Assuming leadership

It’s not uncommon to complain, “I wish I could do it, but my ___ is in the way.”  My boss, my colleagues, people in authority – anybody but me.

Seth Godin had a thought-provoking mention of this in his blog recently.  Here’s the reality:

Usually it’s just an excuse, a way to stay within your safe comfort zone.

The truth is that true leadership lies with those who take the initiative, who just take the role of leadership whether it’s been officially granted or not.  Did anybody confer leadership on Martin Luther King?  On Mother Teresa?  On Nelson Mandela?

How many great contributions of leadership are being done in your organization today by people who haven’t really been somehow designated as the official leader?  When you start noticing it, you’ll see examples all the time.  Both in relatively trivial matters – organizing social functions, improving communication, figuring out better ways for people to work together – and in the larger “core” assignments that people have in their jobs.

Don’t underplay these contributions.  Improving communications can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your people.

And more importantly, realize that your most valuable contributions may be just millimeters away from becoming reality – just waiting for you to give it a go.  There’s some other benefits from expanding your impact in this way:

• You learn new things, and grow in unexpected ways
• The organization – and people in power – start to think of you as more valuable than just your job description
• Often there’s more tolerance for failure in something that’s not considered quite as “core” to the organization

If you really feel the need to get permission from someone, then here’s my contribution to you today:

You have my permission.  Go for it.

The ball’s in your court now!

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