In life, it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. What is important is this: Where are you going and how are you going to get there?

Aside from what you want to accomplish, what kind of a person do you want to become as the result of all your work and effort?  Men and women who achieve great things in life are almost always those who give thought to their own evolution and growth.  They become great people by design, not by accident.  They are like master craftsmen, continually shaping and polishing their character and personality so that they grow into someone important and worthwhile.  And so should you.

The highest goal you can have for yourself is to become a leader, to become an outstanding man or woman who is looked up to, admired, and respected by the people around you.  Motivational leadership is the ability to uplift and inspire people to perform at their best.  Personal leadership on the other hand, is the ability to motivate you to do the things, and be the kind of person that is a motivational leader.  Both are necessary, they are flip sides of the same coin.

Becoming a Role Model

The starting point of personal leadership and motivational leadership is to begin seeing yourself as a role model, seeing yourself as an example to others.  See yourself as a person who sets the standards that others follow.

A key leadership characteristic is to set high standards of accountability for yourself and your behavior.  Role Models assume that others are watching them and therefore they set their own standards by what they do.  They lead by example, just exactly as though someone were following them around taking notes and photographs of their daily actions for others to see and act on.

Motivational leadership is based on the law of indirect effort.  According to this law, most things in human life are achieved by indirect means rather than by direct means.  You more easily become a leader to others by demonstrating that you have the qualities of leadership, than you do by ordering others to follow your directions.

Leadership and Power

Instead of trying to get people to imitate you; instead concentrate on living a life that is so admirable that others want to be like you without your saying a word.  In business, for example, there are several kinds of power.  Two of these are recognized power and position power.

Position power is the power that comes with a job title or a position in any organization.  If you become a manager, you automatically have certain powers and privileges that go along with your rank.  You can order people about, and make certain decisions.  You can be a leader whether anyone likes you or not.

Recognized power is the power you attract to yourself by the kind of person you are.  In every organization, there are people who are looked up to by others, even though their positions may not be high up on the org chart.  These are the men and women who are great leaders because of the people they are, because of their characters and their personalities.

Perhaps the most powerful of motivational leaders is the person who practices what’s called, servant leadership.

Confucius said,

“He who would be master must be servant of all.”

The person who sees himself or herself as a servant, and who does everything possible to help others to perform at their best is practicing the highest form of “servant leadership.”

Lead the Action

We have been led to believe, over the years, that leaders are those who, exude power and confidence, give orders and make decisions for others to carry out.  However, that’s old school.  The leader of today is the one who asks questions, listens carefully, plans diligently and then builds consensus among all those necessary for achieving the goals.  A leader does not try to do it by himself or herself.  A leader is a person who gets things done by helping others to help themselves.

The mark of true leaders is that they lead the action.  They are willing to go first.  They set the example and act as the role model.  They do what they expect others to do.  You become a motivational leader by motivating yourself.  And you motivate yourself by striving toward excellence, by committing yourself to becoming everything that you are capable of becoming.  You motivate yourself by throwing your whole heart into doing your job in an excellent fashion.  You motivate others by continually looking for ways to help them to improve their lives and achieve their goals.  You become a motivational leader by becoming the kind of person that others want to get behind and support in every way.  Your main job is to take complete control of your own personal evolution and become a leader in every area of your life.  You could ask for nothing more, and you should settle for nothing less.

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