Specific Alpha Leadership Strategies

Leadership is the act or instance of guiding and influencing other people’s willingness to do something. Leadership is when you give other people directives they want to follow because doing so will help them get what they want or need.

Leaders are people of authority. Leaders tell other people what to do—they do not ask. Leaders state their beliefs directly, succinctly and with confidence. They do not merely offer suggestions and opinions and hope other people accept them.

Leadership is the cornerstone principle of the MANformation program. As you transform yourself into the man you really want to be, you become a more effective leader. You must strive to lead your own life more effectively and, at the same time, lead other people more effectively.

If you want to get better in a particular area of your life or add value to others’ lives and get other people to willingly and enthusiastically help you get what you want, you must constantly work on your leadership skills.

The subject of leadership challenges existing beliefs and stirs up conflicting emotions in men who haven’t put much importance on its role in their lives. “Lead other people? Heck, I have a tough enough time managing my own life. Maybe when I get my own life under control, I’ll start worrying about leading other people.” Other men think, “I don’t need to become a leader. That’s not important to me. I don’t have to be one of those egotistical alpha male types just to get what I want in my life.”

By the time you get to the end of this column, I’ll have changed some of the misguided ideas you may now have about leadership. I will convince you that leading other people will help you gain more control over your own life. And I will sell you on the fact that leading other people is an honorable and respectable way of getting them to enthusiastically help you get what you want in your life.

Do you want to become better at what you love to do sooner rather than later? Do you want to become better at what you do—without wasting a lot of extra energy and effort?

There is a saying, “To teach is to learn twice.” One of the very best strategies for getting better at what you do is to become a leader who shares his passion, knowledge and experiences with other people.

When you’ve taken the time and effort to become outstanding in a particular area, you will learn there are many other people who wish to do the same. The only difference between you and them is that they aren’t willing to invest the time and effort it takes to become outstanding. At least, they haven’t been willing to do so yet.

Your leadership can be the catalyst they need to start their own journey toward mastery. You can help them get something they really want or need. Your knowledge can help them get something they’re currently missing in their lives more effectively, more efficiently and faster.

When you take on the pressure that comes with leading other people, you will take your own skills to a higher level. You’ll have no choice but to improve.

You will be forced to set an example for what you are instructing them to do. You will be forced to “walk your talk” when you lead other people—and that self-imposed stress will help take your own abilities to higher levels.

Are you the type of person who does your very best work when an important deadline is getting closer? If that describes you, you’re not alone.

We all need pressure to make the most of our physical, mental and emotional abilities. Self-imposed stress helps us make the best use of our time and skills, as well as the people in our lives who can help us if we reach out to them and other valuable resources we have.

To get what we really want in life, we need more often than not to consciously manufacture manageable pressure. We can’t let ourselves be tempted to avoid it—and mistakenly believe we’re doing ourselves a favor. We’re not.

One of the reasons I became a six-time national bodybuilding champion was the pressure I subjected myself to. I volunteered to put myself in the public eye to be judged by all and enthusiastically published everything I knew about bodybuilding in books, magazines and on the Internet. I became a massively more accomplished bodybuilder in a shorter period of time simply because I welcomed the stress that comes with becoming a leader.

Over the past several years the MANformation personal-development program has created the very same self-imposed, manageable pressure. I am simply forced to walk my talk as an effective leader to men all over the world every single day—and I’m a better man for doing so. I have created more and better options in all areas of my life because I was willing to teach other men what they must do to improve the quality of their lives.

Step up and lead other people now. Offer your knowledge and experience in an area of your life that you are passionate about. Become the significant person who influences and guides others to succeed at something they want.

One important lesson that I constantly stress in the MANformation program is that you absolutely need other people to help you get what you want in life. Sure, you can do a satisfactory job all by yourself if you work hard enough long enough. Why not make your journey a little easier when you can?

When you help other people get what they are missing in their lives, you will create a strong emotional connection with them that they’ll greatly appreciate. The emotional link is exactly what will get them to enthusiastically help you get what you want in your life.

You’ll both win for your efforts.

Editor’s note: Six-time national-champion bodybuilder and success coach Skip La Cour is the creator of MANformation, a powerful personal-development and fitness program for men that is based on the qualities and actions of the world’s most powerful, influential and charismatic men. It is a structured series of alpha leadership strategies for transforming you into the man you really want to be. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life right now, what you have achieved so far or your age. The MANformation program will help you become a better version of you—step-by-step and one strategy at a time. To learn more about the MANformation personal-development program, visit www.MANformation.com. Sign up for the free weekly e-newsletter, and you’ll get a free alpha leadership e-book.