The eternal question: to be or not to be... a leader? I will not try to answer this question in an interesting manner, like a politician would do in front of the people shortly before elections, or in a scientific way like a physicist, a biologist or a chemist. In this article, I will try to simplify things as much as possible and help you understand more easily the concept of leadership.

Alive curiosity combined with trust and seriousness, determined me a long time ago to search at any cost the answer to this question: "What is a leader?". A friend to whom you can appeal in any circumstance is not exactly the right answer or the right definition of a leader because there were leaders who didn't allow the presence of too many people around them. In fact, if I think well, I don't believe I can offer an exact, unique and complete definition of the term "leader". However, I will try to give you an answer as simple to understand about what it is leadership; respectively what it is a leader, from my point of view.

Think in terms of the idea of "profit"

You will understand more easily the concept of leadership if you think in terms of the idea of "profit". Let's say that an entrepreneur wants to develop his business and to obtain a bigger profit from the sale of umbrellas. He employs many young people without much experience in sales to convince customers of quality, importance and benefits of these umbrellas, and to invest seriously in this market. However, for everything to go well, the entrepreneur must first send his employees on training courses in negociation and sales. Then, he has to offer them a good salary that is commensurate with the volume of work and profits, so they would be motivated to work on his company.

A skilled entrepreneur knows very well a great truth - the only way of developing his business, namely to increase profits by selling umbrellas, is to obtain first the support of his employees, and then to meet any wishes of his clients, so that they would make more and more orders.

By analogy, I can say that leadership can be "measured" through the profit that the entrepreneur obtains, but also his employees and clients. Each has something to gain, only if the entrepreneur who starts a business has the necessary experience in coordinating a team, if he is a professional in carrying out all activities and, especially, if he has ideas, and he knows how to make the best of his opportunities. Therefore, the entrepreneur is the one who sets the tone and gets things moving. He is the leader in this case because everything starts from him, and because of him depends largely on how things will move.

The leader guides people in the right direction

The famous writer, Stefan Zweig pointed out:"The one who sees a storm approaching, knows that only one thing can save the ship and the crew: the captain's strong will to stand himself at the helm and, above all, to hold it by himself in his hands."

As the overall pace of change accelerates, the leader's duty, to guide people in the right direction, becomes much harder. Guiding people is by no means the cherry on the cake, which you eat licking with pleasure your lips, but rather an endless drudgery.

Few are those who have the talent to take the lead and impose themselves in front of people, gaining their respect and admiration. As being a leader means having a strong will to struggle into a hostile environment, to take the initiative when no one seems interested or has the courage to do it. It also means to restore other's people confidence and convince them that, following you, they will be able to excel themselves and fulfill their life.

The leader's role is therefore, very important. He should be near people in difficult moments, to motivate them to be better, and more focused on results, to watch over how they perform their duties, and to guide them in the right direction, being aware that the people's failure or success depends on him. The leader must do everything he can for everyone to come out in favor.

Conclusion: If we will succeed to prove to other people that we are capable of guiding them with wisdom to a successful career, if we will restore their hope in the future, only, then we can consider that we have the necessary abilities to succeed in leadership.