Today’s post is simple.

You show me the best leader in a room and I’ll show you the one who works the hardest.

Leadership comes from hard work and preparation. You don’t just get up and give the “I have a dream” speech. You develop skills and experience over a decade or so. Then you probably don’t look forward to giving the speech so much as feel you have to because no one else can. You don’t just write the Declaration of Independence. You develop skills and experience over decades, then find yourself in a position where a job needs to be done and no one else can do it.
I heard the phrase recently for the first time from a friend studying acting as “You show me the best actor in a room and I’ll show you the one who works the hardest” and found myself agreeing with the idea’s sentiment and applied it to leadership.
I feel the phrase applies more strongly in acting, where people more often consider actors as not having “real jobs.” But then again, many people feel leaders are born, not made. Even if they are, the hardest working will advance the farthest, I expect to eclipse less hard workers, no matter how much they have going for them.
People keep asking me if I think people can learn to be great leaders. I say I don’t know, but I guarantee anyone can learn to lead better than they do now.
Leadership takes hard work.