Today’s prompt for Just Jot It January is: leadership.

I’ve actually written about it before here. I haven’t really thought much about it since I had to take that ‘training’. I still think leadership is more a natural trait than something you can be taught.

I think you need to be passionate about something to be inspiring. I think real leaders inspire others to that same passion.

I think real leaders are pretty hard to find, especially now. I think our culture here has been working against them. Here’s a little chart I found on google that explains my thoughts a little bit.

That part about welcoming risks is a biggie IMHO. Our society now is all about eliminating any even slightly possible risk. “Thinks ideas”, that’s another problem in our society. We spend the years from 3-16+ training our kids how NOT to be creative. NOT to have ideas of their own. How to do nothing but sit down, shut up and follow orders. That is NOT the way to encourage leadership (or anything other than blind obedience)!

Here’s another quote I found on google today. It goes right along with the first one’s “wants to create the future”, “needs to make change”, “high emotional intelligence”.

How many of the people we call “our leaders” are really leaders when you consider those things? I can’t say I see anyone in any level of government that fits. They do everything possible to dis-empower everyone except themselves! Those people are most definitely NOT my leaders!

I’m sure there are still some real leaders in other fields of endeavor (not politics). Teachers, scientists, businessmen, artists, innovators of all kinds. Why don’t those kinds of people get more influence in our society?

I try in my own way to be a leader, rather than a follower. I want to influence the world for good in some way. I try to share information to empower people and especially to encourage more freedom in the world. I hope I’m a leader like this…