Learning to Lead So Others Will Follow

It's an admirable prize to compete to become a great leader others want to follow. Many of my coaching clients are pursuing that prize. However, to me, leadership isn't that type of competition. I think of it more like golf. 

Golf is competitive, but you're competing with yourself more than with anyone else. It's more about learning and improving.

Every time you tee off, it's an opportunity to get a cleaner hit, land a better position or even score that almost-mythical hole-in-one. It's an opportunity to be better than the golfer you were the hole before.

Learning To Lead

Leadership is like golf because they're both journeys of personal development. They are also both acquired skills. More specifically, success in golf and in leadership depends on a complex set of skills that you must build by yourself.

In other words, nobody is born a leader. You make yourself into one through learning, practice, and consistent, honest assessment of your progress.  

Marking Your Progress

In golf, you have a way to mark your progress on this course of self-development. You keep track of your scores over time and watch the average number of strokes go down. In leadership, things are a little different — but the concept is the same.

It might seem impossible to track your progress as a leader. But, as I mentioned before, leadership is a set of skills and practices that you can learn, refine, and apply to different situations.  

How good of a leader are you? That might be hard to answer. How good of a listener are you? That's a specific leadership skill, and it's much easier to assess. If you're having trouble assessing yourself, try involving someone else in your learning process. Asking a close colleague or a coach such as myself might be the answer.

Inspiring Others

People are motivated by talent and well-practiced ability, but they're also motivated by the potential for growth and improvement. You might not be a world-class leader right now, but you're moving in that direction.

Part of being a leader is right there in the name: You lead. You stand out in front of the group and move in a positive direction.

Your learning process is a major part of that. However, that process must be guided by a refined vision of success — one that you can easily share with the people you want to inspire.

Redefining Your Vision of Success

You might win a PGA tour, you might get the lowest score in your group, or you might shave a stroke off your game at the local course. Which of these makes you a better golfer? In golf, like in leadership, character and purpose matter more than your score.

To me, true achievement is playing better than you played before. It's that laser-focused self-improvement and dedication that inspires me — both in the leaders and the golfers I admire. When you commit to learning — when you commit to pursuing a unique vision of success as a leader — others will want to follow you on that journey.

When it comes to your skills and practices – what can you do better to learn, refine and apply your skills and practices when it comes to leadership?