Leadership Foundations; Let's start with the basics

 I just typed “Definition of leadership” into the Google search engine and received 119 Billion hits. In this post, I will briefly discuss four of these definitions that are near and dear to my heart and then boil them all down into a single word. 

1. In his book Leadership in Organizations noted leadership scholar Gary Yukl defines leadership as “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives." I have the utmost respect for Dr. Yukl and cited him in my dissertation. The issue I have with this definition is the use of the word "agree."  If a defining part of being a leader means we have to get people to agree with us about what needs to be done and how to do it, we might never get anything done. What I do really like about his definition is the use of the word “process.”  Leadership is something that we start learning about at a very young age, usually from our parents.  We continue to learn (often unconsciously) from teachers, coaches, and bosses.  This process continues through our lives and never stops.

2. I have taught leadership for the International Association of Chiefs of Police  for 10  years and believe they have built on Dr. Yukl’s definition. The IACP defines leadership as “The process of influencing human behavior to achieve organizational goals that serve the public, while developing individuals, teams, and the organization for future service.” Not only is process used but the definition focuses on influencing human behavior and developing future leaders.  Leadership is certainly about human behavior.  While personality, attitude, and aptitude are important, a leader’s focus should be on their own behavior and the behavior of their followers. Of course, to focus on their own behavior they have to be aware of how their personality, attitude, and aptitude affect their behavior.

3. My own definition of leadership has been heavily influenced by both Dr. Yukl and the IACP. I define leadership as "The process of influencing human behavior to create engagement, achieve organizational goals, and prepare followers for future leadership roles.” I added the word engagement because I believe leaders must have followers who are involved in and committed to the goals of the organization. 

      Because you have followers might make you a leader, but not necessarily a good one.  If you are a positional leader (one who relies solely on their rank or position in the organization) with a bunch of zombies following you might be leading them, but how productive will they be?  Will they have any initiative or only do things when you tell them or order them to do so? Will they challenge you when you lead them off a cliff?  I don’t know about you, but I want my followers to tell me well before we get to the cliff. 

 If you think you’re leading and no one if following you, then you’re only taking a walk.

                                                                                                         Afghan Proverb

      Great leaders not only ask their followers to challenge them (when they believe there is a better way); they teach them how to do the job of the leader.  Some call this succession planning, I call it good leadership.  The only way an organization survives is for the current leaders to grow and nurture upcoming leaders. 

 While I am partial to my own definition I have to admit, it is a little wordy and does take some time to explain.One of my role models and mentors, noted leadership expert Dr. John C. Maxwell, has taken all the above and condensed it into one word. According to Dr. Maxwell, in this book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership  “The true measure of leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” This is his second Irrefutable law of leadership, the law of influence.

          Being in power is like being a lady.  If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

                                                                                                       Margaret Thatcher

      Think about the people you lead.  What influence do you have with them? Ask yourself, why do people follow me?  Is it because they have to?  Do they want to? Think about your own boss (yes, every leader is also a follower, but more on that in a future post).  Maybe you follow her because of her position in the organization, but would you follow her anyway?

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