Writers Write

I don’t consider myself a writer, although I enjoy doing it.  If I had to define myself in the writing world it would be aspiring at best.  I have friends in that are writers and in the publishing world and one of the most consistent things I’ve heard from them is in order to be a writer you have to write.  In all fairness, that’s part of the reason I write these articles/posts.  I hope that you, the reader, get something from these posts but many times I write for me.  I write to get things in my head out and I write to hone my skill of writing.

I think we all can agree with the title of this post.  That in order to be a writer you write.  I’d like to take this a step further and say that leaders lead, which seems like somewhat of an obvious statement much like writers write but let’s look at what that looks like.

While I may not consider myself a writer, I do consider myself a leader.  There are things that define a leader that have nothing to do with their title or position and those are the things that define good leadership.  I’d like to do some comparisons between the writers write and the leaders lead statements.

Leaders must choose to be a leader every day.  The infamous Michael Jordan said, “earn your leadership everyday.”  For me, my choice to write is typically a weekly thing for me in this season I find myself in and I work to do so.  For those I lead, however, I must daily choose to lead them well.  I can’t let my past decisions or victories dictate how I lead them today. And not only to lead them today but lead them individually not just corporately.

Another important part of being a writer is to continue to hone writing skills.  There’s absolutely no way a leader can’t do the same.  Some of this for a writer, beyond just writing, is getting feedback on my writing.  I’m fortunate to have people reading and commenting on my writing.  As a leader, I have much of the same.  I constantly remind my teams, and those that lead me, that they can call me out when not leading them well or if they have questions.  The interesting thing in this is, it’s learning to be a better leader as well as earning my leadership.

There are other comparisons but the last thing I want to mention is, in order for me to move from an aspiring writer to a writer, published or not, is I’m going to have to put myself out there.  I’ll have to submit articles and posts to organizations that may be interested in publishing such material.  Leaders have to put themselves out there also.  At times, that’s making tough decisions and other times it’s simply walking through tough stuff with your people.  No matter what it is, it sometimes comes with rejections or questions and other times with success and moving forward.  The best leaders don’t seek the spotlight but will step into it when needed.

What other comparisons between aspiring writers and aspiring leaders are there?  What did I miss?

Keep leading well! Stay the course, you have what it takes.