How Does Leadership Begin?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Does Leadership Begin?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Strategic Monk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-03T11:40:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Richardson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Richardson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/\",\"name\":\"How Does Leadership Begin?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-03T11:40:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-03T11:40:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72\"},\"description\":\" I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Does Leadership Begin?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/\",\"name\":\"Strategic Monk\",\"description\":\"Discerning. Monastic Strategy. Spiritual Practices.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72\",\"name\":\"Greg Richardson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Greg Richardson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/author\/gdrichardson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Does Leadership Begin?","description":" I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Does Leadership Begin?","og_description":" I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/","og_site_name":"Strategic Monk","article_published_time":"2014-06-03T11:40:03+00:00","author":"Greg Richardson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Greg Richardson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/","name":"How Does Leadership Begin?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-03T11:40:03+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-03T11:40:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72"},"description":" I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Does Leadership Begin?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/","name":"Strategic Monk","description":"Discerning. Monastic Strategy. Spiritual Practices.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72","name":"Greg Richardson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Greg Richardson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/author\/gdrichardson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":9034,"date":"2014-06-03T04:40:03","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T11:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.strategicmonk.com\/?p=9034"},"modified":"2014-06-03T04:40:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T11:40:03","slug":"leadership-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2014\/06\/03\/leadership-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Leadership Begin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

$\"851653674_009b0f34be\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that?<\/p>\n

People told me that I had leadership potential, that I could grow up to be a leader. I had\u00a0opportunities to lead people. I read about leaders.<\/p>\n

None of those were where leadership began for me.<\/p>\n

My leadership was hidden deep inside me. I had been\u00a0taught that the best way for me to learn to lead was by following other people. I was good at that, very good at meeting and exceeding other people\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

I began to look for my own leadership when I came to the end of all those expectations.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0began a quest to explore\u00a0myself to discover the source of my leadership. I had already tried to read about everyone else, follow everyone else, learn from everyone else.<\/p>\n

As I began to explore, I was afraid of what I might find. What if I were not as good as I thought I was? What if I did not have all that potential? What if there were no leadership in me at all?<\/p>\n

My exploration is very hard work, more challenging than anything I have ever done. It includes incredible adventures, painful struggles, hard-fought battles, and astounding revelations. It is an amazing story, that still continues.<\/p>\n

Each day is a new beginning.<\/p>\n

What I have found, so far, is that my leadership comes from who I really am. Being a leader grows out of the values and principles I have had for as long as I can remember. My leadership puts my values into practice.<\/p>\n

I am not a leader because I read a particular book or attend a certain conference. The spark of my leadership is within me.<\/p>\n

Where does your leadership begin?<\/p>\n

What are you exploring today?<\/p>\n

[Image by Sadi Junior<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"