A leader is a person who influences change. Leaders embrace the idea stepping away from their comfort zone because they understand that leadership is about action, not position. Leaders don’t rule like tyrants, they lead people to a better place. Chief Alan Brunacini once said, “Any idiot who outranks everyone in the system (like a fire chief) can line everyone up and yell, ‘March!’ But can that person really take them any place worth going?”
Can you?
Leaders understand the value of personal development. They study their craft and resist the temptation of becoming complacent. They develop high performance adaptive skills to be able to function in high pressure scenarios; skills like situational awareness, decision making, communicating and negotiating. They understand their habits and actions create their reputation and that the reputation of leadership is not given. It has to be earned.
There is so much to learn about leadership that sometimes it becomes confusing, but the act of leadership is actually very simple. In its purest form leadership can be summed up in four steps.
1. Identify a problem
2. Assemble a team of people
3. Develop a solution together
4. Solve the problem
After that, reward your team and repeat the process by solving another problem. If you do this enough times, you will earn the trust of those you are leading.