So you want to become an effective leader?  You want to help influence other people and accomplish goals? Have you ever been to where you are trying to bring people?  If not how are you going to know the best ways to get people to where they need to be? What weight does your advice actually hold?  Do you have clear “easy to follow” goals or are your methods confusing.  These are a few areas we can look at and see if we need to grow ourselves to become better leaders.  Here are three things that you need to do in order to be an effective leader. This is not meant to be an all inclusive post but instead a starting point to give you a few things to begin to think about.An effective leader must be willing to do what they ask of others.

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An effective leader must be willing to do what they ask of others.

Those who are willing to get dirty and in the weeds to lead others are the ones who people are going to be most willing to follow.  There is a saying that goes like “you can’t lead someone to a place you’ve never been.”  This is such a good point.  I’ve heard this a lot when talking with worship leaders in church’s.  You can’t lead others to worship if you don’t have intimate time of worship before coming in on a Sunday morning. Why would you expect to be able to guide someone to a place you’ve never been.  That’s like trying to be a tour guide of a farm you’ve never been to while wearing a blindfold.  You probably are not going to get people very far on the tour and they will most likely be upset and demand a refund.

So before you start trying to lead others make sure you know where you are going.  You can begin by setting up a plan and have some goals set.  This will help people know what they are signing up for when they begin to follow you based on the goals you have set.

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An effective leader must develop and mentor others who can eventually take their place.

You don’t want to be replaced, so you live in a state of fear. You fear  that if you share the things you’ve learned or the skills you have then someone else may replace you.  I know for me this fear of being replaced was what was actually holding me back from becoming a stronger leader.  It can be hard trying to have growth within your organization when you are stuck completing tasks that don’t allow you time for anything else.

When you allow yourself to be replaced within your organization on certain tasks, that gives you more bandwidth to find areas that you can grow in.  By developing people to be able to cover positions that only I was able to fill, I’ve allowed myself to be able to take breaks and have more relaxing family time.  This has been incredibly healthy for my mental health and other relationships outside of work.

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You can’t be an effective leader if no one will follow you.

Lastly, what is leadership if no one wants to follow you?  This may be the most important but hardest part of being a leader?  What about you is attractive or appealing to others?  You need to live your life in a way that motivates and inspires others.  If you bring a smile to people when you enter a room they will more likely want to be around you more.  If people dread seeing you then you will not be able to lead them anywhere.  So check yourself and your life to see if there are any areas you need to reassess and improve on.