What Is Leadership?

On a business networking site this morning, the following headline caught my eye and got me to thinking: What Is Leadership?

Having read the other answers, I couldn't help but notice that many believe that a leader must have a certain values traits: not necessarily personality traits. And while it may be nice for the leader to have many of these values traits, I believe that any good leader must have simply this: ownership of the philosophy that the purpose of a fruit tree is not necessarily to grow fruit but to grow another tree.

Let me explain. Leadership is not a top-down philosophy. It is a side-by-side philosophy. It is more about coaching others, bringing out ideas, encouraging others to take risks, to stretch themselves, to reach beyond their best, to help develop action plans for their people and to lead by example. Leaders are prepared to encourage people who are smarter than themselves, more capable than themselves and better at the job than the leader him or herself.

There is an attitude of trust and a resignation that the leader him or herself could be replaced by their own protégé. And that is fine with a true leader. After all, the leader's mandate is to leave the place better than he or she found it. The true leader is OK with one day being replaced by his or her own mentored student. The leader is not selfish and territorial nor is he or she power-hungry. The true leader is gracious and courteous. There are no hurt feelings regardless of what happens.

The true leader possesses grace, wisdom, a thirst for knowledge and gratitude. There is true selflessness in a real leader and a sense of peace that however things turn out, it is always for the best. That leader will always find another place to make better. And if the job came to an end, so be it. But the real purpose of a real leader is to ensure that if they themselves did depart an organization, that organization would move on to the next level and would be just fine without them.

Think about this: the real leader has true confidence - true confidence requires no proof.

This is the kind of person that we should each have the honor of following at least once in our lives. We would be so wise after an experience like that. Perhaps that person could be us. Business would change for the better.