You Cannot Define Leadership, Can You?

(c) Patrick Flesner, 2024

Welcome back to "Leadership Shots"! After a restful holiday season, I'm diving into a topic that's often shrouded in mystery: what is leadership. It is an important question, because only if we can answer this question, we can work on becoming better and more effective leaders.

That's why I often kick off my leadership trainings and workshops with a deceptively simple question: "What does leadership actually mean?" More often than not, the room falls silent. It's quite astounding, isn't it? Especially considering the avalanche of leadership advice, books, and courses out there.

But it's a fact: While leadership is essential for unlocking the growth potential and success of any team and organization, few can articulate what it truly means.

From my perspective, leadership manifests when people willingly follow others, regardless of whether these followers are direct reports, peers, or even bosses. Leadership transcends hierarchy and can flow downstream, side-stream, and upstream. In my view, the essence of leadership is followership: without followers, there is no leader. Without followers, self-proclaimed leaders are just taking a stroll in the park. Leadership is present when people follow someone because they are intrinsically motivated to do so.

In my workshops and trainings, I usually stress that there is not the one and only true definition of leadership. Leadership cannot be clearly defined. We can rather feels its presence or the lack of it.

Last week, I was more than delighted when my former 欧洲工商管理学院 (INSEAD) professor, Gianpiero Petriglieri picked up this topic and found a much better way to describe what leadership means in a video titled "Leadership is a Kind of Love." His way of describing leadership was so striking that I'm compelled to share with you the video. Here the link . I hope you find Gianpiero's way of describing leadership as exciting as I did and it helps you reflect once again on this powerful question: "What means leadership". If you like the video, I invite you to share your thoughts and the video with your network.

What to Ponder this Weekend

As the weekend approaches, I encourage you to reflect on leadership. Consider pondering questions like:

• What does leadership mean to you?
• Are you empowering or micromanaging?
• Are you helping your followers grow?
• Are people truly following you, or merely executing your orders?

Looking Ahead

This week's leadership shot took a different turn as we explored the essence of leadership, rather than how to enhance our leadership skills. Next week, we'll pivot back to practical advice, focusing on a perennially relevant topic: effectively leading remote and hybrid teams. Given its importance, I believe it warrants our continued focus.

Here's to taking another leadership shot.

Patrick Flesner

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THE LEADERSHIP HOUSE

Praise for The Leadership House

"In this little book, you will find the tools necessary to enhance your leadership journey. Thanks Patrick for giving us such a gift.”

—Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks International

"Great storytelling alongside with the simultaneous communication of facts. In this book, the essentials of leadership are impressively presented in an unusual and memorable setting."

—Gisbert Rühl, former CEO of Kl?ckner & Co SE

"Most leadership books are either too theoretic, esoteric, or complex--or all of the above. The Leadership House stands out. It conveys how to lead effectively, wrapped in an inspiring story full of leadership wisdom and actionable insights. This book is not only fun to read, but makes you learn how to lead with ease. Highly recommended for any leader and all who wish to become one."

—Matthias Heutger, Partner at Porsche Consulting and former Senior Vice President, Global Head of Innovation & Commercial Development at DHL Group

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