My job title says that I am not a leader....

Over the past few years, many people have associated their title or role within an organization with their ability to be a leader. If your title isn’t a Supervisor, Manager, Director, VP, or above then you couldn’t possibly be expected to lead, right? Wrong. A title, office, or even a high salary does not make someone a leader. True leaders inspire, motivate, and influence people to follow a different direction. This means you can lead inside and outside of your organization by influencing change. The best ideas don’t always start in the boardroom. Many times the people closest to customers and field operation have the best solutions.

Think back to your childhood when titles didn’t matter. Someone would suggest playing hide and seek, riding bikes, or playing video games. As a child, you might have agreed to one of the suggestions and played the game without checking the other child’s title. You might have been the child suggesting the games, or telling everyone it’s time to play something else. Back then you didn’t care if someone said no, or suggested something else. The primary goal was to motivate a group to do something different than before. The goal to motivate others for changes will also transition to your work place, and you can easily regain the leadership from your childhood.

So how can you become a leader without the title?

·         Listen – Remember when kids said they were bored, and then you made your suggestions. Those same conversations might be occurring in your workplace about an issue or a challenge that your coworkers are experiencing. Listen to what they are staying and see if you have a solution for their issue.

·         Speak up – Once you understand where the opportunities are for your organization, tell people about your ideas. This might be during a meeting, via email, hallway conversation, or even a blog.

·         No or Not now – If you hear these words do not mean that you have failed. It just means that you should try something else.

·         Failing is ok! – The fear of failing often prevents people from trying something different. As a leader you need to move past this fear, and encourage people to try something new. It is almost important to help people see failures as learning opportunities that can help them succeed in the future.

So where do you start? The most important step in your growth as a leader is to pull out your mirror and see yourself as one. Once you believe that your own ideas, suggestions, and changes are important you can begin to lead.