Mindset of Leadership
Believing in your Power
Ask yourself, “Am I a leader?”
This is an interesting question because it gets to the root of how we perceive ourselves within the community of our co-workers, and in our personal associations with friends and family. We tend to look at leaders and ask ourselves if we are leadership material based on how we view the leadership skills we see in others.
I once heard about an interesting study related to this. A leadership developer asked a gathering of kindergarten children, “How many of you consider yourselves a leader?” Without exception, every child in the group raised their hand.
Later he asked a gathering of middle school kids the same question. This time about half the group raised their hand. After that, he asked a group of adult teachers the same question and almost no one raised their hand.
That begs the question, “Why?”
There are a number of probable reasons why many adults don’t consider themselves a leader. It’s a combination of psychological factors, group behavioral dynamics, and reality.
Tomorrow we’ll go deeper into the psychology of why we lose faith in ourselves when we compare ourselves to others.
