5 Reasons to Lead Like You

Lead Like You

Do you remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and her friends finally get to meet the Wizard? He was a giant floating head with a booming voice. He was obviously a very powerful leader who believed that the best way to lead people is with fear.

Do you remember what happens a little bit later in the movie? That great and powerful Wizard turns out to not be a Wizard at all. He was just a very flawed man who thought the only way to lead was to be someone else.

It should be pretty easy for most people to relate with the Wizard. How often do we try to be someone we are not?

Why do we spend so much time worrying about our weaknesses and not enough time focusing on our strengths? Now is the time to stop this kind of behavior.

Here are 5 Reasons to Lead Like You:

  1. You are an expert in being YOU. No one in the world is better at it than you are. You are the best. Why would you want to be someone else when someone else is better at being someone else than you are?
  2. People don’t follow carbon copies of someone else. As a leader, your goal is to get people to follow and to help build up those people into leaders. People will only follow if they know who you are and if they trust who you are. Lead Like You and people will follow. Lead like someone else and they won’t.
  3. Leading like someone else makes it easier to pass blame for mistakes. Effective leaders always accept blame and take personal responsibility for their actions. But when you are trying to be someone else it is easy to say “I just wasn’t myself.” Of course you weren’t. It was intentional.
  4. You are capable of greatness. When you realize your potential, focus on your strengths, work to improve certain weaknesses and step up as a leader you can be GREAT. You can THRIVE rather than barely survive. Too many people are barely surviving because they are trying to be someone they’re not.
  5. You are called to be the BEST version of yourself. You are not called to be the best version of someone else. You are special. You are unique. Knowing all of this, why would you want to lead like someone else?

Back to The Wizard of Oz example for a moment. After it is revealed that the Wizard is not a wizard at all, after Toto pulls the curtain and reveals that the Wizard is just a man only then was he able to help out Dorothy and her friends. He had the ability to lead and help others, but not when he was trying to be someone else.

That is the challenge for you. Stop trying to be someone you are not. So what you are not good at math (me neither!). You are awesome at many other things. Stop focusing on the bad and start focusing on the good.

Leadership is about being true to yourself. It is about realizing your full potential not someone else’s. Now is the time to Lead Like You.

Remember what the great Dr. Seuss said: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Posted on
Category: Leadership
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

4 thoughts on “5 Reasons to Lead Like You”

  1. I believe that we need to overcome some of our weaknesses or at least, minimizes them. If your job or nearly promoted job requires some public speaking or talking to the general public (like a police officer for example), then you do need to remedied it by joining a Toastmaster club. You look at Donald Trump and Bush, Jr., and oh boy, they should have joined a Toastmaster club a long time ago.

    Frankly, if I was bad at math, I would be totally in the wrong in browbeating my children about if their math skills was bad.

    Edward Deming stated that the problems with employers is that they always look for someone who had 100% of the qualifications that they are looking for. Deming followed his own rule of 50/50. Look for someone who has 50% of what you are looking for and then sees if that person has the potential to grow into the other 50%.

    Otherwise, it is a great article.

    • Thanks for the comment, Gunther. Great points. Toastmasters is a great way to improve as a speaker. A lot of my speaker friends started out in Toastmasters. Great point from Deming. We should always be looking to grow. We just should not spend our time trying to be someone we aren’t. That is extremely difficult sometimes.

  2. Great article Billy. Loved the Wizard of Oz reference. Completely agree that everyone needs to believe and know that we are capable of greatness.

Comments are closed.