How to Identify Leaders
A while back I wrote about how it's impossible to pioneer, to go where no one else has been, without taking the risk of failure. Thus anyone who does want to innovate, needs to lose their fear of failure. Failure isn't necessarily bad, although it's not particularly good either. Failure simply is an indicator of a certain approach not working — and we can learn from it. Partly, a leader is a pioneer. A pioneer willing to fail. One that identifies with your company and makes success their personal goal.
In general there are three types of people: The ones who do, the ones who watch them do it, and the ones who wonder what happened. The last kind you would rather not have around as a leader; there are other tasks much more appropriate for them. We want to talk about the importance of the doers. They don't watch others do something or try and imitate their actions, they actively think about stuff and solve problems. They think, they inspire, they generate followers.
In a way, leaders are problem solvers who aren't afraid to take a hit every once in a while: they'll know a way around the problem anyway. If you're a person with the qualities describing a leader, then you may just be able to spot leaders in your company, too. At your shop, are the folks in charge the ones who takes responsibility for failure while trying to max out the potential of every of their assignments or are they the ones who sit back and observe others take away the crop just 'cause they feel way to comfortable with their safe route?
