Choice

Choice

Because you have the power of choice, some remarkable things can happen. Because you have the power of choice, some unremarkable things can happen. Every time you choose, you have an opportunity cost. What other opportunities did you relinquish because of your choice? What did you give up? What can you gain?

Sometimes the future is now and we wait too long to choose. We may be reluctant or we may be under informed or under prepared. Some decisions can be calculated, like where you go to college, or what you are wearing to a party. Some choices may be instantaneous like an emergency. Either way, we can be prepared to lead ourselves and the people around us.

Who inspires the inspire-ers? If you cannot motivate yourself, do not expect to inspire anyone. And who says you have to? You do not but you can. No one is a great leader all the time. With preparation, hard work, commitment, and fun, you can unleash that leadership potential that you have been storing up. Old or young, it does not matter. 

Leadership is not defined by a position or popularity. Leadership is a choice. I can debate this point with a number of contemporary leadership authors but you have to agree that everyone has a choice. You also have a choice as to the type of leader you portray. There are great leaders then there are great, bad leaders. 

I call the great, bad leaders: “Tater Tot Leaders.” I use the analogy of a school cafeteria. One kid throws a tater tot, and I have to admit, the size and shape is conducive to throwing. Then another kid throws one. Before you know it, the whole table is throwing tots. The one kid that threw the first tot is a leader, he has followers but he led in a bad direction. I can use the same analogy to some very bad world leaders that had whole countries following them. 

Some authors will deliberate that leaders are born. I will argue that there are some circumstances that may be advantageous to your quality of life and your opportunities because we aren’t all born on a level playing field. However, as life progresses, your ability to lead and the direction you choose to lead is entirely up to you. In fact, this type (power) of leadership stifles the leadership potential within the organization. These types of leaders lack the ability to reach their potential because they associate power or lack of power as vulnerability that deteriorates their leadership. On the contrary, once you think you need invincibility you become a fairytale leader that will allow the organization to perish because you try to live forever without setting up your organization to thrive in the long-term.   

Positional leaders take the power wherever they go, so to speak. These people define leadership as power, and they think there is a finite amount of leadership. These people will not promote leadership for everyone. 

So let us create some leadership. Get on board the leader-ship. Choose and accept your role as a leader. Over the years we (my colleagues, family, and I) have tried to simplify the topic of leadership success. Through research and experience we broke it down to four areas that will balance your opportunities: 1) Self-Management – Organization, 2) Communication – Listening,          

 3) Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, & Team Building, 4) Character Education – Service Learning

These four areas are intertwined. Success in all four areas will balance the leadership process and your life. There will always be empty seats on the leader-ship. So, climb on board. It’s your choice.