Leadership in Life

    The path to success is never easy or short.  There are normally curves, bumps, and detours in anyone's road to achieving their goals.  The path to your goal is not a set route you plug into a GPS. Once you get to your final goal, it's one of the best feelings you can imagine.  

     Successful people share many traits in life.  One of those is the ability to learn from mistakes and failures.  When driving down the highway of life, we should not stop when we see a bump in the road.  Instead we should learn how to handle those bumps at any stage of the process.  Gatorade has a commercial with some of the most talented athletes in our recent history.  The message in the commercial is you must fail until you succeed.  The message of failure is one of the best messages that we can put out there for young people.  Winners work hard, whether it is in the barn, on the field, or in the boardroom.  Successful people put in the extra hours to make a difference and be winners in life.  (Commercial Link)

     In a recent blog, I talked about how watching other people perform their craft can be a valuable teaching session.  It is important to spend time asking questions, why and how, to allow you to have a better understanding.  The next step you should take is to apply the knowledge you have been given and practice those newly found skills.  You then take those skills and hone your craft. This will not happen overnight.  The amount of determination you have will allow you to see the desired results.  There will always be more education needed, more questions to ask.  For many people, improving ourselves daily is a standard practice.  We find better and more efficient ways to work, or solve a problem with the best outcome.  We learn to make the best of a situation or bump in the road.

     Leadership is a key to success in any arena of life.  Without leadership, you will have a very unlikely chance of achieving any goal you have set.  Some people say it is the most important traits, next to determination, for achieving your goals.  Leadership comes in many forms, it can be a person you work with, your boss, your business partner or even within yourself.  

     Everyone has seen someone make a mistake or do something wrong.  The old phrase goes something like, to error is human.  I make A LOT of mistakes myself.  Hopefully you will learn from your mistakes and grow as a person.  It can take a person pointing it out or self-realization to learn that lesson.  That is a form being a leader when you learn and grow or help others grow from their error of their ways.  Sometimes that growth is personal and other times professional.  Both are good for you and your future success. 

     Leadership is not about wanting to be in the limelight.  It is not about wanting to be the one who always has the answers.  Being a leader is about wanting to see yourself and others succeed.  Leadership is about asking the right questions, guiding people down a productive path and wanting success for all involved.   Leaders bring out the good in people or shine a positive light on a dark situation. 

     For centuries people are quick to make and excuse their failures.  People move on to another task and go on as nothing happened.  There are times when it can be easy to blame others for a failing in life. We see this all the time in today's technology advanced age. With proper leadership in you would see less blame and more people taking responsibility.  Leaders know how to accept blame for a mistake and grow from the experience.  People in agriculture see it at all levels.  All the way from a local level event to the county fairs, 4-H/FFA clubs and even our own jobs.  The lack of leadership is the only reason for failure although it is a big contributing factor.  

     Studies have shown that people are more likely to stay at a lower paying job due to the leadership or their manager in that company.  On the flip side people are 70% more likely to leave a company because of a manager or lack of leadership.  Leadership is the #1 reason for success or failure in a company.  If you do not have leadership then you have nothing.  Leaders are designed to keep you on task and on the road to success. The same principals can be applied to your own business or organization.

     Typically, there is a leader of the family.  Your dad will always say it is him even though we all know Moms wheel a lot power.  The family unit is a unique dynamic where you have the Mom and Dad trade off being the leader in different situations.  They work together and do what is best for the family unit.  Leadership skills are learned from other great leaders.  Hopefully in your house your parents were good leaders of your family.  They most likely had strong leadership instilled in them from their parents or other supportive entities. The same principals can be applied to your own business or organization. 

     Every aspect of our life is driven by leadership.  All the success or failure is due to leadership or lack thereof.  If you don't have the proper leadership you will fail in your organization or company.  If you don't have a leader in your social group, you will never decide where to eat or what movie to go see.  If you do not have the proper leadership in your personal life you will struggle to see success in your business or achieving your goals.

     Hopefully one day you achieve your goal and reach that level of success you have been striving for each day. People who love what they do in life will never work a day in their life.  You will be doing what you love and hopefully, it will let you be a better person.  Leadership is key.  So, it's important that you always put your best foot forward.  There will be someone young kid who follows what you do and say, I want to be like them one day. Your leadership can make all the difference in the world. 

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. ~Alexander the Great