Throughout history, the world has struggled to find a definitive meaning of leadership. If you search the term online, you will get more than a hundred million definitions of this concept. It is an abstract construct, subjective to every person. It means that leadership is for you is how you choose to define it.
Most often, we associate the term “leader” with titles or positions of people. We read the biographies of great individuals in the past and consider them to be leadership manuals. And we believe that being a leader means changing the world, so it is something absurdly huge out of our reach. We are too fixated on societal constructs of reality that we fail to determine our crucial role in it.
Ask a little child, what they want to do in life, and you’ll get the most innovative and the most unexpected answers. Ask them the same question again as they grow up, and their answers would be very different. They may take a moment to process the reality that they have become aware of. They would notice the challenges of their environment, their limitations, and their perceived goals.
As we become more and more embedded in the systems that run the world, we start losing touch with ourselves. We become inclined towards achieving objectives that ensure maximum productivity so the people who run these systems can profit. Instead of looking at our contributions to the world around us, we’ve only become a variable in this equation.
The concept of making a more considerable difference in the world to become deserving of the title of leadership is flawed as it discusses human beings as a statistic: the more, the better. But then what is the magic number of people we need to inspire to become a leader. There is no answer to that.
Here enters the novel theory of everyday leadership. It allows every person to take ownership of this concept instead of considering it out of their reach. It revolves around considering the difference that a person is making in their environment regardless of the magnitude of that difference. Meaning that you don’t need to change the lives of all six billion people of the world to become a leader; you are a leader if you are making a difference in one life around you.
It is a profound idea that truly encapsulates the worth of each human soul and captures the beauty of humanity. It tells us that each person is worth making efforts for. If someone becomes happy or inspired because of you, then you should be proud of yourself. Little by little, you are changing the world. Also, That one person can inspire more people around them. Thus, you would have started a chain reaction of spreading happiness and inspiration.
It changes the idea of leadership from a target to a responsibility. It is upon you, when do you choose to accept it and recognize this value in yourself and the people around you.
Think back to the moment when someone made you happy or inspired you. These individuals are all around us, in the face of strangers on the streets, or our friends and family around us. They have been a leader to us, and we can be a leader for them if we recognize the value of our words and actions for other people.
So the next time, when you get the chance to shine the spark of happiness and motivation in one person, recognize and remember your action for them. Collect these memories as trophies. They are your priceless contributions to this world as a leader.