Public Speaking & Presentation Skills Archives - Page 18 Of 18

Ever heard the saying that leaders are born to lead? Well, I’m here to advise you that anyone can become a leader. The big question that we will be answering today is how to become a leader? You just need to make the right steps in the right direction. I am a big fan of history, legends, and a firm advocate of living a life where you can be of use to others, where you being alive is a blessing to those around you. There are many ways in which you can do that, and my favorite is by being an inspirational Leader. The Leaders I am referring to are those that naturally stand out from the crowd, are visionary and go-getters, courageous and always willing to take the lead even when the stakes are high. Related Article: 26 Best Communication Skills for Leaders and Influencers Becoming a leader can be a challenge if you suddenly decide you want to become one because you will have to learn how to lead your own life first before you can lead others. And at the same time, you need to make them feel like they can follow you through anything. All while making sure you lead the people around you in the right direction. That means that they need to trust you and believe in you. In our world today, we need strong leaders to lead us to a new age. As you can tell, there’s a lot of innovation and discoveries that are altering the world and the ways we live and experience life. You need to be able to navigate this brave new digital era, and leverage the advantages and convenience it provides us to effectively communicate your vision, to inspire and move masses to follow and support you in making that vision a reality. Now, if you believe you are the one we need at this age, then pay close attention. I will give you a few guidelines on how to become a leader, and who knows you can even end up the next great leader. And I hope I’ll get to write about your great achievements in the near future. Here are 10 smart steps to take to become a leader. How to Become a Leader? 10 Smart Steps to Help You 1. Start with a Vision Simply put, once you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you need to know how to share your vision with the rest of the people. Besides, you need to know where you are leading them to. Take time and make a clear vision. Or better yet, use this time to plan for your future vision. Close your eyes and imagine a world where you are in charge. If you cannot see where you are going, then you are bound to make mistakes along the way. More importantly, don’t get stuck with the past. Even if you were successful in the past. Don’t get stuck on the same thing. Make sure you can make a brighter and better success story in the near future. That my friend is someone I can also follow to any length. 2. Be Consistent I know everyone finds it a safe bet to change when you’re pushed too hard. But as a leader, you need to know how far you can go before you decide to move with the tides. In short, that means, come what may, you need to stick your ground to the end. No one would follow a leader who is always hesitant, changing ideas with any little obstacle they find, people will admire and respect your steadfastness and consistency in pursuing a vision or goals. If it’s something you believe in, then you should be able to have a consistent character. This will help you get to your goal with ease. Also, you will be able to lead your people in the right direction. 3. Be Humble Humility is one of the strongest virtues you can find in any leader. Assuming you truly intend to know how to become a leader, and a great one I hope, then you need to be genuinely humble from today henceforth. Make sure it’s something that comes from deep within you. Take a look around you. If you can’t find anyone who’s humble, then be the change in the world. Don’t just fake it. That’s because your audience will be able to tell if you are faking anything from a mile away. One crucial fact is that you should always admit when you are wrong. No one will tell you this outright, but everyone around you will believe in you more if you admit and own your mistakes. More to that, you need to be open to any feedback and suggestions. After all, no one is perfect. That will help you learn how to improve your character and inspire people to openly share their concerns, ideas on how to improve things, on how you can make progress as a leader. 4. Stay Focused Put your head in the game. Stay focused and produce results. Not just mere words. You need to be immune to any distractions or detours. The leader acts as the beacon and shows the way to his/her followers if he gets detours, most likely everyone else will lose the way. Your main job is to guide them to a safe port, make sure your compass is working fine. Listen to the story of great leaders from the past, or current days top leaders, they will all have a similar thing to say about how they got so far, and that is Focus on your vision. You should never give up nor stray from the path or challenge you set for yourself, even when everyone else is telling you to quit. 5. Think Strategically To get people to follow you or appoint you as their leader, you need to think strategically. You need to have your eye on the future. I’m not saying you should be a wizard. But you need to be able to see the future with you in charge. Top leaders are often quoted to have said they would conquer things that seemed ludicrous at first, but then they have gone and achieved that and more because they had vision coupled with a strategy in place. 6. Show Courage and Tenacity A brave person will always find himself leading a flock. That is why you need to be brave for your people. Take control of any situation with a lot of confidence. Don’t chicken out when everything gets tough. You need to move forward with a lot of conviction. Take a look at any great leader. They’ve shown immense courage and tenacity. Sometimes you can even think they’re fearless, but it’s not that at all, they simply are courageous enough to face their fears and move forward. 7. Encourage Justice From time memorial, the human race has always fought for justice. For you to get even a small chance to become a leader, you need to be fair-minded. Others need to know where they stand when they are with you. And they should also know what they expect from you. 8. Always know how to Speak in Public Do you get shakes when you stand in front of a crowd? Well, you are not alone. For you to become a leader, you need to know that this will always be a daily thing. I mean you will always have an opportunity presented to you by the public where you need to speak your mind. That is why you need to start getting prepared to shake off that stage fright. It’s not easy to stand in front of people and convince them to believe in you. But if you take away your fear, then you will be more than convincing. It doesn’t matter how many people you want to lead, you will always have to speak in front of a crowd. Time and time again, great speeches changed the course of history, there’s just that much power in being able to deliver the right words to your audience. I have a post specifically for those looking for free public speaking classes, just follow this link. 9. Maintain other sections of Your Life Another smart step to becoming a leader is you need to make sure your life is in order. Leadership will always take a lot out of you. That means you will be spending more time becoming a leader and putting your vision in place. However, you have a life that you need to live in. Maybe you are married with kids, or you have other dependants at home. You need to take care of your loved ones. Let your life stay in check, and your leadership ambitions will prosper. After all, we need to have inspiration and motivation at home too. I know I have mine. 10. Put in the Hard Work Last but not least, you need to put in hard work. If you are an upright person, which I hope you are, then there are no shortcuts to becoming the inspirational leader, the next generation leader we aspire to become. It’s all about hard work. There are natural-born leaders in this world, but even they had to learn and improve themselves in that which didn’t come naturally to them. They had to work hard to master those skills, to internalize those traits that were required of them. That being the case, if you are not a hard worker, then engage yourself and start working. Take your time, go through the list of steps mentioned here, for those which you require a bit more time to master, take some time to learn from trusted sources, invest in the future leader in you. Final Thoughts & Advice I hope you can now relate when I say anyone can become a leader. You came here asking 'how to become a leader', and the short answer is 'You need to put in the efforts, educate yourself, find a passion, a vision and strive to make it a reality. Don’t get swayed by anything. More importantly, love what you do and fall in love with the leadership position you want to take on.' As a leader of the next generation, here’s my honest advice to you: Do not overly rely on the technology, automation, or any other piece of tech to the point of disregarding your followers/staff. Be Human, treat others well, value your followers or staff, genuinely care about what they have to say and show it, and always remember that they decided to have you as a leader, and they could have followed anyone else. I am curious to know what other steps you believe a person aspiring to become a leader should take. Share your thoughts in the comments section. That’s it, guys. Subscribe to our mail list for news and updates. REFERENCES & FURTHER READING Ashira Prossack. How to establish yourself as a leader. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2018/02/02/how-to-establish-yourself-as-a-leader/#6902bfb67237. Accessed on 03/19/2019. LsWeatt. Do these 7 things if you want to become a leader. https://www.success.com/do-these-7-things-if-you-want-to-become-a-leader/. Accessed on 03/19/2019.