Leadership has absolutely nothing to do with titles or position. It has to do with influence. This is a mistake a lot of bureaucracies make. A guy thinks, because he has a title, people are going to automatically follow and that’s not necessarily true at all. There is a big difference between having a boss and having a leader. It’s not a position or a title. Many people have authority but they don’t have leadership.

Here are four truths that must be grasped about leadership

1. NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMEONE PROVIDES LEADERSHIP FOR IT.
That is a law of life. Look at history. The Civil Rights movement was nothing until a man came along named Martin Luther King and said, “I have a dream” and he provided leadership. The NASA space program was nothing until a guy named John Kennedy said, “We’re going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.” Everything rises or falls on leadership. Most problems can be traced to a lack of competent leadership. The greatest problem today is a leadership shortage. The greatest need is trained leaders.

2. LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE
If I had to summarize leadership in one word it’s influence — for good or for bad. There are positive leaders and negative leaders. Have you sat in a meeting and figured out who the leader was, often not the chairman? It’s the person everyone keeps looking to to find out what he thinks? Every time you influence somebody you’re assuming leadership. The issue is not Are you a leader? The issue is whether or not you’re a good one. You are a leader — in your family, at home, at work, at school. The issue is, Are you a good one or not?

3. THE TEST OF LEADERSHIP IS “IS ANYBODY FOLLOWING?”
If you want to know whether you’re a leader or not, simple — Look over your shoulder. John Maxwell’s parable of leadership, “He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.”

If you have to tell people that you are the leader, if you have to remind people that you’re the leader, you’re not. The same thing is true in your home. When you say to your wife, “We’re going to do it this way, because I am the spiritual leader, ” you aren’t. You’ve just lost it. The truth is if you’re really leading, you don’t have to remind people.

4. LEADERSHIP CAN BE LEARNED
Leaders are made not born. There is no such thing as a born leader. They are made by the way they respond to circumstances. You can take two people in exact opposite situations, circumstances, one of them will end up being a leader, the other washes out because of the choices they make.

The priority of training leaders I think can be seen in the ministry of Jesus. Mark 3:14 “He appointed twelve that they should be with him and he should send them out.” Jesus had a public ministry and a private ministry. His public ministry involved preaching, teaching and healing. His private ministry involved training the disciples. Even within the twelve He had an inner circle — Peter, James, John — who got to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Transfiguration — they got extra attention. In Galatians, Paul said Peter, James and John were the pillars of the church. Jesus invested the maximum time with those who would bear the maximum responsibility. He fed the masses but He spent most of His time training leadership. I believe leadership can be learned.