Do you have the skill of excellent leadership? If you know how to align a group of people toward a common goal, you can improve your life, your community, and even your world.
When your motivations are in the right place, people will crave your leadership. After all, life is often challenging as well as confusing. When you can figure out how to help other people get momentum in their own lives, you can’t help but become more popular.
The ironic part is that you shouldn’t seek such approval. You focus on giving back to the world in any way you can, and a lot of the other stuff happens naturally.
From your perspective, all you have to do is listen to people and give back. Give as much as you can even when you don’t want to. The more consistently you can give people something valuable, the stronger a leader you become.
This article will explain how you can become a better leader in all areas of your life.
Understand Your Goals
When you become a leader, you can achieve broader goals. That only works if you have those goals figured out in the first place.
Your goals are the bait that will lure other people to pay attention to you. If they share those goals, they may decide to respect your leadership and to follow along on your journey. The leader shares his or her goals in the form of a story and gains an audience in the process.
There is one other angle to leadership. Part of you may want popularity not for a specific goal, but out of self-validation. Being in control or being the leader can make you feel like a winner. It’s OK to experience some pride in what you do but be careful to keep this in check. Leaders aren’t better than other people; they just have a different role.
Goals don’t get set in stone. For example, a dietician may start a blog because she is passionate about health. Her goal may be to live a long, healthy life, and to help others do so too. Later on, her goals may change. She could decide to shift from blogging about health to opening a gym or some other exciting project. That would be a significant evolution of leadership from one project to the next.
As long as the core of your goal comes from a place of sustainable and genuine passion, you’ll be fine. Address substantial problems that you can “solve” in a year or two, then get to work. Other people will notice, and they’ll want to help.
Share Your Excitement
Genuine excitement is in short supply these days. People get sold all kinds of entertainment all day, sipping sugary drinks and watching crazy videos on their cell phones. This stuff is stimulating, but it may not have a lasting positive impact.
You can be more real than the fakers and the takers. You can show up each day with a to-do list that reflects your quest to make a positive difference in the world. If you stay humble and work slowly toward your goals, people will notice.
It might take you at least a few months to develop traction on the path of sincerity. The alternative, which is a loud and fast approach to leadership, is unlikely to work unless you have a ton of money and experience.
It may sound strange to say that slowly working toward your goals is the best way to share your excitement. However, in today’s world, it seems like some calm confidence goes a long way. Playing a slower game will give your leadership a unique and compelling quality amid all the cultural noise.
Don’t Try to Please Everybody
If you have a clear goal and you can excite people about it, you can be a great leader. The final piece of the leadership puzzle is that you have to focus on your target audience. The world is a vast place, and most people won’t care about you. Focus on the ones who do.
If you are a makeup artist, try to connect with people who love makeup. If you make heavy metal music, you’d better reach out to the people who relish that kind of brutal sound. Whatever your niche is, own it and go all-in on it.
The fact that you read this whole article is proof that you’re willing to be patient and develop the skill of leadership. Apply the concepts of clear goals and shared excitement each day as you work towards your dreams.