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As the world and business continue to turn, grow and change, one thing is for sure. There is always a need for leaders – real leaders who do what they believe is right to move things forward and inspire others to come along. In times of struggle, leaders give hope; in times of uncertainty, they give direction. However, being a leader does not always mean having success; more times than not, it might mean failure. Being OK with failure, learning from it and moving forward may be the true definition of a real leader.

If you are reading this, you are probably in some form of leadership in your company. To be sure, though, being in a position of leadership is not the same as being a leader. I bet it wouldn’t take you long to think of people throughout your career who have been in positions of leadership but have been far from leaders. Maybe they lead by fear and intimidation or incompetence and blame. Real leadership is rare in the workplace.

A lot of companies bring in consultants to be leadership gurus and train their people how to lead. The only problem with that approach is that everyone is different; in leadership, one size does not fit all. Trying to form everyone with all of their different personalities and dispositions into one type of manager just ends up frustrating people.

The best way to be a leader is to be your own consultant and evaluate how you do your job. Some companies do 360 evaluations, and others do simple one-on-one performance reviews. Those are helpful, but what I am talking about goes a little bit deeper and has some tough questions attached to it.

Only you are with yourself 24/7 and really know the details of who you are and what your real performance as a leader is. Some good questions to start with: How does your team see you as a leader? Do they think of you as a leader or just a manager? Or do they see you as someone who just facilitates their job? If they see you as a leader, what are they learning from you?

The biggest question may be: Are they following your lead?

Those are good questions to spend some quiet time pondering, thinking through and writing down your answers to. Any time you take on an exercise like this, though, honesty with yourself is key. Putting together some solid goals, objectives and executables is a must. A leader cannot lead without a direction. I would also encourage you to write down bullet points of your leadership philosophies and sayings, and refer to them often to see if you’re living out what your goal as a leader is. Then re-evaluate and make adjustments where necessary.

If you become a better leader, you will have employees who are more productive and happier in their careers. Everybody says, “I want my people to be the best that they can be.” Well, believe it or not, them achieving their best starts with you.

Nick Reddin is a regional director for Manpower Inc. in Central Iowa.