You aren’t your role, and your title doesn’t automatically make you a leader.

Unfortunately, that’s the opposite of how most managers think. While it’s true that a title comes with responsibility and an opportunity to lead, a title isn’t leadership.

A job title provides responsibility and an opportunity to lead, but a title isn’t leadership.

Take Chris, a VP of Sales, as an example.  Early in his career, he aspired to move from salesperson to Director of Sales. When he got the promotion, he mistakenly thought that because of his new role, team members would respect, listen, and give their best effort to him because of his title. He was wrong. Since he hadn’t taken the development of his leadership skills seriously, he was swimming in the deep end, trying to figure it out on the fly. He failed. Nine months into the role, an underperforming team managed by an underdeveloped manager caused a pink slip to land in his inbox.

Chris didn’t realize that titles make people look to you for leadership, but that doesn’t automatically mean it exists. The hard truth is that the type of leader you are is a window into your soul.

The type of leader you are is a window into your soul.

Your leadership paints a picture of the work you have put in to develop your:

• Character – The maturity of the mental and moral qualities that are distinctive to you.
• Communication skills – The ability to convey messages clearly and foster meaningful connections.
• Emotional Intelligence – The capacity to channel your emotions to work for you instead of against you.
• Mindset – The mental perspective that shapes how you approach challenges, growth, success, and failure.
• Heart for people – The genuine care and empathy that drives you to elevate others

Whether you like it or not, all five reveal themselves over time and are a window into your soul.

Why Leadership is Challenging

In Building the Best and Accelerate Leadership, I defined a leader as “Someone whose actions inspire, empower, and serve in order to elevate others.” There is nothing easy about waking up daily to breathe life into others, allowing people to make decisions, and putting others’ needs ahead of your own.

While those skills independently are challenging, nothing is as difficult as taking responsibility for people’s actions you can’t control and for outcomes that you can only influence. You have to be quick to take the blame when things go wrong and quick to give credit to others when things go right.

The hard truth is that leadership is painful and rewarding at the same time. It is hard with one person and easy with the next. It is a struggle in the short term and rewarding in the long term.

I don’t write that to discourage but to encourage you. The world needs people who know the difficulty of leadership and willingly choose it anyway. The people in your company or on your team need strong, courageous, positive, and selfless people who desire the responsibility of leading.

Teams need strong, courageous, positive, and selfless people who desire the responsibility of leading.

No matter who you are, where you work, or where you live, if you take responsibility for things out of your control and focus on elevating others, you are leading.

Why the Best Leaders Put In a Relentless Amount of Work

All meaningful advances take time. Great things take great struggle. Most of the meaningful things in life that can change future outcomes require sacrifice. Your leadership is one of them.

According to Leadership Quarterly, 26% of your leadership skills are genetic, while 74% are developed or learned. So, while you might be wired for leadership, your skills must be molded through hard work and application.

You must know that leadership is a journey, not a destination. It’s a window into your soul, not a role.

Whether you lead at work or home, developing into the best version of yourself, capable of navigating challenging situations and guaranteed adversity, requires relentless work on yourself.

Closing

Your title doesn’t make you a leader. Leadership is about making a positive impact on those in your path. The best part of leadership is there is always an opportunity to learn and do it better.

Chris, the Director of Sales, learned this the hard way. His first failure was his wake-up call. He now leads the highest-performing sales team in a global sales force. Maybe this is your wake-up call or maybe it’s a reminder. Either way, how people experience your leadership isn’t your role, it’s a window into your soul.

Optimistic Outlook: Check out a free daily reminder to choose optimism over pessimism. A quick dose of uplifting content might be the precise trigger to neutralize those drips of negativity before they overflow.

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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and The Sales Infrastructure. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.