If we’re going to use our unique talents and ideas to change the world around us for the better, sooner or later we need to realize that we have to step up and own our roles as leaders.

There are countless people with ideas. Ideas that have the potential to change the culture, move it forward to somewhere better than it is now.

But ideas need leaders.

Without leaders, ideas are left to either sit stationary as they are, or bounce around aimlessly and hope that someone else will recognize their value and lead them where they need to go.

We don’t need to walk around with a spotlight on us every second of the day, smoke cigars in boardrooms, and ensure we’re regularly rubbing elbows with the right people.

But at some point, to move our ideas into the world, we need to champion them, to put them in front of people, the right people, people who see our work and ask, “How can I help?”

The idea of stepping into the spotlight might scare us.

We might be more comfortable staying in the background, creating our work and then moving on to the next thing.

Sure, we might feel slightly unfulfilled. We might recognize that our work doesn’t get the attention we feel it deserves. We might even feel bitter when lesser talents and ideas get recognized.

But it also feels safe to stay just outside the light. Free of scrutiny, judgment, and responsibility.

What if leadership isn’t what we’ve made it out to be in our heads, however?

What if leadership isn’t all about decisive action, clarity, force, and unwavering charisma?

What if leadership, true leadership, leadership that inspires is about leading with vulnerability?

About inviting others in and saying, “I don’t know where to go from here, what do you think?”

About understanding that we can’t change the culture by ourselves and that real leadership is about uniting, finding and inviting in the people who are needed to solve the problem we’re facing. People who believe in our cause as much as we do.

Maybe that’s a kind of leadership we can step into.

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