Do YOU have the Leadership Habit?

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What is leadership? You don’t become a leader because of your title or position. You become a leader because of your ability to get things done. If you want to accomplish amazing things and become successful more in your business, career, relationships, finances, and any other part of your life, there is one quality, one habit that you need to possess. Do you know what that is?

Do YOU have the Leadership Habit?

According to Elbert Hubbard, you can classify people into four groups depending on their leadership potential. There are those who do the right thing without being told, those who do the right thing when told once, those who do the right thing when necessity forces them to do it, and those who do not do the right thing at all.

1. Those who do the right thing without being told.

These are the people who plan cities and skyscrapers, explore new lands and uncharted jungles, invent new tools, gadgets, medicine, and other technologies. These are also the entrepreneurs who start their own businesses. These are self-employed professionals who start their own offices. These are the employees who do more and better work than everyone else and thus they reach the highest ranks in the places that they work for.

These are the people who do amazing things even if nobody tells them to do it, and they continue to do it even if others say it cannot be done. These are the creators, innovators, and leaders of the world, and they are the ones who become the most successful.

2. Those who do the right thing when told once.

If you’ve ever reached a leadership position, you probably know someone like this. If you need something done like a report, a project proposal, or inspect a certain location, you know you can count on them to do it well. That’s why you recommend them for “best team member”, pay raises, and as your replacement if you need to leave the company.

These people do very well in life, but not always as well as the first. These are the best employees, managers, and supervisors and they attain great positions in their professions. They are asked to lead new divisions in their company, establish new branches in other countries, design new projects and systems, and many more, and they do it so well they gain the positions they deserve.

Unfortunately, their potential is very much limited. If nobody tells them to try this great thing or that, they likely won’t even start. Of the millions of possibilities and opportunities that they encounter in life, they only get to do a few—the things people tell them to do.

3. Those who do the right thing when necessity forces them to.

These are the students who only start studying for tests when they find out they are failing the class. These are the employees who only start doing their jobs seriously when they hear they’re about to be fired or retrenched.

They pay debts only when you seriously threaten to take them to small claims court. They only start planning their next career moves when they get fired from their last job. They only start exercising and eating healthy food when they doctor tells them they are at serious risk of heart problems or diabetes.

You probably know people like those, and you will probably notice that they are always facing hard times. Why? It’s simply because they don’t take action until they face problems. Unfortunately, things almost ALWAYS become problems unless you constantly work to improve things or actively prevent them from happening. Think about it: When did you last perform maintenance on your car? Your house? Buy a fire extinguisher? Calculate your income, debt and expenses every month? These people don’t do any of those until it’s too late.

4. Those who don’t do the right thing at all.

When told to study for the test in order to graduate and get a good career, they skip school and fail all their classes. Then when they grow older they complain about why they can’t get a good job. When told to get a job, they continue slacking off, borrow money from friends and family, and never pay them back.

These people are the ones destined for failure. Instead of studying for tests, paying their debts, improving their businesses or careers, or do anything else worthwhile, they simply never make an attempt, fall for several vices like gambling or cheating people, and they end up at the lowest positions in life.

Let me ask you this: Which of those four groups do you belong to?

You are the only one who can answer that question. Nobody is grading you here, and nobody will judge you for your answer. Elbert Hubbard taught us that leadership is essential for success. Leadership, however, depends on one major quality that few of us possess:

INITIATIVE. The ability to do what needs to be done without being told.

If you have it or if you choose to develop it, you’ll find opportunities and good luck. How can you not? You are constantly looking for them after all. You will likely do things like setting goals, saving money, paying bills and debts on time, planning for retirement, inventing a new product or creating a new service, or something else. You’ll simply think of them on your own, and more importantly, you start DOING them on your own.

You reap what you sow. Do good things, get great things in return. Do evil or DO NOTHING, you reap terrible consequences instead.

Initiative. Do. You. Have it?

“The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and honors, for one thing, and that is INITIATIVE.” — Elbert Hubbard

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