EVERYBODY IS A LEADER

Given the challenge to write about leadership immediately took me back to my days of working in large multinational businesses where leadership qualities are force fed to management.

My heart sank a little as all the business school terminology and diagrams flooded back.

It was all about driving the values and purposes that are no longer relevant to me.

A quick Google search on leadership by the top world business schools immediately reconfirmed my memories of ‘building visionary leaders who can build and maintain a competitive edge’.

Yuck. Over 20 types of leadership are quickly described in any search.

Too often it seems we follow so-called leaders who are loud, brash and arrogant with little genuine abilities beyond their own self-belief bluster.

There are those who do not seek out to be great leaders but became so by demonstrating human values in their lives. We can talk about the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa or many other historic figures that simply inspired by their lives.

It seems to me it is the focus and values of people on aspects of humanity, often despite their own personal difficulties, or even personal loss, that truly inspires through the ages. Inspiration does not come from self-promotion or ego.

The vast majority of us, with no great societal presence, no great inspirational achievements, just the majority that go about their daily lives with all the trials that life throws at us.

There are those that just seem to work through some of the worst challenges in life without complaint or recognition.

Have you ever met someone and just thought that person is an ‘old soul’, the person that just oozes the gentleness, the calmness and a quiet wisdom.

Compare those that you meet who are loud, the arrogant, the greedy or the selfish. Without even knowing these people you can feel something that just emanates from them. We can call this our psychic senses, that we all have, but I do not want this to be about the psychic.

I truly believe that everyone of us from birth gives off, or creates, ripples within the universe. Meeting someone you feel to be an ‘older soul’ do you not, at least momentarily, feel a quiet inspiration or, maybe a tinge of guilt at your own thoughts, actions and priorities?

A sort of reflective moment, that even fleetingly, you compare against.

Is this not leadership?

A very slight change in how you think, feel or behave will have been inspired by this person. A seed may even have been planted within you from that quiet inspiration. The seed that may grow and change your whole being in life. I don't know what name you can give this form of leadership, but I do know it does not require any of the business school definitions. In turn, the person who has quietly changed will impact others and so the ripples spread out.

This is not about you suddenly all becoming righteous, religious, spiritualist or anything outwardly grandiose. Who you are is embedded in your soul, and gradually you feed your soul in this life. Even if you consider yourself the quietest, the meekest or with low self-esteem who feel they have nothing to teach, let alone be a leader, you can make a difference.

Don't compare yourself with others but do observe, feel and quietly learn from all those around you. To develop an empathy for others, with a willingness to quietly help, even in the smallest of ways, will have an impact on them. If you want to be a leader, then you are probably not. Leadership comes from within, from your soul, as it is that soul to soul connection with others that provides their inspiration.

My most memorable mediumistic messages have been not from loved ones, but from those in the past who simply wish to say thank you for some kind act or friendship long forgotten by the recipient. For me this shows how our behaviour towards others can impact deep within, and into, the spirit world. We can only chip away at our imperfections. Realise that everyone of us is providing a degree of leadership just by living, whether you like it or not. You just have to decide whether those ripples that you are creating every day of your life are what you want to be carried into the spirit world. Because they will be.

JOHN SELBY