Leadership is not about one's position or title, it is about Life Story. Everybody has a unique story, everybody can and should lead.
Most of us human beings wrongly believe that just some of us can be leaders. We constantly cherish the myth that just a few of us are going to be chosen by the leadership "god" and the rest of us will be condemned to be followers. I deeply reject this prejudicial idea. As well, many strongly defend that some people are born to be leaders and others followers. We deliberately label ourselves as unchanging individuals without giving ourselves a chance to reflect on these poor and dangerous assumptions.
Most of the time, we also assume that all leaders are positive leaders, which is completely inaccurate. History is filled with many unfortunate examples. In addition, we are bombarded by the media that continually displays images of leaders depicted as superhuman beings with mysterious powers and unreachable abilities. This appealing vision of the untouchables is always seductive, but in reality we ALL can lead.
Indeed, we should acknowledge that starting at school, all human beings have some leadership potential to be discovered and developed. All human beings have leadership: traits, abilities, and potential, that they need to be aware of. All human beings have a unique life story, which is more important than leadership traits or abilities. We all have a long story to tell, which is formed by diverse real-life experiences that only each of us could personally comprehend and transform.
True leadership starts within ourselves and within our life stories. By testing ourselves through life experiences and reflecting on it, we are in fact constantly working at knowing and re-defining ourselves. In other words, through self-knowledge and formative experiences, we are able to constantly define our core beliefs, principles, values, strengths, and discover our endless possibilities to achieve success.
By enhancing our potential, we are actually building our own leadership path based on authenticity and uniqueness. Life stories offer tremendous information regarding leadership roots, and underline where and when peoples' leadership roles happen. Many of us do not realize that authentic leadership is strongly rooted in our life story.
Re-framing our stories enables us to recognize that we are not victims at all but people shaped by experiences that provide the impetus for us to become leaders. Our life stories evolve constantly as we shape the meaning of our past, present, and future. (B. George, True North)
Leadership emerges from our life story as we focus on growing and serving others in many different areas of society. This is liberating and powerful knowledge to recognize that our external impact begins with our internal exploration. Re-framing our life story gives us the opportunity to continually thrive. People's leadership influence is based on their unique self-concept, and what they want to be. The development of our leadership abilities should be perceived as a long term commitment; a long devotion to developing ourselves and always taking responsibility for it.
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