Each time you accept that you don’t know something and want to learn about it, you’re signaling your willingness to examine old habits, think in new ways, and acquire additional skills. In this learning mode your needs and interests are called into question, opened for examination, and measured to determine whether anything is out of alignment.

Once you identify the discrepancy and put it back in proper working order, you come away feeling a sense of accomplishment. Confident that you can fix anything, you look forward to doing better. The next move can be thought of as the “best practices” stage—a time to show off new skills and set new records. This is a great place to be.

Sadly, an enormous amount of time, talent, and treasure are being wasted on one-size-fits-all training programs that focus on personality rather than on purpose. Regardless of how leadership is defined or what the role of a leader might be where you work, the achievement of purpose should be the ultimate objective. The theory you apply is less significant than your ability to keep moving in the right direction.

So, what does this mean to you? For starters, if you want to overcome rejection in your workplace, you may have to alter the way you think, beginning with the assumption that leadership is positional and therefore found only at the upper levels.

Another defective assertion you may have to let go of is that to lead you must be visible up front. It might have been true at one time, but not anymore. In fact, sometimes it is better to lead from behind so you can see if everyone is headed in the right direction.

We assume a leader is someone who makes things happen. Leaders also stop things from happening, which is the basis for most performance and productivity problems. In today’s customer-focused marketplace, initiating corrections, making adjustments, authorizing refunds are all leadership activities.

To succeed in a competitive marketplace, organizations need responsible leaders at all levels that can act on the company’s behalf at any time. Give some thought to assuming that role regardless of your level of authority.