Leadership - to step up or not?

In the past few days I have been busy organising the Youth Leadership Competition for my Rotary club and last night attended the regional final awards, where the judges select 3 students in the region to go on a leadership trip.
Our club candidate from last year spoke at the award dinner and what it had meant to him. For our own club he had written an e-mail account of his time on the leadership trip and what he felt Euroscola did for him as an experience. But it all started with having the confidence to fill in an application form and put yourself forward as a leader. He was chosen by our club because we believed in him and then he proved to himself in various leadership tasks relating to the trip that in fact he actually had the inner ability. Now he stands up and takes leadership in his stride and wherever he goes they notice him as a potential leader.
In most of my leadership training & coaching in organisations it is exactly the same it starts with applying for that leadership position and then following it up with actions. Most of us however don't have a supportive rotary club or colleagues or family that is with us 24/7 to tell us they believe in us. so how do we generate that inner confidence to keep stepping it up?
In my travels around various corporate organisations, being in management is not always the same as being a leader, just like the business owners are not always the leaders in their business either. A leader in my view has built an inner confidence and an inner belief in themselves, to step up whenever they see fit. They are not necessarily glory hunters, but they do take pride in what they stand for. Typically they will take ownership and responsibility for what needs to be done and they expect an outcome that is better than where things started.
The hardest part in nurturing leaders which I see time and time again in my coaching as well as working with young people, is to build that inner confidence and inner belief.
Here is my thought for today, what have you done in your life to date that classes as leadership, if you were to fill in your own private apllication form to be a leader what evidence of your potential would you put on it and do you believe it, I mean truly undoubtedly believe it.