By Michael McMahon

Few of us are consistently prepared to collide with opportunity; many of the insights that sit in waiting for us go unrecognized or unseen. Leadership requires a certain space to be realized, along with the intention to attract what few people imagine to be possible.

The secret to finding this space is simple: get out of your own way!

Most of us who are presented with the space to contemplate leadership are only fitted with the tools that got us here, and not the ones that will take us further. We quickly find out that leadership requires a working knowledge of these new resources, as they will provide leverage to free us from our tactical roots.

Every leader must have followers, either in the moment or for an extended period of time. Followers aren’t obedient servants to a cause; they are the sculptors of a leader’s vision, shaping it both independently and collaboratively as it expands into all sorts of complexity. They are connected to what is happening, and they develop both trust and expectation for the leader while demanding integrity.

Through my lens, leadership is more of a languaged relationship than a management of performance, with the intent to influence others to experience a possibility that is yet to be realized.

I choose to lead.