Here’s the thing about becoming a leader:  It doesn’t happen by accident.

You have to decide to be a leader.

Sure, some people are naturally charismatic, energetic, and so on…but I’ll bet you that even they have to “decide” to become a leader; they must still make a decision to leverage their inherent skills to motivate and lead others.

I have met several people along the way who are merely – and literally – a decision away from reinventing themselves as leaders.  Not Supervisors.  Not Managers.  Leaders.  These are people with knowledge, history, and great relationships; people who are likable, smart, and helpful…but fall just short of being anything more than “well respected” on the team, like  a Lead.

A Lead is generally a subject matter expert on the team, someone who will help new-hires navigate systems, teams, organization, and so on.  Leads are generally asked for information, asked to train new hires, etc.

But, a Lead moves into leadership as soon as s/he decides to be proactive in the sharing of knowledge, ideas for improvement, and so on.  After all, a great component of leadership is in learning to anticipate others’ wants or needs – and often when they aren’t quite aware that they need it.

You could say it is like having your Manager show up unannounced to provide you with feedback and guidance, vs. having to schedule time with your manager to ask how well you are performing.

One says, “I am committed to your growth and development.”  The other says, “Sure, if you need some help, let me know.”

One says, “We are in this together.”  The other says, “I’ll be right over there if you need something.”

You will be amazed at how simply deciding who you want to be in your career (not what), can set everything into motion – who you model yourself after, who and what you value, what skills you need to build upon, and so on…

So, who would you like to be?

If you aren’t prepared to answer this question, then you should be.  It could be the life-changer you’ve been looking for.