Everyone is a leader, but not everyone want to be

As John Maxwell says, “Everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone”. We can agree or disagree with this statement; nonetheless, after giving this saying a closer look, I firmly believe that each of us will admit that any of us have impact on someone. It doesn't matter whether it's one person, our closest family, group of friends or someone else -- there’s always someone.

We accept this type of leadership unquestionably, it's so natural for us that we often don't even treat this as leadership. This is the main reason underlying lack of development in this field. We didn’t name it, so we simply don't invest our time to become better in how we impact others.
Is this the only reason? I think that many of us just don’t like to take full responsibility. They don’t feel well in a situation in which they find themselves, it wasn’t their choice. The fact that someone is a leader does not mean that he or she wanted to become one.

Becoming a team leader

It often happens that someone is really good at what he/she is doing, he teaches others and shows them things which can be useful for them, he improves their skills, helps them grow. After some time he/she gets promoted and now he becomes a team leader. Someone noticed his potential and made a "good" decision.
But wait, is it true? What if this guy doesn't want to take responsibility? What if he only wanted to share things that he knows? And yes, he have impact on his teammates even without being promoted, he helped them grow, but he don't want to do nothing more. He likes to share knowledge, not help people to grow.
Maybe he will succeed, maybe the result will be satisfying, but you have to remember about his motives, because it matters.

He don't want to be a team leader, even if he already have impact on people that he work with.

becoming a boss

Opportunity, knowledge, willingness to take a risk and lot of preparation... or maybe just a bit of luck? And the one person’s idea turns into a success. Success leads to hiring people. And yes, at this moment, a person with the idea have to become a leader. She talk about her idea with passion, other people start to believe in her idea, they want to help her achieve her goal. But she is not interested in leading, she just wants to realize her vision, improve it further.
Maybe she will succeed and even the people that she work with will be happy, but you have to remember that’s not the people that she is taking care of.
She doesn't want to be a leader even if her passion and idea motivates others to work.

what’s the problem?

Of course situation like this not always end up with failure, sometimes everyone wins. But when you are looking for a leader, take a moment and consider whether he/she is only focused on the vision or on people as well?
In some situations result of his/her leadership can be the same, but motives matter.
The problems with this type of leadership starts when problems with reaching a goal arises, when vision, an idea become harder to get and people don't feel passionate about what they do. They start to be bored and unmotivated. At this moment team needs a leader who takes care of people, who will convince them that problems are the way to learn, grow and increase our own skills. Furthermore, problems can lead us to greater success. He/she needs to prove them. Even if they won't succeed, they are already winners because of improvements they made, knowledge they possess and the team they created.
If leader is focus only on idea you he/she lose his/her team. Maybe not all people in the same moment, but they will lose their spirit and their hearts. They will become unmotivated and sometimes even frustrated and angry.
There will be no passion, there will be no faith in ideas. This kind of attitude cannot lead to success.

conclusion

Leader focused only on goals can be a good choice for short-term projects, but not necessarily in long-term projects, one of your purposes should be to create a strong team. The team that will know how to succeed and gain benefits despite failures. Then you should look for someone who will take care of people, not only an idea.
Because leader's motives matter.