Leadership is about people.

Leaders create an environment of trust and transparency, of openness and healthy debates, of empowerment and support, where failure is acceptable but owned, success is acknowledged and promoted. Leadership in Project to Program to Portfolio Management begins and ends with motivating, trusting and leading teams – your people.

This is the age of social networking and crowd-sourcing. Leadership today is about managing collaborative teams beyond boundaries and borders, bridging the cultural divide to work in a globally distributed workspace.

Leaders inspire.

In the Age of Conversation 2, a book attempting to answer one simple question “Why don’t people get it?”, I joined a unique ensemble of bloggers and authors from around the world to collaborate and write a single page chapter about the topic. It was an experience I cherish because it motivated me to keep writing. When you open a communication channel with the world, beyond your comfort zone, to share your own experiences, through blogs, at public forums and events, as a toastmaster, you will get inspired to inspire others.

There is a leader in every one of us.

Even before I took on my first leadership role in 2002, I was never the sort of person who preferred to be just a face in the crowd. I wanted to be the one to make the decisions, the one to make the choices, the only one to be held accountable for my actions. Leaders are born when people have the freedom to make mistakes, can learn from it and create our own success stories.

Are you ready to lead?