A few weeks ago I was speaking to a friend and advisor and he asked me, “what’s your definition of leadership?”
I thought about it, and then thought about it a little more, and a little more… until I realized that I didn’t have a definition. Not a good one, a real one, something that was more than words and that really means something to me.
So I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and I came up with, “giving those around you the desire and the belief that they can accomplish great things.”
His definition, he told me the other day, was simpler still: “winning over the hearts and minds of those you’re leading. ”
Hearts and minds. Minds and hearts. Both.
Yeah, that’s right.
My one sentence definition is leadership is being responsible for the decisions you make for others.
Sasha, great post. I love asking people about their definition of leadership. Mine is somewhat more clinical than yours:
Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.
And you can see my full article on Forbes as to how I got there:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/
It’s a tough question and unfortunately, we have fewer TRUE leaders today. True leaders, in my opinion, strive to “do the right thing” and create a sense of both confidence and balance when needed. True leaders were more prevalent during “the greatest generation” than they are today and similar to the adage sex=love, we often confuse being in charge with being a leader. And corporate leaders today would toss a few hundred hourly employees under the bus to get a nickel bump in the stock price vs. like Henry Ford, during the Great Depression doubled the salaries of the line workers as they couldn’t even afford to drive their own products. That action eventually saved the company.