What Is a Leader and What Is Leadership?
Don Shapiro
When we see leadership as a behavior and not a job, we can increase retention and thriving. Speaker, Consultant, Thinker, Researcher on innovations in leadership, culture, retention, strategy for hospitals, restaurants +
Photo: 1986 film Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner (Courtesy of Columbia Pictures)
Too many definitions and not enough clarity may be holding too many back from becoming truly effective leaders
There are more definitions for the terms leader and leadership than anyone could imagine and they seem to be expanding exponentially. Where do they all come from? Which ones can help us the most? While it's good to see a lot of people devoted to understanding leadership, a growing lack of clarity muddies our efforts to help our people develop into effective leaders who can boost our results.
It seems that leadership has become everything anyone wants it to be and some are even trying to turn it into a synonym for management.
As we continue to use the term leadership to mean more and more things, it becomes more ambiguous and loses its power to transform both those who aspire to be leaders and those who join with leaders to make great things happen.
During the last ten years, there has been some new and dramatic insights we've learned about what types of leaders produce the best results and what leadership really is. We've moved past the more traditional and academic ways of viewing leadership because we've been looking more at how leadership actually connects to end results.
New thinking and research on leadership and leaders
I've spent a few decades now with this old friend leadership always seeking to understand more and remain open to new and better ways to view what makes one an effective leader. My introduction to leadership happened at Hollywood High School and my first job out of college with Lawry's Restaurants. Over the decades, my views have changed especially during the last ten years.
A part of that is because I've had the good fortune to observe hundreds of managers and executives which helped me pinpoint better why some outperformed others. Then I dove into all the research being done out there on leadership, employee engagement, strategic alignment, employee retention and more to learn what others discovered.
The link between effective leaders and results is much stronger than it used to be. At the same time, our understanding about what type of leader produces those results has changed in many ways. We are digging much deeper as we seek to better understand what it means to be an effective leader.
Leadership is about voluntary influence
That separates it from all other kinds of influence. If people are not acting voluntarily, no leadership is occurring.
In our roles as a manager, executive and parent, we sometimes have to give orders and put our foot down. That is a part of carrying out our responsibility in those roles but doing so is not leadership. So everything we have to do would not be considered leadership even though we may be an effective leader.
Leadership must result in action. If there's no action, there's also no leadership going on.
Only when someone influences others to voluntarily act has leadership taken place. No action, no leadership. It's not about spouting off great sounding ideas that no one else is willing to participate in.
Leaders influence people to voluntarily join with them and make good things happen
This is where we really get into the guts of what type of leaders produce the best results. That means what type of people consistently are able to voluntarily influence other people to take action. This definition is so important that I believe we need to explore what's behind this definition.
Build enough trust - Leadership is about building trust. People will only voluntarily move in the direction we want if they trust us. If you have to order people to do something, that may be required as a manager or parent but it isn't leadership. Trust is the currency of leadership. You have to build trust to voluntarily influence people.
Voluntary Influence - Leadership is about influence, not ordering, directing, manipulating or anything else that forces someone to act. Leadership and voluntary are married to each other.
The most effective managers and executives are able to use voluntary influence most of the time. The more their people are doing things because they want to, the more engaged and enthusiastic they are which translates into better results. Great leaders use their authority to direct people sparingly and infrequently.
Join with, not follow - Leaders walk with us and behind us as equals. We don't follow them, we join with them.
The concept of leaders and followers reinforces antiquated ideas about what a leader is and does.
This is why I no longer use the terms follow and follower when talking about leaders and leadership. Those terms take us backward in time and effectiveness.
The best leaders serve the people they lead with humility. As leaders, we join with our people to make good and great things happen.
Make good things happen - Anyone who influences people to do bad things is not a leader. They may be a manipulator, con artist, persuasive or charismatic but they are not a leader.
I added this to the definition because I believe leadership should be something positive we aspire to. I have never liked the idea put forth by too many "leadership experts" that a leader can be good or bad which means Hitler, Stalin and the head of ISIS have to be considered leaders. Not anymore! This definition excludes them along with the head of the KKK, gangs and anyone else that influences people to do bad things.
Trusted leaders only influence people to make good and great things happen. They lead with integrity and character. Leadership is about building trust. People trust your character...not your title, skills, personality or ideas.
Leadership is about who you are....your character. Your beliefs, values and attitudes drive how you behave which determines if people trust you. When you are a trusted leader, you are a leader twenty four hours a day no matter what you are doing because it's who you are. Leadership is not something you turn on when you need it and turn off when you don't. It's a way of being that is with you all the time. It is that quality that people trust in you.
If you’d like to learn more about how to further develop your people's leadership capacity, please schedule a phone call with Don at [email protected] to answer your questions and explore the possibilities.
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9 个月Check out Dr Peter Koestenbaum's book on Leadership... a great read full of philosophical nisight
Public/Nonprofit Executive | Strategist | Project Manager | Policymaker | Change Agent | Issue Advocate
8 年Bruce Hurwitz No cigar for me, but you sure do deserve one! "You will only be a leader if people believe in you . . . " While still too simplistic, it hits the mark better than your initial state [ "A leader is someone with followers. Leadership is the ability to secure followers."]
Public/Nonprofit Executive | Strategist | Project Manager | Policymaker | Change Agent | Issue Advocate
8 年Bruce Hurwitz Absolutely right! I am pleased to see you have gotten my point. Oversized statements such as "A leader is someone with followers. Leadership is the ability to secure followers," are, with all due respect, dangerous. Leadership is far more complex than your initial statement suggests. And no where close to your explanation of my haircut question.
Public/Nonprofit Executive | Strategist | Project Manager | Policymaker | Change Agent | Issue Advocate
8 年What I find most valuable about Warren Bennis' book is he draws distinct lines between a manager and a leader. As someone who has always held leadership roles I have been asked by those lower than me on the organizational chart what exactly is it that I do. As a CEO who answers to a board of directors, so many of us are judged on our management skills, yet we were hired for our leadership talent. Somewhere along the way we began to interchange manager & leader, thinking they are synonyms. Bennis clearly articulates that not only are they not, but also both have equal value and intersecting purpose. I'm not sure if authentic leadership can be taught, Don. I think some are born to lead and others are born to manage. And both have to be, as you so well put it, "grown from the inside out." If memory serves me, Dwight Eisenhower had the vision for a national highway system. That was leadership. But the late president never picked up an ax or a shovel. An army of managers made our interstate system a reality.