Everybody Is a Leader Somewhere

I’m not at the top, and I’m not at the bottom either; I’m right there in the middle where most of us live, and for a long time I thought a leader was just a title, a boss or a CEO or somebody with their name on the truck. If you didn’t have that, you were just existing. I was wrong about that.

I believe now everybody is a leader on some level; it’s just a question of where and how they find it when it’s not staring them right in the face. I’ve seen it in places that don’t have any title at all. I’ve seen it in the volunteer who just jumps in and helps when nobody asked him to. I’ve seen it in moms and dads holding a family together when everything is falling apart. I’ve seen it in the trades when a young guy gets handed the radio on Monday, and they tell him, “You’re in charge”; yesterday he was on the crew. I’ve seen it in the small business owner trying to make payroll on Friday when the money isn’t there on Wednesday, and I’ve seen it in the quietest leader of all, the man or woman who just leads themselves down a hard path every day and keeps going when it would be easier to quit.

Some folks have a few of those traits, some have a lot, and some just exist, and that’s not judging anybody; that’s just honest. Leadership isn’t an on-off switch; it’s more like a dimmer switch you turn up a little each day.

Every day we have the opportunity to lead; recognizing those opportunities is a distinct, and sometimes hard, challenge. Stepping up can be as simple as making your own bed and cleaning up after yourself, because you have to lead yourself before you can lead anyone else. It doesn’t always matter what it is; what matters is that you are trying to make it better by engaging and helping. Leading that effort is up to you. Doing it the best way you know how in that moment is the end result; it may be wrong, and that’s okay, because trying to make it better today, and maybe even tomorrow, is still better than just existing and doing nothing. It comes from inside you; it’s that gut feeling when you see an issue as it stands and something inside says someone should do something, and you realize that someone is you.

Nobody’s coming to appoint you; you just have to step up where you are. We have plenty of people who just exist, we don’t need more of that, we need more people willing to turn that dimmer switch up one notch. You already have what it takes to lead somewhere; you just have to look around you, not up above you. It’s staring you in the face; it’s the thing you need to do right in front of you.

Walt Mabe
Front Royal, VA

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