Quality leadership is few and far in between.
If you have ever played competitive sports, you have probably had a team captain that embodied a true leader, and you have probably had a captain where you often questioned how they got to wear the "C".
We were able to identify a quality team captain as being the guy or girl on the team that led by example.
They may have not been the most skilled player, but you can bet they were always the one putting their heart and soul into playing hard - they led by example by always playing and practicing hard for the benefit of the team.
Not to mention that the good team captain always knew how to get their players to rally together by motivating their teammates towards one common goal - to win.
The poor team captain was the one who wore the "C" to boost their own ego.
Maybe they were a great player, maybe they weren't, but it was obvious them being the captain made them feel superior to the rest of the team.
The egotistical team captain was the player that nobody in the room truly respected.
When we think of good leadership, it is obvious that we associate good leaders as those who are leading by example for the benefit of something greater than themselves.
The good leader is the one who puts their heart and soul into everything that they do so that they can inspire those around them to do the same.
As I mentioned above, they may not be the smartest or most talented, but they will always give their best efforts for the larger cause.
Some people were never fortunate enough to have a good leader in their lives.
Maybe you never played sports or had any sort of quality mentorship growing up.
Maybe you go to work for a job where their boss doesn't even know who you are, other than just being another name on a piece of paper.
Regardless of the circumstances, some people have never truly been exposed to quality leaders.
One thing I will say is that if you have been exposed to a quality leader in your life, they are easy to distinguish the bad ones.
It is easier to distinguish the leader who is striving to work for something larger than themselves, versus the leader who is only doing things for themselves.
People can be awfully persuasive, especially in the modern technological world through use of social media.
Many people out there look up to social media personas as leaders as the embodiment of somebody they wish to emulate.
If you have read any of my recent blogs, you would know that I find this to be highly skeptical.
I am not saying there are not good leaders on the internet because there are people out there who truly are working to provide genuine value to their audiences.
With that being said, it is fair to be skeptical of what you might find out there simply because you do not know these people personally or what truly fuels them to be successful in life.
In other words, you really have no way of knowing if someone is truly out there to bring you genuine value, or only bringing you what is perceived as value for boosting their own ego by making a profit.
If you have never been exposed to a true leader before, the lines of genuine intentions and boosting someone else's ego become blurred.
The best thing anyone can do in this position is to find someone in real life that can lead or mentor you in the right direction.
Finding someone that recognizes you and makes the effort to bring the best out of you personally.
This can be hard to do on social media for the simple fact that many people out there are speaking to audiences and mass amounts of people.
If you find someone who genuinely wants to help you, then the best thing you can do is follow their lead.
Maybe you like the way this person thinks and operates, and it is something that you want to learn and emulate in your own life.
Being able to sit down and talk to this person directly will give you the clarity that you need to eventually become a leader of your own.
When you are in the presence of a good leader, you will know.
This person truly wants to help you and give you value in which you can bestow upon others.
Following the right leader can be just the thing that can transform your entire life.
Mentorship has become a big phenomenon in modern culture and for good reason, because mentorship is a personal connection you have with someone else with the intention of achieving some sort of goal in life.
In the world of training horses, our job is to encourage the horse to follow our lead by a means of providing safety.
Working to build trust and respect with horses is a fundamental law in getting the horse to follow our lead.
This same rule applies for finding a mentor as well - you must work together to earn eachothers trust and respect so that you can both achieve the common goal.
The more good leaders that you follow, the more you will be able to take bits and pieces from each one and develop your own leadership style that truly suits you.
The ultimate goal is to help yourself so that you can help others.
The world needs more good leaders, and you could just be the one to help pave the way for future generations.