The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 68 Degrees – 8:45 a.m.
To be frank, I don’t know what “thought leader” actually means. I do know it’s not something you award yourself. Just like you don’t award yourself #1 status in much of anything.
If YOU have to say it, it probably isn’t true 🙂
So I think “thought leader” might be one of those words you can’t think about too deeply or you discover it really doesn’t mean anything.
I have learned some things about leadership in the past few years I’m happy to list here.
These may or may not resonate with you. Making you think a certain way is never the point here. Making you THINK is the point. Think for yourself and trust yourself enough to become your own “thought leader.”
So back to leadership…
First, I’m not really sure you can actually lead ANYONE. You CAN lead yourself and sometimes, some people might follow along. In fact, it seems the more work you do trying to lead yourself the more people get interested in where you’re going.
Second, if part of your “leadership” approach involves making it clear that the people you are “leading” NEED you, you are no leader at all. Sorry.
Finally, there seem to be very few examples of great leaders to study.
World leaders get disqualified automatically since murdering people or supporting the machine that does isn’t anywhere near what I’m talking about.
The millenia old manipulation of religion to divide people from each other means I’m not looking there either.
And so it goes…
So basically, the definition of LEADER seems to be wide open. You get to make it up. My recommendation is to figure out a way to lead yourself so that, if others choose to follow your path, they win too.
If there’s a loser in your scenario, or if your work shifts from making progress to simply keeping control of others, you’re doing it wrong.
You CAN inspire, empower and equip others to lead themselves. How would that look for you?