The age-old question is who will lead?  

The leader is the one who accepts the responsibility. It is difficult to state in simpler terms. The person who steps up and accepts the responsibility for outcomes will inevitably become the leader. This is universally true, leaders are those who rise to the challenge when a need is presented. It is the problem, challenge, or situation itself that calls forth leadership both in our professional and our personal lives.  This is why leaders are made not born. Even if someone is born with leadership traits e.g. self-awareness, emotional intelligence, empathy, and perseverance, they still require a problem to be solved or a challenge to be overcome in order to lead. Additionally, and perhaps most obviously, leaders need other people around them in order to lead. Therefore, the truth is:

No problem to solve -No people to lead -No leadership required!

The only exception to this maxim is Self-Leadership. Leadership of oneself is ALWAYS required every moment of the day and is the most challenging of all leadership tasks – read more on this in the next article explaining HOW leaders lead.

When determining who will lead within an organization, leadership is called forth only when positive change is needed. Many people are able to maintain the status-quo in a situation, in fact, maintaining systems and processes is important and it is called management. Let’s be very clear here, management is not leadership and only a leader can create positive change. When an organization faces difficulty or stagnation, and change for the better is desired, leadership is called forth. The one who steps up to the plate and accepts the responsibility is the leader. They have the influence because they are willing to do the heavy lifting of organizational change. You can prove this to yourself. In any organization you have potential leaders, some very talented, if you were to bring together this group of potential leaders and assign each of them the task of creating a positive change, only a leader can accomplish this task. Others can maintain the status-quo, but only a leader can create positive change because only a leader will accept the responsibility to use their influence for the good of the organization. And only a leader will be followed into the uncharted waters of organizational change!