Most of us have been taught—implicitly and explicitly a handful of definitions of leadership. We’ve heard over and over that leadership is:
Positional authority. This happens in every formal hierarchy. A job has a set of delegated responsibilities. Because of the job role you have, you can make certain decisions, and enforce them.
Taking charge or assuming control of a situation. This can happen without formal authority. Taking charge is often taken a sign that someone has “leadership potential.”
Inspiring people to work towards a vision. This is quite common and assumes the leader’s job is to have a picture of what the future could be.
Encouraging behavior by force of personality, persuasion or eloquent communication.This definition is tied up with ideas about charisma and being a “born leader.”
Getting other people to do what the leader wants. This may be accomplished by gentle means such as incentives and persuasion. But it will happen by what ever means necessary, including threats and coercion.
As with all things, there are times when these ideas about leadership serve us, and times where they limit us.
The definition I find most useful is this the one we teach in our Problem-Solving Leadership workshop:
Leadership is the ability to adjust the environment so that everyone can contribute to solving problems.
There’s one very important difference between traditional definitions and the one we teach.
Traditional definitions assume leadership is for the few. Ours assumes that we can all “do leadership,” no matter our title, personal magnetism, or level in the organization.
Join us in the PSL workshop to learn more and practice adjusting the environment.
By Esther Derby