What type of leader do you want to be?
Do you even know?
If not, where are you going to get examples of leadership from?
In this age of easy access to information, you can use social media, Youtube, Facebook, Wikimedia and loads of other online sources to find information, on leaders who might inspire you to greatness.
Iconic figures from history throughout the years can serve as guidance to would-be leaders. Writers of leadership books use brilliant and inspiring historical leaders as examples of influential icons of yesterday.
Some past leaders are truly inspiring – and have had failures as well as many successes. The reason for the failures is often because leaders are also risk takers. They did what others didn’t think to do and ventured to places where others were afraid to go.
You can learn leadership styles from the bad and the ugly “leaders in history” as well as you can the good and benevolent leaders. Even those leaders who were failures (Adolf Hitler comes to mind) played integral parts in changing our world and have become powerful forces for change.
Some prominent leaders were visionaries, pragmatists and humanitarians and others were conquerors who left a massive amount of destruction in their path. Many worked hard for the good of others (such as Gandhi) and influenced thousands of others to also do good.
Angela Merkel of Germany is making her mark on the woman’s role as leaders and others such as Margaret Thatcher (love her or otherwise) have made it more possible for women of today to take their places in leadership roles. We can learn from the men and women who paved the trail for others to follow.
By studying the leadership styles of great leaders of history, we know that leaders aren’t always born to lead, but develop the talent and skills to become the leaders they aspire to eventually be.
Some leaders come to power during times of crisis and others require more guidance to make their mark as a leader in the world.
Leaders that most of us admire displayed some traits that we can rely on in our pursuits to become leaders. They include empathy, determination and ability to bring about positive change.
Have you go any examples of great inspirational leaders that you think would be helpful to others?
