George Washington: ?Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.?

Martin Luther King Jr.: ?I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.?

Abraham Lincoln: ?No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.?

What made these quotes memorable and famous? The fact that they were said by true leaders ? people that shaped the history of the American people, the American nation and the whole world.

I recently visited Washington DC. Touring the Capitol, The National Archive, and the American History Museum, made me think about leadership and explore the similarities between those remarkable leaders and the average person like you and me.

We all lead, either by choice or by default.

As parents, we lead our family. As children, we lead our parents. We lead at work. We lead people in our community, and sometimes even strangers.

Bruce Schneider, the founder of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), defines leadership as ?how you interact with everyone, including yourself?. This idea extends leadership from what we usually think of ? business owners, CEOs, etc ? to include the rest of us in whatever we do.

If you don’t think yourself as a leader, you are missing an opportunity to grow and develop your skills. Being aware of this can allow you to make even more of a difference in other people’s lives.

What helps me and other people to lead? Our main resource is energy. Energy is everything. Energy is everywhere. Your being is a combination of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy.

When you identify your current energy level and energy blocks that hold you back, you learn to make conscious choices as to which energy level to operate from at any given time. You learn what aspects of your energy need some work so you can grow and improve as a leader. Energy is a powerful resource for people who would like to lead themselves and others.

Being aware of our energy allows us to use it to shift our lives, and this shift is what other people pick up from us, and is what motivates and inspires them to make changes in their lives.

Think about these questions:

• What are different roles that you have that give you an opportunity to lead?
• How do you lead yourself?
• How do you lead others?
• How do you see yourself today, and how would you like to see yourself as a leader tomorrow?
• What leaders inspire you?