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Several years ago while I was an Advisor at SitePoint, I wrote an article for aspiring Advisors (SitePoint’s label for forum moderators). SitePoint took it up and published it and I’ve referenced it a few times over the years, but I have felt that forums were sort of passé and that blogs were where online communication was really in full swing. (Don’t we bloggers have such bad cases of tunnel vision?).

Well, forums seem to be on the upswing again (history repeats itself) but even if they weren’t this five-part mini-series transcends time as it applies to leadership in general. I’ve slightly modified things to keep it current and more universal.

Some of the most powerful people on the Internet are commoners like you and me. The effective moderation of a successful forum takes a great amount of discipline and ability, but yields great success and respect. It’s very likely that these superusers are lingering in forums and communities across the Web. They might not be moderators in every case, but chances are they’re highly respected individuals with a lot of influence in the communities in which they participate.

A big part of my personal success in this area comes from my passion for quality leadership. Leadership takes many forms and manifests itself in various ways in our lives. Individuals like Winston Churchill and Rudy Giuliani manifested leadership in their times of crisis. Leadership is influence, and these were among the most influential people of their times.

Leadership is Influence

If you run a well-known influential blog or moderate a community, large or small, or you’re charged with the task of administering one, let this article be a challenge to you. A position does not make you a leader. Influence makes you a leader.

The fact is that, as someone in this position, you have a unique gift called leadership. This gift has given you the opportunity to work as a leader at whichever site you’re part of. But leadership is simply a raw force — an energy — that drives us and influences others. Leadership is a bit like fire, having the potential to both bring reward and cause harm. It depends on the person who wields that leadership, and the maturity with which he uses it.

In every culture there is a point in time where the child crosses the line into adulthood. In some African tribes, rites of initiation must be passed before a boy is seen as a man, while others simply have a “graduation” ceremony. An example of this would be the Jewish Bahmitzvah.

In most western societies, a boy becomes a “man” when he reaches the age of maturity. Being a boy does not take masculinity from the boy: he is as masculine as a boy as he will be a man (unless something happens in a hospital somewhere!). But he is only recognized as a man once he reaches a certain age, or displays a certain level of maturity.

Similarly, in the world of influence, a leader is not made, but a leader is recognized.

Tom Landry, the legendary former coach of the Dallas Cowboys (which, I might add is NOT America’s, team!) once said, “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” The key lies not in controlling the surroundings, but in being able to control your own responses to those surroundings… how you carry yourself, your composure and collectedness, how you ask and respond to questions.

Leadership is defined by how you promote what you are trying to create, rather than how you denounce what you are against. People will, to a degree, more readily accept correction from someone who has a relationship with them than someone who just wants to lay down law.

In the next part, I’ll talk about Working Yourself Out of a Job

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Written by Aaron Brazell on March 13, 2006

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