Misconception 1: Leadership is a position or title.

This is probably the most common leadership fallacy around, especially among young emerging leaders. They think to themselves “If only I could get that position then people would respect and follow me. The reason I’m struggling here is because they won’t give me that title.” The reality is that people will follow you because of your title for about one hour, if you haven’t proved your worth by then don’t expect many people to be paying attention. William Wallace in the movie Braveheart said it best, “Men don’t follow titles, they follow courage.” Wise words from our friend William.

Misconception 2: Leadership is a characteristic you’re born with.

Certainly some people seem to have a knack for leadership, however it’s much more a learned skill than anything innate. Just read the biography of any famous leader and you’ll see the process they went through to become the great men and women they are. I think they would all agree that they learned to be great rather than being born that way.

Misconception 3: Leadership is responsibility for certain tasks.

I think this confusion stems from the first misconception. We get in a certain position and instead of thinking “Who do I need to lead?” We ask, “What do I need to do?” So having touched on these three misconceptions, let me get to our original question: “What is leadership?”

I believe that leadership is influence. It’s been said that a “leader without followers is just taking a walk” and our definition of leadership couldn’t align more. With this truth in mind, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and even Adolph Hitler were all extremely powerful leaders. Not primarily because of their positions, innate charisma, or ability to accomplish high level tasks. They were powerful leaders because of the profound influence they had on people, of course we may or may not like how they were waging that influence but at the end of the day no one can dispute their profound impact on peoples lives. So if you’ve been wondering whether or not you’re a leader, wonder no more. All you have to do is take a look around and ask “is anyone following me?”

Serving as inspiration for this post are Developing The Leader Within You by John Maxwell and Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels.