Profile Of A Leader

I believe that we are all born as Leaders!

For those who agree that we’re all created equal and in God’s image, these two powerful qualifiers alone should be enough to validate my belief. But common sense and reason dictates that this simply is not true. Our society and our social structure is based on the reality that there are two types of people: leaders and followers.

So, if someone is born a leader, but clearly turns out to be a follower, how can that be explained?

Perhaps somewhere after we’re born, there occurs a mutation. Cells spit into strands of “Leader DNA” and “Follower DNA”. The leader DNA is the stronger of the two and it will exert its control over the Follower DNA. We all buy our ticket in the genes pool, and those with a winning number get a Leadership certificate, while the vast majority draws a Follower’s apology. Sorry, try again!

Actually, the answer is not in our DNA but in our social and economic conditioning. In the days of Moses, the Egyptian Pharaohs were god-like Leaders, not chosen but anointed. Slaves were Followers, not by choice but by decree. During the feudal times, Leaders were born out of nobility and Followers were born out of servitude. A few generations ago, women in the western hemisphere did not have the right to vote, let alone act as Leaders in our society. In some parts of the Middle East and Asia, women are still denied a formal education. The “traditional” marriage kept women at home to tend for the children, while the husband earned the family income. It truly was, and in some cases still is, a “man’s world”.

In our modern and western society not many will argue that leadership is the exclusive domain of the male species. In times of crises, when men and women are on a level playing field, it is often the female who steps up to the leadership plate. As more and more of the “traditional” jobs vanish, women are exerting their natural-born Leadership qualities in increasing numbers. It’s all a part of the “Age of Identity”!

It is clear that followers are in fact conditioned to accept their role through socio-economic circumstances and not because they flunked the Leadership exam. And while we cannot immediately change the socio-economic world order in any meaningful way, we can start to change the definition of what constitutes a Leader in today’s society. If everyone is born a Leader, than it stands to reason that we should allow everyone to evolve as a Leader rather than conditioning and suppressing them to live a meaningless and unfulfilling life of mediocrity and servitude.

By re-defining the term Leader and basing this definition on the inherent Leadership qualities of the individual rather than the aspired social or corporate position that currently characterizes a Leader, we can create a society that is elevated by its Leadership objectives rather than being marginalized through indifference.

“When you take charge and are in control of your life, you become a Leader.

I believe that this statement is the simplest, yet most profound definition of a Leader in the 21st Century. This simple definition of Leadership levels the playing field for anyone who aspires to claim their birthright as a Leader. If you take charge and are in control of your life, you are a Leader! It matters not if you are the CEO of a multi-national corporation or the lone parking attendant below the ivory tower. You can be the quarterback on your college football team or a stay-at-home soccer mom taking her kids to the game. You can be the father who teaches his son how to fish or walks his daughter down the aisle. Taking charge of your life makes you a Leader!

If, on the other hand life controls you, you are a Follower. Your life is simply a measurement of time. And just like the clock, life keeps going. It does not take a break! How long it will keep going, no one knows for sure. But whatever controls your life and navigates it in a certain direction will ultimately determine its outcome. If you’re not the one navigating your life, than someone else (or something else) is! It doesn’t matter how many titles, degrees or secretaries you have, if you can’t take charge and be in control of your life, your life will forge ahead without you guiding it, and you’ll have no choice but to follow wherever life leads you!

© 2014 Allan N. Mulholland, CPC

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