It’s easy to get leadership confused.

If you’re a manager or are in a managing position you can call yourself a leader.

If you have charisma or are charismatic you can call yourself a leader.

If you’re an entrepreneur or are good at starting things you can also call yourself a leader.

But, even if these things can be part of what being a leader is, none of them make you a leader.

You can have the title, the presence and the initiative to lead but, ultimately, leadership is about who follows you and how much influence you have over them.

If people aren’t willing to follow you, you’re not much of a leader. Make sure you win people over before asking them to follow. Leading without influence is like pulling a dead horse to work… hard. ;)

Have you ever been positioned as a leader without the influence to lead?