We don’t just need leaders, we need leaders who actually THINK. We need what PR firms refer to as “thought leaders“: people who are recognized for their innovative ideas and who demonstrate enough confidence to promote those ideas as actionable distilled insights (things others can actually do).

Whenever I hear someone say, “We don’t have any leaders…we need leadership,” the first thing I say in response is “leadership is a natural phenomenon; we always have leaders whether we consciously recognize it or not.”

The human species has always been led by certain individuals (and will continue to be so) because we instinctually look for them…in cases where they don’t exist, we search them out and follow them by default.

Ask anyone with younger brothers or sisters about this, or just look at popular culture for examples. Human beings intuitively look for others to follow, emulate and model their behavior after…

Since we’re social creatures by nature and we’re genetically hard-wired for leadership, the question isn’t “Why don’t we have any leaders?,” (because we always have and always will) but rather, “What kind of leaders do we have?” and “What kind of leaders do we need at this point in time???”

Because we live in a technological world, we’re no longer dependent upon leaders for our physical survival. While in more ancient times, a leader’s actions and decisions directly effected his tribe’s actual, in-the-moment situation, in current times, the nature of leadership is a far more abstract, mental thing.

Maybe this is why you might hear a rap artist say “I’m not a leader….” He thinks that because his audience isn’t physically dependent on him (in the same way his family is), that he can’t be called their leader.

Of course, on a deeper level, what he means is that he can’t take personal responsibility for another person’s actions (he has too many fans for that), which is true. However, by disowning leadership, he’s also disowning a key power: the power to help direct somebody else’s thinking.

I WOULD NEVER DENY THAT I’M A LEADER, because when I speak, people listen…Things may not be on the scale that I’m working on getting it towards yet (the email listserve only has about 150 heads on it so far), but I’d be a fool to think that the term “thought leader” doesn’t apply to me…that would be childish.

Like I said before, intelligence is dying, and self-confidence is becoming EXTINCT. If we continue on the path we’re on now, we’re heading towards a world with a dumbed-down population that promotes a prolonged state of infancy among its people; a world that lacks the substance of meaningful ideas and promotes the laziness, ignorance and mediocrity as an almost desirable trait.

So if you have ideas that can help out in anyway, take this as my personal request to DO SOMETHING. (Today’s social tools make it easy, so start believing in yourself enough to do it and just get started.)

Also, know that leadership benefits you personally as well. In my life, I’ve learned that leadership is primarily about character and influence (and how those two intertwine), so essentially, becoming a leader means becoming the type of person who’s capable of accomplishing great things, both for others AND for himself…

If you need any more convincing, listen here:

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Peace,
+B

(p.s.: I’ll be starting my own Blog Talk Radio Show this Wednesday @ 6pm, eastern time called “Mind-Elevation Radio w/ Bryan Ogilvie.” Preview the channel and find out what the first episode is on by clicking here)






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