if you want to be a leader, start with this question
There’s a misconception about leadership that’s causing so many problems in our culture. When people hear the word leadership, they think it refers to a position of authority. They believe that to be a leader you need to be in charge of other people and make all of the decisions. Because of this errant view, many people then assume that they can’t be a leader until they are “chosen” and put in a position of authority.
But leadership isn’t fundamentally about a position in life, but rather a perspective towards life. While leaders often end up with a title and authority, those things are a result of showing leadership, not the cause. True leaders were leading long before they were ever recognized for it.
So if being a leader isn’t connected to a position or a role, then what is leadership? While there are many ways to describe a leader, at the core, a leader is someone who takes initiative for the benefit of others. That’s the heart of leadership, not having a fancy title or a certain number of people who report to you.
A real leader doesn’t wait for someone to ask them to do something or put them in a position of responsibility, but rather shows the courage and capacity to do what needs to be done to help other people. So if you want to be a leader, quit waiting around for someone to anoint you, and instead use this definition as a question. Wherever you go, ask yourself: How could I take initiative here for the benefit of others?
If you use this question as a perspective toward life, you’ll be blown away by all of the leadership opportunities that show up around you. Why is this question so powerful? Because it will get you to start doing two things.
The first is that asking this question will cause you to switch from a passive observer in life to an active participant with agency. It’s hard to complain about what other people are doing when you're looking around to see what needs to be done. When you start looking at the people and places around you, you’ll notice things that aren’t getting down and can now take the initiative to find a solution.
You’ll become someone who sees a problem or opportunity and acts as a catalyst, starting the conversation and moving yourself and the people around you from a state of apathy to planning, collaboration, and action. Being a leader requires you to see opportunities to serve and have the courage to act on them.
But leadership is about more than taking initiative. There are lots of people who are very good at taking initiative but yet are terrible leaders. To be a leader, you have to take initiative, but it has to be for the benefit of others. A great leader is someone who serves as a catalyst, not for their good, but the good of others. For your initiative to be healthy, it must be rooted in a desire to love and help other people.
When you use this simple leadership question as a lens through which you approach your life, your eyes will become open to all of the ways you could be a leader in this present moment, even if you don’t have a formal leadership role. Anytime you enter your home, your church, your neighborhood, your workplace, your friend circles, or your culture, you can uncover someone that needs to be done by asking: how can I take initiative for the benefit of others?
I try to ask myself this question as often as possible and it has created all sorts of little ways to serve and lead. Whether it’s helping an older lady unload her groceries, retrieving a trash can that’s blown into the street, or going up to a stranger and welcoming them to church, approaching your life through this perspective will open up untold opportunities to lead.
These might sound like simple and inconsequential things, but they will help you to become more and more aware of the opportunities to take initiative and ways that you could help the people around you. Because of the way God has gifted each of us, you will see things that everyone else will miss. Your heart will be burdened to help teach kids to read, refurbish homes for low-income housing, or use your gifts in several other ways.
And as you lead informally, eventually other people will recognize your leadership and put you in greater positions of responsibility. As Jesus said:
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
So many people wait around for someone to put them in a position of leadership before they will start to lead, and not surprisingly, no one ever does!
And if you’re already in positions of leadership, this question will help you to become even more effective. Why? Because it will keep you aware of the two reasons many leaders are either unhealthy or ineffective in their work:
Many leaders excel at taking initiative, yet only do things for the benefit of themselves. These leaders get a lot done, but since they only do things that satisfy their desire for ego, power, and status, they eventually leave everyone around them feeling manipulated, burnt out, and used.
Other leaders truly love and care for the people that they lead, but they fail the first part of the question: they never take any initiative. They are passive and apathetic towards stepping forward, due to fear of failure and being paralyzed from overthinking. Because of this, despite their good intentions, nothing ever gets done, and everything around them stalls.
A healthy and effective leader avoids both of these pitfalls, combining the ability to take initiative with a desire to love and serve other people. They are willing to risk failure and ridicule from their peers, but also don’t just use their gifts to secure more money, success, and power for themselves.
It should be clear that I’m not encouraging you to walk into a situation and take control or to assume all decision-making authority. People who do that just want power and aren’t out to help others. Instead, you are to become like Jesus, who perfectly modeled taking initiative for the benefit of others for us in the gospels, teaching his disciples that “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”
I hope this simple definition of leadership shows you that anyone can be a leader, regardless of where you are at or even how you are gifted. In a world starving for healthy leadership, I hope you will look for ways to take initiative for the benefit of others.
