Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.
—Norman Schwarzkopf,
U.S. military leader
The dictionary defines a leader as a "guiding or directing head." A leader can be anyone, and anyone can be a leader. You don't have to be in a position of authority to be a leader. There are many leaders who are in positions of authority, and their leadership is clearly visible. There are others, though, who are leaders by example. They may stay behind the scenes, yet they have great influence over people they meet.
Think about teachers, for example. Do they not "direct" our children? Are they not guides for our future generations? Yet we don't often think of them as leaders. And what about parents? Every parent is a leader, whether he or she wants to be or not. As the old saying goes, "We lead by example." Our children follow what we do, so we must accept that mantle of leadership with great care and responsibility.
And what about each one of us? Can we all be leaders? We can if we have a worthy goal in mind and are not just pursuing selfish ends. We can if we are passionate about what we want to do and pass that passion onto those around us. We can if we care about others and help them achieve their goals, too. We need not look far to find a leader, we need only look inside ourselves.