the art of leading

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Lead by example

As a rule, most of the mafiosi who become dons must have come up the ranks. They have started as ‘gophers’ who did all the dirty work. These are the ‘wise guys’, people who aren’t part of the Family but who do favors. Then some become ’soldiers’, who are already part of the Family but are in the lowest rung. Some are then promoted to ‘capos’, who run a specific part of the Family, mainly by region (between 1st and 2nd Streets) or activity (cocaine traffic). One of them may make it to ‘underboss’, or second-in-command, and finally there is the don, who is the #1.

The reason why I went over all the ranks is for you to realize that the leader of a Mafia Family, the don, generally has experience. The don has experience as a ‘gopher’, from when he was a ‘wise guy’ and a ’soldier’. The don has experience as an administrator, which was learned and applied as a ‘capo’ and ‘underboss’. Members of the Family have seen the don in the streets doing the same things they are now doing. They know that if the don had to, he could do it again. In fact, Al Capone was known to be willing to do whatever he ordered.

When followers or employees see how their leader is capable and willing to take action personally, they get inspired. They know that their leader wouldn’t ask them to do anything he or she wouldn’t do by him or herself. So inspire your followers by getting your hands dirty. Learn everything there is to know about your business or topic, and go out to the field and actually do it instead of just preaching about it.

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Leadership means different things to different people. Some view it as a quality that belongs only to people of great political or financial power. Many believe it can only be attained by reaching a specific “position” such as “manager” or “CEO” or “President” or “Mayor”. There is nothing farther from the reality, and that is what I intend to convey. Of course, much can be gained from studying some CEO’s or politicians. But everyone has the capacity to develop leadership qualities. Being a leader doesn’t mean being CEO. In fact, many CEO’s aren’t leaders at all.

Therefore, if being a leader doesn’t mean having a nominal position of ‘power’, then we have to define what a leader is. In fact, that is the first step to becoming a leader: to define what it is we want to accomplish. We need to know exactly what it is we want to become. In other words, we need to define what a ‘leader’ is so that we can strive to become one. President Harry Truman said something to the effect that a leader is a person who makes others do what they don’t want or don’t like to do. Self-help author Dale Carnegie was fond of saying that a leader gets people to do things because they want to. Leadership expert John Maxwell frequently states that “leadership is influence”. Now, you may agree or disagree with these definitions, but what is important is having a well-thought out, sensible one that we can use and work towards.

For the purpose of this website, I have devised a definition of leadership that I believe underlines the fact that we all have the inner seeds of leadership.Before stating it, though, let me go over a couple of the ones I gave earlier. First of all, I am very much in agreement with Dale Carnegie’s and John Maxwell’s definitions. Carnegie’s conception emphasizes the importance of motivation skills for a leader to be effective. When someone is happy to do something that wasn’t initially in his or her consciousness to do, most probably there lies the hand of a smart motivator. Someone knew how to bring out the desire to do something willingly, and not out of sheer intimidation. For example, people generally vote for a candidate without a gun pointed to their head, so that candidate motivated people to vote for him or her with a willing disposition. Obviously not every candidate that motivates people to vote for him or her is a great leader. But many do have the skill of being motivators.

Maxwell’s definition is simpler, but no less accurate. It is so because of the same reasons Carnegie’s is. It is another way of expressing the same thing. Influence, in my opinion, should be the leader’s guiding thought. How can I influence the thoughts of others? How can I influence the actions of others? How can I make even a tiny dent in the development of other people’s lives? Those questions should always be in a leader’s mind. They become especially important when we discover how much influence we are actually capable of transmitting. Scopes of influence for common people may include our family, school, workplace, and business. So we can see how powerful we can really be in influencing others.

Let’s get to my definition of ‘leadership’. It is definitely not innovative or original. Many characteristics have been left out of it, and because of that, feel free to contribute to the creation of a better definition by commenting on the ‘Comment’ section. I believe it should communicate what a modern leader is, and what all of us should aspire to being:

“Leadership is the ability to influence others in order to achieve a specific goal. A leader is a person who influences the thoughts and actions of others, through the use of persuasion, motivation, creativity, and interactive team- building, in order to achieve a specific goal.”

I recommend taking a couple of minutes to develop your own definition of what leadership is and what being a leader entails. Remember, by doing this you will be defining what you want to become. So give it the attention your future deserves.

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I’m amazed at how one person can make others do or think what they want them to do or think. Granted, being a leader entails much more than that, but it’s still a pretty amazing thing, when you come to think about it. In a very deep level, in the end it’s all about influencing, persuading, and being followed. With that said, I’d like to talk about what I intend to provide through this site.

First and foremost, I want to help you realize that leadership is an important part of your make-up. Being a leader will provide you with opportunities, and will provide opportunities to the rest of society. Being a leader is central to reaching your goals, whatever they may be.

Secondly, this site will reveal different paths to harness your leadership abilities, and will do so in a variety of ways. Sometimes I’ll talk about great leaders and what made them that way. Other times I may touch on a specific subject of leadership. I’ll talk about leadership in current news, or about external resources such as books. Sometimes I’ll post humorous or goofy ideas. On occasion I’ll be more ‘intellectual’. (As you can see, I’m keeping my ’serious’ hat on for this first post) The thing is this: there is an unlimited source of material out there for us to use, and I intend to use as much of it as I can, in order to help you create leadership qualities in your inner self that you previously hadn’t known about. And there’s one other thing: everything will be free.

You see…ever since high school I’ve been obsessed with finding the perfect business idea. I knew what my interests were and I felt I was able to provide valuable services in exchange for millions of dollars before I turned 21. But some months ago, I realized something: I may not be the most knowledgable guy in the world, but thanks to reading hundreds of books and to trying to develop my leadership abilities, I had gained a nice amount of understanding. I was being selfish by hoarding that knowledge for myself (as large or small as it may be), waiting for the ‘perfect opportunity’ to arrive. And I was also shortchanging myself by not using the great amount of resources that only the millions of other Internet users could provide.

I see this as a win-win situation for me and for whoever reads what I write. I have nothing to lose by sharing and writing about my passion, and trying to help people. Readers can’t lose by looking at what I have to say and using it to their advantage. I have nothing to lose by trying to learn from others and readers can’t lose by sharing their knowledge and experience. So here goes…

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