Thursday, July 26, 2012

What is Leadership?

What is leadership? This is the question of the day. Yesterday I gave you my opinion of what leadership is, today we look at what others say about leadership.

From Wikipedia

Leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". The leader may or may not have any formal authority. Students of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, and intelligence, among others. Somebody whom people follow: somebody who guides or directs others.


From USA Today

Leaders impact our daily lives and futures. In good times and bad, there is always a need for strong leadership. The success of a business or an industry is determined by the leaders it chooses or inherits.

From Ask.com

Leadership is the guidance of a group of people towards a particular ideal. Leadership consists typically of one person leading a group by providing convincing information and inspiration.

From Ehow.com

Leadership is the process of determining goals for the team and finding a way for the team to meet those goals. Leadership involves finding ways to motivate team members or employees to reach their goals. Learning how to motivate for leader is not easy, as each employee or person on his team may have to be motivated in a different way. Finding out how to get each team member or employee to perform at her highest level is the job of a leader.

As you can see many of these are similar. Leadership is about people motivating and encouraging others. It is about setting examples for followers and guiding them. Do you have the right make to motivate others?
You notice none of these are from famous speakers about leadership. Their definition would be similar. This shows us that people get it they see leadership differently than management. Management is managing people, leadership is motivating people.

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