3 cardinal tests for anyone who calls themselves a leader

Photo credit: Geek & Sundry.

If there was a tax on using (or misusing) the word leader, many of us would be paying through the nose. We’ve either declared ourselves as some sort of leader or became followers of someone we called one.

In organizations, a leader is typically seen as a person who talks strategy for a living, inspires people, lives (and often creates) ambiguity, and yes, breathes innovation instead of air. I’m not sure if those are even real measures of leadership, let alone that a person has all of these qualities.

It is true that we rhetorically talk about leaders rising from failure, but the truth is we are both intolerant and impatient with failure. Hence, it is often an individual’s character that makes a leader, because when you are failing, the organization will rarely support you. The failure gets applauded only after you are successful or dead.

I am a big fan of The Avengers. One of my favorite characters is Tony Stark, yet I didn’t like him much in the initial Iron Man movies. He was just a cocky, brainy, rich, powerful, and successful guy—just the kind of role model people have in the corporate world. We also make the mistake of calling them leaders.

I must say my feelings toward Iron Man have changed over the last few movies. And that’s because Iron Man himself seems to be changing as a person. I think he might just be turning into a true leader.

And this brings me to the three cardinal tests for anyone who dares to call himself a leader.

True leaders evolve, often out of their own demons

If words and phrases could be damned, I’d charge the term “years of experience” as the most useless and misrepresented one. It means nothing. The world is full of people who get by without learning anything, changing their ways, or building any real perspective or wisdom. Experience means nothing until it changes something in you.

Everyone has life-changing experiences, but only a few allow the experiences to change their lives.

Good leaders change. Even more, they evolve. They were probably born with some spark of greatness, but they’ve had to dust off their own selfishness, narrow-mindedness, arrogance, and fear along the way.

If you look closely into the stories of many leaders, their journey started with something very personal—an insult, poverty, or suffering. But in due time, leaders transcend from a personal goal to a purpose that impacts the lives of many more people.

Tony Stark pretty much lived inside his own head as this I-will-do-anything-I-want billionaire in the initial Iron Man days. This was until his experiences forced him to look at things differently, and he evolved to take a bigger role.

Everyone has life-changing experiences, but only a few allow the experiences to change their lives. The journey is not just about how many millions you make, how many projects you successfully lead, or how the stock price goes up. To be a leader, there has to be an evolution in how your worldview has changed over time.

True leaders surround themselves with real leaders

This one really separates the men from the boys. Fake leaders master the art of creating sheep in wolves’ clothing, the “yes-bosses” working as mini-leaders for fake leaders.

True leaders opt for periods of isolation and anonymity