions.  You get to own the not-so-great decisions as well as those that make you look like a genius.
5. Self-awareness about personal strengths and challenges makes you human and transparent, not weak.  Don’t be afraid to invite people who are strong in your areas of weakness to join forces with you.  Give them responsibility for those areas.  This makes for efficient, productive outcomes.
6. Be resourceful with use of human capital and the things available to you in the space or group you lead.  Also be mindful of other resources in the surrounding community.
7. Invest time in learning about the people you lead and how their unique traits can add value to the group, project, or institution.  Then, communicate that value to the individuals and promote actions by them that utilize their areas of giftedness.
8. Understand the mission of the organization or team you lead.  Then, figure out how you and the division or team you lead can enhance the mission of the larger organization or institution.
9. Spend time understanding the targeted service group or community and figure out how the goals and objectives of your group or team support the larger mission.
10. Stay focused on the goal and the things that enable the group to accomplish tasks in the action plan that are required to champion the established objectives and mission.

I hope that folks will broaden their views on the term leadership.  Unfortunately, people use the fact that they do not have the designated title given to the leader of the group to justify their failure to be accountable for the success of the group.  Instead of embracing their value to the group and investing themselves and their abilities in the overall mission, they isolate and look for excuses not to contribute on a consistent basis.  I hope that accountability and truth will be welcomed by those who lead or share in leadership with me.