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Welcome to the Dare!

Leading by example is more effective than leading by command.

— James M. Kouzes, The Leadership Challenge.

Welcome to the LEADership Dare, where we believe that you have the ability, experience, and even desire to lead others. We have faith in your abilities to influence others; we dare you to take up the reigns of a leader and guide others to success.

This project/blog in an experiment from the famous book by Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge. The authors’ book influenced this blog writer and several others, enough to even convince this author to pursue a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at an U.S.-based university. While this blog is not meant to supersede any information found in Kouzes and Posner’s influential text, the information found in these blog pages are meant to supplement their (and other leadership coaches’) models.

The truth is that the world has a lack of good leadership. Many people who are capable leaders or have the experience to mentor others simply lack the passion to lead. Or worse, these leaders see “all the hard work” it takes to lead others effectively and simply choose to look the other way.

Leadership is a choice and one that we wish more people would take on to encourage others to perform at their highest potential. It is easy to have a title or authority in an organization, but leadership requires that a leader (any person) lead by example. Leaders do not decide who leads. Followers do.

This blog has one purpose: to help you become a better leader. We want to share our knowledge with you that we have learned over the years as professional leaders, academics, and executive coaches. This blog will contain practical information, academic research concepts and models, and sage advice from executive leaders who want others to learn from their mistakes.

We only ask one request in return: try LEADing others – Lead Everywhere Anyone Daily. When you sense that leadership is needed in any situation, push aside any inhibitions, take initiative, and try to influence others positively. You may be surprised at just how effective you are as a leader.

The Reason For Leaderaship

Leadership is about people.

Leaders use processes and schedules, planners and events, to develop people. Leadership can be fun, painful, boring, or coercive. Leadership can cause great victories and terrible destruction.

But in the end: leadership is about people. The people who lead. The constituents who follow.

A conceptual look at leadership and associated concepts. Image from https://leadonuniversity.com

The goal of leadership is to develop others and help them become greater people themselves. This may come in the form of leadership training, encouraging and showing others how to become leaders in times or trial or periods of peace. Leadership may include management, instilling others to follow the status quo and remain within the guardrails. Leadership may force others to change, hopefully for the better, but always moving the company forward toward a bigger, better, and brighter future.

Some people may not want to become leaders. Some people may not want to lead at all. Some people relish the idea of improvement; others cannot stand the thought of change. (After all, aren’t we already good at what we do? Why change?). All of these situations are OK, but you still must lead with others in mind.

Some people may not want to become leaders.

But make no mistake, good leaders put their focus on others when it comes to leadership. Good leaders think about what may help people grow. What motivates them to become better? What motivates them to become positive and more productive? What motivates them to become something greater than they ever thought they could be?

Future-minded leaders are always trying to work themselves out of a job. Developing others may take time with varied results. But one staple of a good leader is to build others up, helping them and doing what is best for them, growing them into greater employees and better people. When the time comes to promote a follower into a leader, it is time for the leader to move on to develop others. The transition may not always work out the way it may be intended, the new leader may not be ready for the mantle of leadership. But in some way, these are the first steps to creating new leaders.

There are many different nuances and challenges, environments, and situational factors that may influence others. But the key to remember is that leadership is about people, not processes. Leaders lead people, they do not lead things.

The LEADership Dare Explained

This blog is a call to arms to leadership. There are so few good leaders in today’s age that we are asking everyone reading this blog to consider leading others, either in a professional setting or an informal one.

We are not asking you to do this blindfolded, however. We are a group of academics and professionals who are interested in having others lead. We are willing to share our experience and research discoveries with you to aid you in your journey. In fact, Chris, the main author of some of these posts, is using this space to post and sort through studied topics potentially found in his future Ph.D. comprehensive exam. We will post the full range of leadership topics and ideas; you simply read and absorb some of the ideas for your own life.

Why do this?

  • Because we know scores of people who would make fantastic leaders but choose not to because of a lack of passion or confidence
  • Because we believe there is very little new “under the sun.” The more we read academic and popular literature, the more we see similar concepts recycled with slight variations
  • Because we believe that most people know good leadership when they see it but struggle to understand how good leaders do what they do
  • Because we believe that while leadership growth requires constant feedback and challenge, it is easier to succeed than to fail

With these ideas in mind, come join us in the revolution to LEAD – Lead Everywhere Anyone Daily. Read some of the blogs posted, try out an idea or two either with strangers or people you know, then build on your experiences until you are comfortable leading others. And if you ever have questions, please post in the comments.

We look forward to hearing your leadership stories!