Do you dare to be a leader?

In this month’s reflection, I have something interesting to pen out and share with everyone who may be in the same position as me.

Over the course of this year, much has happened and in my previous reflection, I reflected about my 5 years in Circles.Life. This month, I am going to touch upon a topic that I never really dared to: Leadership. I’ve technically been in leadership positions my entire life, without really knowing why. From being the head prefect (some nerd I was) back in primary school to being captain / president of my CCAs, I never really understood why people would ever trust a person like me to help them.

I think I kind of understand why now, even though this may just be a scratch on the surface to really truly understand.

The role of the leader is to create a space where people can become more than they have ever been before, more than they’ve dreamed of being. (Robert Altman)

As we progress in our career journey, it is inevitable that you will, at some point in your career, cross paths with leadership. I’ve also seen many great leaders in and out of the company who’ve imparted so much to the younger (or next) generation of leaders in their own ways. Here are just some of the learnings I’ve gathered so far that has helped shape who I am today, with so much more to go.

Leadership comes in all directions

As an executive or someone just starting out in your career, you will often not realise that you are leading for a long, long time. And that is the beauty of leadership. If someone tells you exactly how to be a leader, you will never truly learn to be one. While there may be a thousand articles out there on how to be ‘the best leader’, the ultimate leadership opportunities come when you least expect it.

Whether is it a project, a person, a process, or even just a conversation, you are able to exemplify the traits of being able to lead. Think about how you react in situations, or how you are able to take control of a certain conversation. Do you offer your help in a project just because you want to, or say that you will help to do this new process that your manager was talking about? That is the beginning of being a leader - being able to willingly help others :)

Like many sayings, great leaders are made to serve and to ‘lose yourself in the service of others’.

Leadership is not tied to a function

Often enough, we naturally will feel like we need to excel in the function that we belong to. If you’re a Designer, you want to excel in crafting nice usable designs. If you’re a Marketer, you’d want to conceptualise viral campaigns. If you’re a Product Manager, you’d want to create the best products in the world. What if you’re a leader? What would you want to do?

I was having a discussion with a mentor of mine, and one of the key takeaways was that leadership is not about which function you excel in, but how much you are constantly growing, and how much you are growing others. The key function of being a leader is to ensure that you are always curious, always inquisitive and always hungry to learn more, and do more for others and not for yourself.

So, if you’re a leader, you’d want to bring out your best to ensure others succeed, regardless of which function.

Of course, being a leader who also excels in his or her function is what we all aspire to be.

Leadership is about Purpose.

Purpose driven leaders are driven by a passion to change the world. But purpose driven leaders understand that in order to change others they must first lead themselves. - The Purpose Driven Leader

Again and again, being purpose driven is something that keeps popping up in many conversations that I have with peers, managers and leaders in the company. Without having your vision, you will not be able to craft out your path, or allow others to help you in your journey.

One interesting thing is that in reality, for many leaders, their purpose is not to be a leader. However, as a leader, if you can make that your purpose, it opens up many different windows and frame of thoughts that may never have crossed your mind. For instance, if your purpose is leadership, you will not bound yourself to only what you know, but because you want to help others succeed, you will find ways to work things out for you and others. You will immerse yourself into uncomfortable and challenging situations because you are creating your own growth path, and through each circumstance, you will grow and be one tiny step closer to your purpose of helping others.

It’s tough and I’m barely starting, but the learning truly never stops.

Leadership is about being bigger than yourself.

When I think of leadership, this quote resonates:

Leaders don’t create more followers, they create more leaders.
― Tom Peters

This is the point where I resonate the most, and that comes from personal experience where I believe that you will succeed as a leader when you are ‘no longer needed’. Not to say that you are not doing anything (in fact you’re doing much more by doing less) ,but you’ve also managed to push and elevate others to that level, and you can now take the step further. One such experience I’ve had is with my team member in Product Design. Assyaraf has taken over the rein of Product Design & doing a job better than I could have ever done. Was it easy? Nope. Was it challenging? Definitely. But with a similar purpose and push, we’ve been able to tackle the challenges together and here we are today, I’m ‘no longer needed’. :)

So, acknowledging that and taking the back seat is what I believe leadership is, your members are now in the forefront. Like how I am at the forefront for my own leader, I aspire to keep pushing my own members to the forefront as well.

And my purpose is to continue this path of growing more, pushing more, and elevating more individuals to whichever function they are in, to be their best versions of themselves at this stage.

I guess I’ll dare to be a leader now, in my own way :)