HI It’s Melinda Walker here and I was talking today to a friend about what makes a great leader and she told me a thing or two from her point of view. she was and is very passionate about female leaders and is certainly one herself.
Her number one thing that was the most important thing that defines a leader over someone else was confidence and certainty of self. She believes as I do too that if you don’t have confidence in yourself and your own abilities then you will never make a true leader.
Women have everything it takes to be good leaders, correction great leaders.
We are intelligent and wise. We don’t just know the facts about certain things we understand their depth and meaning. Not to mention we are genrally more emotionally intelligent than men. We are capable of having empathy, and understanding other people’s feelings so it’s easier for employees and group members to approach and to talk to female bosses.
I’m not saying that men don’t have empathy, it’s just as women we are generally more open to our feelings than most men.
Yes it’s true that we can be great leaders however without the genuine attribute of confidence a woman will never be the type of leader she shold be and can be. Confidence and certainty of self is what makes true leaders inspire others and aim for more.
Confidence is often overlooked and even disregarded and ignored by others because it is often mistaken as arrogance, yet they are two completely different things.
Arrogance, according to dicitionary.com, i.s the act of “showing feelings of 
unwarranted importance out of overbearing pride” while confidence is believing in yourself.
Confidence can overshadow arrogance and arrogance can actually detract from one’s confidence. Cofidence will allow you to be a great leader with many followers, while arrogance will stunt you as a leader and possibly result in no-one following you unless they really have to.
In other words being confident means that you are sure of your talents and abilities however you don’t rub it in other people’s faces.
Confidence is an important characteristic to have as a leader because it is the core of all our other attributes. Infact confidence and certainty of self is one of the core principles of leadership and without this core principle a person will never be a true and effective leader.
Think about it; it doesn’t matter how smart or creative you are, if you don’t have the confidence or the guts to share your ideas with your group, how the heck are you going to put your thoughts into actions?
It is important that we all learn to embrace our talent.
We can only be great leaders if we believe in ourselves and what we can do. That is why certainty of self and confidence are so imperative for leadership to exist.
The thing that we need to do is to simply believe in ourselves! I’ve mentioned before that we are all brilliant, creative, intelligent and talented. Isn’t that something to be proud of?
Sure there would be moments where we worry and question our abilities yet we shouldn’t let those thoughts get the best of us.
We never know if we are going to succeed or fail and that can be a scary thought, however we shouldn’t let our fears and insecurities get in the way of our greatness.
Having confidence and certainty of self doesn’t just help us as leaders it also helps us as women and as girls!
Our abilities and capabilities are often questioned and sometimes we have to continue to prove ourselves. This proving of ourselves though gives us extra strength and often extra determination to keep on fighting and keep on showing people how we can be great leaders.
These qualities are all qualities that we can teach and instill in our teenage girls so that they too can have the confidence in themself to lead others and to lead their life they way they want to.
With confidence teenage girls can take a stand. By believing in themselves they can fight back and make a difference to their life by being more empowered!
Warm Regards,
Melinda Walker
