The weight, the way, and the wait

It’s through leaders that a class knows what to do. It’s through leaders that project decisions are made final. It’s through leaders that a film makes it to the grand awards. It’s through leaders that myriads of chaos hush. But in the same way, it’s through leaders that a class strays, projects flunk, films flop, and chaos continues. Leadership is a base—both of grind and glory. It crowns you with loyalty and royalty. It gifts you with names and blames. It’s when you give commands and take demands.

You can easily Google “how to be a great leader” and be handed 26 million results in 0.56 seconds. Most will talk about good communication and the ever-golden rule: lead by example. There’s not a long debate about what a good leader is—lead the pack, there you go—except that there really is.

We can name a long list of norms about what it takes to be a leader. Of course, the first one is simple: be the best. There is no lack of a better word for it, but it’s simply, you should be the best. That’s been the standard, we want someone who knows the most to hold the steer. You can skim through Forbes magazine’s article Top 10 qualities that make a great leader for that—first’s honesty, second is delegate, next is honesty; “If you make honest and ethical behavior a key value, your team will follow suit.” That’s a challenge you can never get away with. But if in any case you think you’re doing it the other way around—in the name of self-doubt, unpreparedness, indecisiveness, innocence, and everything that makes you short of fully deserving the position—it’s hard to convince yourself that you fit the number one requirement to lead.

It’s not because you can do what others can’t—it’s because you’ll do what others won’t.

That power in your hand will break you more than anything. It will question your entirety more than it will establish your identity, it will scrape your insides with every decision you make, and it never puts you soundly to sleep knowing that responsibilities upon responsibilities are on your shoulders. And at the end of the day, you’ll end up questioning—do I really deserve this authority?

I can’t deny the truth that in everything, someone has to be better than me, yet sometimes, circumstances take it from my will rather than of prowess. That’s when I learned that after all, leadership is not just about being the best. Being a leader doesn’t mean you are perfect—it only means you are capable. Far from how we always see it, it’s not completely about skills and proficiency—it’s also about the willingness to go beyond your current reach. The thing we should remember is that when you become a leader, it’s not automatically because you can do what others can’t—it’s because you’ll do what others won’t.

For so long, we’ve let the dos and don’ts of being a good leader hone us in being the frontrunner that our society needs. Being a good leader is always the goal, but we have to remember that before anything else, it all starts with choosing who deserves to lead—and it’s safe to say it’s not a matter of who is the best, but someone who will do their best.

Don’t lose courage in yourself, accept that people question the leaders—of course, we all should. But above everything, ask yourself as well, “what kind of leader am I?” You can grab all the keywords from all the blogs—just take being the best off the choices. It’s not always about that.

Here’s one thing: you are a student on the ride of learning and it’s hard to go through your endeavors with all that weight on your shoulders—tons of projects, endless academic worries, and now the extra responsibilities of being a leader. But considerably, you can choose to focus on how to be your better self and do as you are tasked. After all, it might be the best to find yourself first before you can help others find themselves—lead the way, but wait for yourself too.