The time is always right to do what is right.

–Martin Luther King Jr.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]H[/su_dropcap]OW MANY TRULY INSPIRING LEADERS do you know? People who have contributed to creating waves of change through vision, action and continuous selfless efforts in improving circumstances, people and societies.

What makes inspirational leaders different from other people? Are they truly so different from others? Perhaps yes, but most probably not. Anyone can be an inspirational leader – it is a question about willingness and readiness to accept joy, inspiration, and positive thoughts, leading to positive actions, creating a positive environment and seeing how your personal world starts changing, leading to changes in your environment as well.

Being positive in a negative situation is not naive. It is leadership.

–Ralph Marston

Being, and becoming an inspirational leader is something that you have to work upon every day, until it becomes a habit and a way of life. Everyone, even the most inspirational leaders, has weak moments, but having weak moments is humane. Inspirational leaders know how to cope with feelings of fear and discomfort through acceptance and an ability to transform these lower-frequency energies into higher energy vibrations leading to positive results.

Inspirational leaders also focus upon:

1. Continuous personal development and self-knowledge

Inspirational leaders know their strengths, but also their weaknesses, and are willing not only to accept these but also capable of admitting that they have weaknesses. Being conscious and knowing yourself are the basics for continuous personal development. Sometimes personal development is taking two steps ahead and one step back, but as long as you keep going you will develop.

2. Empowerment

Inspirational leaders know how to empower others, but most importantly – they know how to empower themselves. A leader has to be confident enough to feel and be personally empowered before knowing how to empower others.

The best leaders gain power by giving it away.

3. Embracing failure

Failure is a part of success. The most successful of leaders may have failed a zillion times, but they always get up and continue their work. Failure is a great teacher, and inspiring leaders accept failures as important lessons on their path to greatness and success.

Failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of success.

4. Staying in motion

No matter how slow a process sometimes may seem, or how long it may take to achieve a goal(s), inspirational leaders always stay active and in motion. Even inspirational leaders have moments of lost inspiration, but nevertheless they stay in motion working towards reaching their goals and working towards results, knowing that inspiration will follow them on their journey.

5. Co-operating and partnering up with others

Inspirational leaders sometimes work alone, but they also know the importance of co-operation, partnering up with others and team work. People are at the core of all action for inspirational leaders because they know that without other people, they would be alone in this world.

6. Listening more than speaking

Inspirational leaders listen more than they speak. Listening to others demonstrates that you are interested in learning more about what a person has to say, and to offer. Listening to oneself is also important.

When you talk, you only repeat what you already know. If you listen, you may learn something new.

–The Dalai Lama

7. Developing emotional intelligence

Inspirational leaders either are emotionally intelligent, or they want to be. Emotional intelligence is something we can all develop in ourselves, and usually more important than IQ.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

–Aristotle

8. Letting others lead and succeed

Inspirational leaders are all about developing and growing leadership around them, and they enjoy seeing other people succeed. They know how to work in a team and understand the importance of shared leadership.

9. Seeing the potential in others

Inspirational leaders see the potential in other individuals and know how to get results together with, and with the help of others. Inspirational leaders know that everyone has his/her unique strengths that are essential in contributing and in creating results.

10. Understanding that change is a continuous, universal process

Truly inspirational leaders are willing to live their passion, inspiration, and dreams, passing them on to people around them. Inspirational leaders will always find their way to other people´s hearts, and minds.

11. Growing throughout life, realizing that inspirational leadership is a life-long journey rather than a short-term trend.

Inspirational leadership brings with it, and creates, long-lasting changes in people and in societies. Being an inspirational leader is about giving more than you expect back, being willing to help others, serving and valuing people around you. Inspirational leadership is authentic, being and expressing who you truly are, caring, daring, and deep. Inspiring leadership does not care about age, gender or other external qualities, but rather focuses upon internal factors that, when correctly channeled, have the capacity of creating and establishing long-term inspiration in the external world.

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.

–Nelson Mandela

Inspirational Leadership by Simon Sinek: