Leadership is a complex process, for anyone to assume lightly, without a prior thought! To lead, means that you have the responsibility of bringing in reality something concrete and tangible, something everyone can relate to (a new vision, a view, an approach, a relationship, a new way of doing things, etc) ! This is not always easy and most people, avoid the task or the role altogether.
Off course is not for everyone to be a leader or to be capable for a leadership role. No. It is not just a matter of talent, or discipline, or knowledge, or skills, or character, or charisma, or something else. It is something very tangible, loosely referred to as “accountability“. And most people usually, want nothing to do with that!
Reasons For A Generalized Leadership Denial!
Most people have good reasons, for not wanting a leadership role! Some of these reasons may involve the response to one (or more) of the following questions, someone might make to him/herself. He/She may wonder:
- Why you should take responsibility on a given situation when someone else can do it? And perhaps, better than you!
- Why change anything, when nothing is broken and anything works as it should be?
- Why you need to inspire anyone when the results are not tangible and maybe you are not going to live for a long time to see them happen?
- Why try to handle things and invest the extra effort and time when you can always and easily accept (as everyone!) what happens?
- Why you have to try harder, to do more or to do the same things better when nobody going to appreciate and you are not going to have a visible benefit?
- Why you invest time and resources for understanding the reality and people when nothing is going to change in the foreseeable future?
- Why select a direction and keep on following it when everyone else can live well without that?
- Why should you strive after developing yourself and forming a distinct personality and character? Maybe, being transparent and blended in the crowd is a much easier way of living well!
- Why should you commit yourself in achieving something that would benefit the other people, rather than yourself? you can always follow your natural instincts and be yourself, taking care only yourself!
- Why move to the front line; it is always safer at the back (!!!) Don’t you agree?
- Why put yourself in a position to be accountable for the actions of other people, if you do not have to? It is always difficult to be responsible you know, Â and it usually takes discipline, time and a lot of effort. So why you should bother?
- Why to try to communicate as clear as possible both your intentions and your wants to other people when, at the end of the day, many people would not listen to you at all and eventually they would disappoint you?
- Why strive after developing connections and relationships with the other people, when, isolation, is perhaps a better option and an easier survival strategy (and, for some people, safer, too!!!)
Why Should You Want To Be a Leader? A Case Against Leadership?
So why you should be a leader when nobody cares? Besides, there is always the chance, that someone else would do what you deny, and you will not be responsible for that anymore! But then you shouldn’t complain about the things that happen in this or that way, since you were not there, and, moreover, denied yourself the right to have an opinion or do something for the given situation!
Perhaps, you should always remember the small story you hear time ago, about a group of people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. This story goes:
A job had to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, Nobody did it. Somebody got mad about that, because it was Everybody s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it and that Somebody would do it.
Nobody realized that Everybody thought Somebody would do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
To be a leader, usually mean, that you are accountable and responsible for everything you can handle, and sometimes, this is a burden, many people do not want to bear!
Question: Do you think you would have a good life when you assume not responsibility for it? Do you think that you could be the Everybody, Somebody, Anybody or Nobody and live a prospect and rich life? Do you think that you, being responsible for all the aspects of life you could manage, and to act from a leadership perspective, diminish your chances for a better life or enhance them?
