Community Leadership

Community leadership is a shared vision. As we know leadership comes in all shapes, sizes and forms with many definitions. To me, leadership is a vision that is shared amongst people who are willing to be lead by that vision. When we think of leadership we think of one person who leads and others following. True, this is the common characteristic of leaders. When one person initiates an action and others agree and wants to follow that action, then that person becomes a leader. From this point on, leadership branches out into different kinds of leadership. Community leadership or servant leadership focuses on making communities stronger versus corporation leadership and military leadership. Can we recognize a potential community leader? To answer this question, lets look at leaderships in the arm forces or even in corporation. These types of leaderships are built through rigorous training and it is based on an Organizational structure (hierarchical leadership). These types of leaderships hinders on a vertical structure. A different kind of leadership is needed within a community. When we think of community leadership we must think on a horizontal type of structure. Community leaders are representative of the community who shares their leadership across the board. Community leaders are those who seek input from the community and use that input for the betterment of the community. Community leadership can encompass more than one person or it can be a group who has different duties/functions to promote the welfare of the community. Within this group one person is elected as representing the group ideas and dispersing those ideas to the community. Community leadership is not tied to power or position; it is a group function within a community that consists of teamwork. Now think of yourselves as a community leader or somehow involved in the function of your community. Little that you know is that we all share a common ground within our community. We are all passionate about our community and what happens within it. We recognize non-profit organizations and local community action programs who does work within our communities. When we see our communities progressing, we become satisfied with the outcome. Believe it or not, we all are making a difference in our communities. We may think that we are not doing community leadership but look at the type of work that we are involved in. Educators, medical personnel, law enforcers, retailers etc. are all making a difference within their communities. The question that I asked earlier is Can we recognize a potential community leader? The answer to this question is obvious. Just take a look at yourselves and get involve with the community. We all have the potential of being communities leaders when we take the initiatives to get involved. There is no special training to fit this role. Community leadership comes in all brands and you need to just find the brand that is right for you. Maybe you can contribute you talents or skills, donate time, mentor to the young or feed the homeless etc. whatever your niche is your community is waiting on your leadership. Start by becoming part of the solution.