Thoughts on Being a Leader

Initiative Skill: How to Develop the Skill 

When developing your skill of taking initiative, the best way is to develop the skill yourself, is to sell the idea to others. Every salesperson will tell you that it is very hard to sell a product that the salesperson doesn’t believe in. So through the principle of auto-suggestion, every time you talk about it, the more you will be convinced of its merits. 

You will become convinced regardless if it is true or not. Take that in for a moment. All the things we say about ourselves throughout the day, convince our subconscious that those words are true. Even if they are false. So by selling the idea of taking initiative to others, you are forced to practice it yourself. Otherwise, how can you describe what to do for others to follow? At the end of the day, people follow leaders.

Brands of Leadership

According to Napoleon Hill, there are two brands of leadership to consider. The Bonapart style of self-promoting leadership and the Lincoln style of serving others. He considers the Bonapart style to be destructive and the Lincoln style to be creative in nature. 

While he presents both styles for the readers to consider, he does make a strong point that neither style will work without taking initiative. Leaders invite themselves to take ownership of the problems. By taking the responsibility they assume the power it wields. 

The Penalty of Leadership

The penalty of leadership is envy, greed, and jealousy. In today’s vernacular, we call them ‘haters’. The best way to know if you are doing a good job as the leader is to determine if you have haters. You see, the very nature of leadership puts you out front in a public way and it is impossible to please everyone. The leaders that attempt to do so, become very ineffective and the organization is worse because of it. 

All geniuses and masters of their craft have haters who attempt to tear them down. This is actually a good sign that you are at the top and have stepped out of mediocrity. I believe that this has a secondary benefit. It also makes you more resilient to be able to make even harder decisions. Not worrying about pleasing everyone and focusing on the greater purpose allows the leader to make the best decisions for the organization. 

Cooperation is Better than Conflict

Finally, the point of leadership is to bring about organized effort around a problem. The only way to do that is to secure the cooperation of others. Cooperation is the key to bringing everything from humanity's advancement into space to the retail clerk selling lipstick. It all takes cooperation. Without it, nothing happens. And of course, cooperation without Trust is a non-starter. Trust can, in some context, be a synonym for Cooperation.

With the cooperation of others focused on a definite chief aim, everything is possible. To do so, it takes a leader with the initiative to organize the effort, build trust, and be resilient through the hate. 

w/ Gratitude,

-Ken

Insights from the 16 Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill, published in 1928. Public Domain.