One of the roles the internet generated is one of the so-called “influencers”. Some of them started off as celebrities while others became celebrities by developing their social influence through social media marketing.

They should not be confused as leaders, even if they interact with large groups who follow them or seek their suggestions.

And yet it often is what leaders aspire to do: influence others in such a way that they follow them. These are leaders who only ask themselves the question “am I a leader?”

Leaders go further.

They ask themselves who they are leading as well as where they are going towards.

This is true for everyone who seeks to make a change.

Leaders make change happen, not for themselves but as an effort on behalf of the group they lead. They know that they represent them. They perceive how leadership is a mutual state. The group they lead wants to achieve a goal and see them as the leader who will help them reach that goal. At the same time, this group aspires to follow the leader as he developed a direction they needed his help for. It is a direction that enabled them to express and see it.

A leader embodies what the group stands for.

No one expects this to be an easy task.