I am astounded that so many people when asked the same question (can you define leadership?) can have so many varying answers. What has become clear is that there is NO universally accepted definition of leadership. Why, because leadership is not tangible. It is not something you can hold in your hand. It is not something you can define. It does not exist in the material way and there are as many opinions on it as people walking the Earth.
With that being said, if someone promises that they can make you a leader in exchange for money, you are dealing with a charlatan. If it can not be defined specifically, you shouldn't pay money to anyone who promises it to you.
A parent is as much a leader as a CEO could ever aspire to be. Therefore, leadership is NOT exclusive to the workplace. Leadership has NOTHING to do with work. It is a character trait, a state of mind, an attitude. How do you define an attitude?
You will never get people to follow you by simply checking off a list of traits. That definition of leadership is too cerebral. Leadership is a state of being, a way in which we walk the Earth. The belief or promotion of leadership being exclusive to the workplace is simply a money-grab: a way to market services to improve "leadership" even though it cannot be defined. Our thirst for being out front (the need for title of "leader") is so great, we are willing to pay handsome figures to people who have never done it to teach us how it's done.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The truth is, people follow people they want to follow. There is no explanation for that. People who are natural leaders are people whom others wish to emulate. But if you are going to follow someone, it has got to be about following the person and not their results (money, power, fame). The accumulation of "stuff" is not what makes a leader. The Dalai Llama is a far better example of leadership than Donald Trump. People follow Trump for his power, money and fame when the world would be a different place if we'd all follow the Dalai Llama's example of treating our fellow man.
I'm not promoting any religion here. I'm making a point. Ruthless is not leadership. Money is not leadership. Power is not leadership. Fame is not leadership. But decency is. Making the world a better place is. Courtesy and caring is. When we as Corporate America learn to follow decency instead of thirsting for power, we'll finally start seeing the real leaders emerge - not these pompous, arrogant, egotists that we currently refer to as leaders.
Oh, and if you use the word "leader" to describe what you do, you aren't one. Get over yourself.
2 comments:
Some interesting points, Kevin. I am not sure I agree with all of your points of what a leader is and is not, but I still get the point you are trying to make.
Leadership comes in so many forms and I would argue that having "money, power, fame" does influence people and grab peoples attention and therefore those characteristics alone can lead to a leadership role. It might not be leadership for the right reasons, but none the less often still leads to having followers.
Case in point, Donald Trump surely is a leader. He might lead differently than you and I, but there is no question that he leads a successful organization.
Justin Scott
http://cioMojo.com
If you look at my tagline on LinkedIn, you'll understand right away why I was interested in your site (Attitudes...). Additionally, the topic of leadership peaked my attention having spent many years coaching and delivering workshops on the topic. There have been many books written about leadership (some 5,000, I believe). Yet, I like the idea of boiling it down to help it stick. In order to understand what leadership is, it is often helpful to describe what it is not. Values play such a big part in leadership that they can't be ignored, which speaks to your comment about Donald Trump. Is he a leader? Yes, definitely. Is he someone I would follow? No. Why? It comes down to the question of whether his values are aligned with mine. I think most would agree that Hitler was a successful leader. Many followed him. Many were inspired by his vision. Did his values represent mine? No. Most definitely not. So, it all boils down to choice. Is this person someone who inspires me, someone who shares my value system, someone who encourages me, someone who moels the way, etc? Even though there are many books written on leadership and I’ve read several, I still think Kouzes and Posner’s book, The Leadership Challenge, is among the best.
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