To Be a Leader - Thinking about what it takes!

Obviously, the skills required to be a leader will vary depending on the situation, and each potential leader has to evaluate whether s/he is competent to do what is needed. Behind that, however, is the question of what one seeks in being a leader, and this means assessing one's values. What is it that you really want in assuming a leadership role? Part of this will be governed by the scope of responsibility you are acquiring. Different situations often require different leaders. Someone who leads quite effectively in a city council, for example, may be terrible at being a senator.

In considering whether you want to be the leader, there is a practical consideration of the ultimate goals. Is it simply a task that needs to be accomplished, such as would be done by a committee? For example a group may be tasked to research and issue a report. Getting the report out in a readable form is the objective. Hence, the leadership revolves around getting the group to prepare and issue that report in a satisfactory manner. Now, that is a far from taking over a country or leading a large corporation. Needless to say, there is a wide range of scope in what leaders are tasked to do. Thus, the answer of what does it take to be an effective leader will be highly correlated, for the most part, with the objective and the situation.

That being said, knowing how to measure the effectiveness of a leader will shed some light at what does it take to be a leader? Thus, what are the gauges for effective leadership? There surely is:

1. The goal and its subsets of objectives.
2. The ability to judge whether the objective are done.
3. The effectiveness in getting people to do the work.

In the same breath, just because an objective hasn't been met doesn't mean that the person is not a "good" leader. Leaders do fail but the fault may not be theirs. So, where does this all place you in thinking about leadership?