Leadership is About Elevating Others

We each have a responsibility to elevate each other.

This is the essence of leadership—each of us is a leader because we each have the ability to enrich the lives of the people around us. The only question is whether we choose to use that ability.

I ask you: have you ever approached a colleague or friend and asked them what they want to achieve in life? Have you offered to be an accountability-partner or mentor on their journey to self-actualization?

We often underestimate the impact we can make on others. I know from my own experience.

Last year in this space, I shared the story of Friday Forward, a weekly newsletter that started as a note to my company and now is read by over 200,000 people worldwide. In five years, I’ve never missed a week.

What’s always motivated me was readers’ responses. On many occasions, especially this year, readers have shared that a post was exactly the inspiration they needed at that specific time in their lives.

Friday Forward is about sparking a desire to improve—that’s the unifying principle of its near-250 stories. But it’s also a means to escape a cycle of negativity and frustration that dictates too many people’s lives. People yearn for that escape, now more than ever.

Friday Forward proves each us can make an impact, even on people we’ve never met.

A simple attempt to inspire my team of 40 people has now touched thousands of readers globally. It shows the compounding impact of dedicating our energy toward inspiring others to grow.

That’s why I turned 52 of the most impactful Friday Forwards into a book of the same name, Friday Forward, which publishes September 1. I hope it inspires you in a small way to build your capacity and encourage others to do the same.

What simple thing might a leader do to enrich someone’s life today?

This guest post is written by Robert Glazer the founder and CEO of premier global partner marketing agency Acceleration Partners. He is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of four books, the host of the Elevate Podcast and an international keynote speaker. His latest book, Friday Forward, is available for purchase today.