Who Is The Leadership Journey About?

How you behave is the barrier between you and your dream

I’m really pleased that you are continuing to read through my articles. What this is telling me is that you want to become a highly effective leader. You want to serve your team better, and together accomplish amazing things.

The more you keep reading through my articles, you are gaining more and more of an advantage over the rest of the “leaders”. What you are learning will serve you and your team a lot. The fact that you have invested in yourself shows that you want to make that difference.

1. Leaders Are Learners

Most people who are in leadership positions don’t think they need to learn anything about leadership, but they are wrong. They see the position as the end of the journey, when actually it is the beginning.

You are becoming a lot more valuable to your team and your organisation as you strive towards becoming a highly effective leader. Your influence will grow beyond your team and through your organisation, with the more action you take on applying what you are learning in this article.

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You will also start to separate yourself from the managers, who don’t think they need to learn anything about leadership.

However, don’t miss the point here. You MUST take action on what you are learning. Reading this article and taking an interest in leadership is not enough. Leadership is not about you, however it does start with you. To influence your team to take action, you must be the one to first take action.

Are you beginning to see why you need to grow as a leader? What I am trying to do is to help you visualise and see clearly why you need to apply what you are learning. I want to help you see how it will benefit you, your team and your organisation.

Being a manager is a very important and lucrative role in any organisation, so you need to have the best knowledge to do the job. But, you also need to constantly grow beyond your position. The potential that you have to become better as a leader and as a person is huge. Together we need to harness that potential so you can focus.

Who is the hardest person you will ever lead and influence? YOU. To grow as a leader you need to focus, and what I want to focus on is how and what you should do to grow. I will continue to explain why you need to grow also.

2. Can You Lead Yourself?

Take into account that I can tell you how, what, and why, but I cannot do any of this for you. You will need to put the work in to apply what you are learning from my articles and develop yourself.

Are you looking to improve your job and your team? Then, you will need to improve yourself. Are you looking to increase your salary? Then, you will need to improve yourself. Are you looking to be promoted within your organisation? Then, you will need to improve yourself.

Are you looking to get a better job outside of your organisation and move on? Then, you will need to improve yourself. Are you looking for a better life for you and your family? Then, you will need to improve yourself.

All of those questions are why you need to work on and improve yourself, before you help and influence others to do the same. Anything that you want in your life to be improved, MUST START WITH YOU.

In any area of your life, not just leadership, this principle is the same everywhere. If you want to be better, then you need to improve. If you want to have more, then you need to improve.

This may sound blunt but it’s the truth. If you want to grow in life, you need to start with yourself. To make these improvements you need to be deliberate. Improvements will start to happen in your life when you start deliberately developing yourself. That is a promise I can make right now.

3. Working On Yourself Deliberately

When you start working on yourself deliberately, you will start to see changes in yourself. Others will start to see those changes too. People will be complimenting you for the changes you have made. That is when you know that what you are working on is actually working.

For some people, when they start making changes, they will happen quickly. For others it will take a bit more time. If it takes more time for you then don’t worry, it will happen. The important thing is to NOT GIVE UP.

You don’t have to be intense with your learning, just be consistent each day, and put the time into it. What you are doing is increasing your knowledge, and that is what is important.

If you consistently invest the time in developing yourself, and DON’T STOP, then you will eventually be able to achieve things that you probably can’t even comprehend right now. All it needs is the consistent time investment each day.

I am living proof that this works. In 2003 I was made redundant from my job as a mechanical engineer. I had only completed my apprenticeship a month earlier and I was 21 years old. I was panicking. What am I going to do?

That was the question I couldn’t get out of my head. I took a job as a technician with a bottle making company for 4 months and left I was then a heating fitter for 8 months and left. Then I joined the railway. It was when I joined Liverpool’s train operating company when I was 22 years old, that I started to work on myself.

I persuaded the company to fund my 4 year part time engineering degree. At the same time I joined an engineering graduate scheme, and I started studying leadership on my own time. Now, 14 years later I have worked in Scotland as an engineering production manager and performance manager.

I have worked for Siemens in London as an engineering performance manager, I have been a deputy professional head of engineering, and also a senior project manager for a worldwide engineering consultancy.

Most of all, I am a chartered engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, I am a mentor for aspiring engineers, I am an author and a speaker. If you would have said all this would happen to me when I was made redundant, I would have told you to “Get lost!”

You too can have a similar experience and become so much more.

4. Are You Inspired?

I hope this can inspire you because I am really not telling you this to impress you. There is absolutely no reason for me to impress you.

However, I have every reason to inspire you and prove to you that taking action on what you are learning will work for you, and for your team. You are still reading this article, so that tells me that you want more out of your life and your career.

I had no thought about being a chartered engineer, a mentor, an author and a speaker in 2003. I didn’t even know what any of them were.

It may not be on your radar to become a chartered engineer or an author, but it is clear that you want to become more in life just like I do. At this very moment you may not have the self-belief that you can achieve your ultimate dream or goal. If you don’t then I am not going to tell you that you can.

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However, I know you agree that it is possible. So, what you are getting from me is leadership principles and tools that will help you to make your dream come true.

Your dream may be to climb the leadership ladder within your company, I am telling you it is possible. Your dream may be to become the managing director or the CEO, I am telling you it is possible. Your dream may be to one day own your own company, I am telling you it is possible.

Remember, leadership is not about you, however it does start with you. Developing and working on yourself also starts with you. Keeping the focus on improving yourself will also improve your leadership, and will help you when influencing your team and beyond.

The best leaders in the world deliberately work on themselves consistently EVERY DAY. Make it your business to do the same.

The difference between a leader and a follower is; leaders deliberately and consistently work on improving themselves EVERY DAY.

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.

Check out my other articles by Clicking HERE

All the best,

Tom (LeadGrowInfluence)

10 thoughts on “Who Is The Leadership Journey About?

  1. Hi Tom, another wonderful article. You make so many great points but one of them that stuck out to me was how to move past just being a manager and to become a leader. I’ve never had a management role, but have worked long enough to have had plenty of them.

    As you mentioned, it’s once people get to this level that they think they know enough and have done enough. But a true leader doesn’t stop, they continue to better themselves and, in turn, better those around them. I think it’s also important to work on yourself first before you lead others. I liken it to building a house.

    Only once a strong, sturdy foundation has been built, the rest of the house and amenities can be built. This was a motivating article to inspire others to challenge themselves and think about what is possible. Thank you for sharing your personal story and expertise!

    1. Hi Dereck,

      Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate your kind words.

      You are so right, leadership never stops. Leaders are learning something new every single day. Whether that’s about themselves, their people or both. So, don’t stop learning and keep building that leadership house.

      Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.

      All the best,

      Tom

  2. Tom,

    So accurate when you said that becoming a leader starts with you. It does. You always have to learn and grow in order to be a good leader. Anyone, honestly, can be a boss. It’s simple, you don’t have to know the job or how to manage people. You simply have to sit in your chair and tell them what to do. They’re not going to respect you of course, nor are they going to do a good job. In fact, the whole team will be a lot of wif waf because if they only have a boss, they’ll try to manage themselves. That never works out. Too many people trying to be chiefs.

    Being a leader is so different, as you mention. It takes a lot of time, education, reflection and constant battle with yourself if you’re doing it right. Kind of like parenting. I learned that while I was a GM. But, my people respected me, and wanted to follow me wherever I went. They still call me today.

    Great article and information. Loved it as always!

    Katrina

    1. Hi Katrina,

      Thank you for your comment. I’m really pleased that you found the article valuable.

      I couldn’t agree more, learning to grow into a leader is so important. Leadership is a lifelong journey, it is not something that you work towards and then finish at a certain time like a degree or course. Leaders are constant learners every day.

      Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.

      All the best,

      Tom

  3. Hello Tom, this is a really great article.

    Leadership definitely starts from you.
    You should be ready and willing to work on yourself .
    You should be ready to learn from even your subordinates. A true leader never stops learning or thinks he knows everything. Every day we are bound to learn new things and we should always avail to learn the positive things that will benefit us one way or the other.

    I am also glad you are a living proof that these points actually do work and thank you for sharing this too. I really do hope it inspires each and everyone who reads this because it will definitely help anybody through their leadership journey once the person is willing to learn.

    Keep up the good work
    Cheers

    1. Hi Femi,

      Thank you for your comment. I’m so happy that you found this a great article, means a lot to me.

      I couldn’t agree with you more that leadership is about others, but it starts with you. Leaders are learners and we can learn from anybody, not just the selected few.

      Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.

      All the best,

      Tom

  4. Great write-up on Leaders and how they view the world. Working on yourself is the only way to become better each day.

    I love the concept of trying to be just 1% better than yesterday. And look at what happens in just 100 days. You are 100% better.

    Regards,
    Aparna

    1. Hi Aparna,

      Thank you for your comment. I’m pleased that you found this a great article.

      I completely agree that working on ourselves every day is how we are going to grow and improve.

      Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.

      All the best,

      Tom

  5. Hi Tom,

    I agree, becoming a leader is not the end of the journey, but the journey only continues. A leader who doesn’t work on himself can’t inspire others to follow him. You must lead by example and if you don’t give the example, then you can’t expect your team members to work on improving themselves either.

    I don’t really aspire to climbing the ladder at the school where I work, because climbing the ladder means more meetings and dealing with endless parents’ (rich people) complaints for which I wouldn’t want to use my energy. My aspiration is to become financially independent and self-sufficient and leave school, working on my websites and books, and being my own boss.

    1. Hi Christine,

      Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found this article valuable.

      Leading by example is the most important leadership principle for me. You are right, we can only inspire our people by showing them the way and helping them to follow us because they want to. Not follow us because they have to.

      Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.

      All the best,

      Tom

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