The eternal question: are leaders born or made?
The truth is, both.
Although we are always being urged to ‘become’ leaders, the fact is that you cannot do anything to become a leader. What you can do, is create a space where the qualities of true leadership can blossom naturally.
Leadership is nothing but breaking free of the idea that you are a separate, limited individual, and allowing the spontaneous fulfillment of all your dimensions.
To the extent that an individual is willing to go beyond his personal agenda and hold a vision of, and for, that Whole, to that extent he can be a leader. Leadership is the direct result of a conscious choice of an individual to renounce his old idea of self and open himself to the challenge of his own unfolding.
Leadership is a process of organic growth. Although one can keep accumulating the skills that can give one the status of a leader, the state of leadership cannot happen until you are ready to expand beyond the old ideas of self and world.
Leadership is at once a breaking down and a building up, an allowing and an unfolding. As an individual grow towards leadership, older patterns of thinking and being fall away, and a new individual emerges who is a visionary and an inspirational force. He recognizes and nurtures the potential not only in himself but also in others. The different dimensions seen in a true leader – effortless decision-making, confidence, responsiveness, sensitivity – are only external indications that his inner space is established in leader consciousness. Awareness practice:
What is holding you back from expressing yourself as a leader?