There is a view of leadership which says that all employees can show some leadership even if they are not interested in managing a team on an ongoing basis.
You may think that you could never be a leader. Maybe you need a conception of leadership that makes sense of how you could show leadership and, more importantly, encourage you to do so.
Suppose you lack either the confidence, the skills or the interest to be formally in charge of a group of people. Perhaps you feel it would be too much pressure to have other people looking to you for direction and to settle disputes. You might feel you could do this with some people, but maybe you are in a team where there are such strong personalities that you would be nervous if you were asked to be their leader, formally or informally.
To be an informal leader in any group, according to conventional wisdom, you would have to be at least subconsciously regarded as the main person to go to for direction, support and advice in your group on an ongoing basis. However, another conception of leadership says that it has nothing to do with being such a person in an ongoing role, whether formal or informal. This view of leadership says that any time you successfully convince your colleagues to behave differently, you have shown leadership. Here, leadership is seen as an occasional act, one that is successful in promoting a new direction. On this view, you don’t need the skills or interest to manage a group on an ongoing basis. You can simply display an act of leadership when the inspiration strikes you, when you see a better way of doing something and you succeed in convincing others to follow suit.
