How is helping a stranger, leadership?

When we think of the word 'leadership', typically headline grabbing personalities on the world stage of business or politics often jump to mind. Look at the US election this month, who could have predicted Donald Trump would become President of the US again. 

However, I don't think that leadership is that grandiose, we don’t all have to be President of the US or the King of England to be a leader.  Have you thought about the fact we are all actually leaders at some point in our day? We all do this every day to an extent, it could be as part of our job, when we care for our kids, or even help a stranger. These tasks all require leadership traits of different types - Trust - Compassion - Stability - Hope.

When I was asked to explain what I thought leadership means, my answer was that it consists of two parts and several traits, personal responsibility and the choice to follow.

Part 1 - personal responsibility of the leader

The first part is a choice exercised by the leader. It is the choice to take personal responsibility to change the current situation for the better. You can choose to let things slide or take a stand to do what must be done because it is the right thing to do. This choice can be applied to both work, projects, home life and much more. 

Part 2 - people choosing to follow the leader

The second part of leadership is also a choice, but exercised by people choosing to follow the leader. They do so, because the leader exhibits good leadership behaviours such as compassion, listening, developing and communicating the vision, trust and honesty and ensuring that action is taken for the best possible outcome. 

These are behaviours that can be learned and honed. However they need to be expressed authentically from the heart rather than emulated from a 'book of best practice'.

People can tell if someone is doling out platitudes or pretending to care about things just to be popular. 

So, whether you are a leader who has learnt these traits or honed these over time, would you say you are one that still stands for Trust - Stability - Compassion and Hope?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you would describe leadership, if you feel you tick those boxes or need support to ensure your team is being led in the right direction and listened to.