Strategies and Tactics for Women by Dr. Shannon Reece

Part One of Four

Have you ever really thought about what it means to lead?

I’ve been a follower and a leader. The leadership roles I filled as a young manager for a handful of companies are, in so many ways, different from the role I am now called to play in my own business.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, leadership is…

1. the office or position of the leader
2. capacity to lead
3. the act or an instance of leading

But leadership is more than what you do on the outside — true leadership starts from within.

This post is the first in a four-week examination of the inner workings of leadership. When we consider leadership, I think we often lack a clear understanding of the power in self-leadership, or leading from within.

My goal is to clarify the difference between someone in the position of leadership, and a TRUE leader in business, by focusing on the second aspect of the definition above – the capacity to lead — which many people never appear to maximize.

You’ve led people somewhere, sometime during your lifetime, even if you have never really considered yourself “leader material.” Some say that you are, or are not, born a leader. I can guarantee there was no one in my life, including me, who ever thought a quiet, introverted child was destined to become a leader. Yet, here I am…leading, thriving, learning, growing.

Life often taps the inner leader in people, like watering a seed. Those who step from beneath the shadows of fear and limiting beliefs allow the sun to shine on that seed, and it begins to grow. And I believe that the motivation to step out, and step up comes from a place of service and selflessness. Because the essence of TRUE leadership is a heart-centered focus on the needs of others, rather than your own.

As an entrepreneur, you were automatically thrust into a position of leadership. Whether you intended to or not, you became a leader with your first Twitter follower, Facebook fan, newsletter subscriber, or customer. And you are continually faced with a choice —

Will you just be someone with followers, or will you do what it takes to be a TRUE leader?

I challenge you to answer the following questions –

• Are you regularly stepping beyond your own desires and comfort zone, pursuing opportunities to share your gifts with others, or are you hunkered down in the shadows mapping out a self-centered agenda?

• What are you willing to commit to doing today in order to take one step closer to TRUE leadership in your business?

• To whom can you shift your focus this week to enable your heart to drive action in the direction of creating positive change in his or her life/business?

People are looking to you for guidance, information, advice, and inspiration. What you choose to do with your position and power will be defined by your capacity to lead from within.