This I Believe

When hearing the statement from Warren Bennis, “The point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, and to use yourself completely – all your gifts, skills and energies – to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing. You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and to enjoy the process of becoming,” I feel that if you believe this you are destined for happiness. Throughout my entire life I have held leadership positions in most activities I participate in. I have been told that I am a natural leader and somebody to look up to. I have also been told if my heart is not in the goal, my leadership skills lack. I feel that having your heart in your mission is extremely important and without it you’re setting yourself, and those that follow you, up for a large let down. I have learned in my experiences that when leading you need to be consistent with two concepts; honesty and hard work. The concept of honesty needs to be to everybody that is following you, so that the tools and instruments you are using to complete your dreams and working with their hearts in their task as well. If this is achieved, the environment will be a livelier, happier place. However, keeping honest with yourself is more important then being honest to your followers. If you aren’t keeping true to the original plan, you will confuse yourself and everybody looking up to you. Staying true to yourself and will bring not only results, but will be a more personal experience, and with it being more personal you will be a better leader. Being honest to yourself and to your followers will result with a heartfelt environment and a strong sense in that which you are working for. With honesty being a large part of leadership, being a good example is just as important. Being a hard worker and showing your followers that you are giving everything you have into your goal is an extremely important factor in leading. Using all of the skills and techniques you have in leading will show the people following you that you are in this for the long haul. Working hard entitles you to use all those things Bennis talks about, your gifts, skills, and energies. If you put all that into leading whatever the outcome may be you will feel good about everything you have done. Self satisfaction as a leader comes from success and success come from being a good leader. Warren Bennis describes success in great way and through my experiences when leading I feel that statement is right on.

My vision of being a leader is to work with the people following you and to motivate them to use all their skills to work for one common goal, the goal I have set. I believe that a leader needs to be looked up to by the people following them, and showing them by example is a great way to do it. Leading from the heart is the best way to take an organization and achieve the tasks you want completed.