EDITOR’S FORUM

As leaders, your mission is to…well, lead. Lead your business, your family and in some cases your community. Regardless of our station in life, all of us should consider how best to lead in any situation. As leaders, you will be looked upon for direction. How you respond goes a long way toward establishing your leadership type and ability. Your words, and more important, your actions, will be the measure of your leadership.

Leadership requires you to take the time to reflect on your actions prior to choosing a direction. Think about how your response or directive will be received before just blurting it out. This does not mean proceeding with trepidation. It means taking the time to consider the effect of your words. And again, I cannot stress enough the importance of your actions. People often give your actions more weight than the things you say.

And this is where trust enters the equation.

The first thing you must achieve is trust in yourself and in those with whom you lead. Without that trust, it will be hard to move forward in your business or your personal life. For this article, we will focus on your business. You can choose to lead in life—or not.

To gain and maintain the trust of others, you will need to be consistent with your message. You will also need to be humble enough to admit when you are or have been wrong. Yes, leaders do at times make bad decisions. Knowing how to recover from them will be important to maintaining the trust of others.

Ask yourself, “Do I believe in who I am and what I do?” Here MY

is an example: You left your employer and decided to open your own business. To do that, you may have felt you could do it better. So, can you? If that was your conviction, then own it! Believe you can and lead your way through it.

Asking the advice of those who went before you does help, but taking your own direction can be satisfying, as well knowing you’re charting your own course. Both success and failure will be yours to learn as you embark on your leadership journey. Make sure you take the time to think through your actions to gauge whether or not you’re moving toward the desired outcome.

You are the only one who can lead your business. Yes, you could hire someone to lead for you, but why miss all the joy of learning your own lessons? Knowing the outcome of each of your decisions would be great. This is where your ability to know before you go comes in. Having done your homework of reviewing the path of each of your decisions, you can arrive at an informed conclusion.

Leadership requires this of you. Know that others are depending on you for direction. Think about that every time you lead, and back it up with the appropriate actions. Those who follow your lead will begin to build trust knowing you’ve taken great care when making a statement that effects them and their future. Then, having done all of this, learn and live like the leader you know you can be!