What You May Not Know About Leadership

Leadership defined and 20 quotes to encourage you as a leader

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

Leadership is critical and essential in everything we do. We see leadership in action everywhere — in our homes; in sports; at work; in our businesses; in our communities; in our countries; and globally in the world.

There are many books on leadership and many definitions of leadership. In many ways, it has become a complex topic that is widely researched and discussed on many fronts.

Recently, I read an article by Kevin Kruse on What Is Leadership?

Kevin, author of Great Leaders Have No Rules, provides a great perspective on leadership in this article. He starts by stating what leadership is not, and then provides a great comprehensive definition of leadership.

According to Kevin…

Leadership has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company

In all my years working in the corporate world, I’ve always considered the senior executives in the organization as leaders. While this is often true, Kevin makes the point that leadership doesn’t automatically happen because you’re an executive or because you’ve reached a certain pay grade.

Leadership has nothing to do with titles

Kevin notes that you don’t need a title to lead. So having a tile does not automatically make you a “leader.” There are so many examples of great leaders in small groups, families and neighborhoods without titles.

Leadership has nothing to do with personal attributes

There is a common misconception that automatically associates personal attributes to leadership. Kevin makes the point that personal attributes has nothing to do with leadership. Leadership isn’t an adjective. According to Kevin, we don’t need extroverted charismatic traits to practice leadership. And those with charisma don’t automatically lead.

Leadership isn’t management

Kevin makes the distinction between leadership and management, noting that they are not synonymous. Good management is needed. Managers need to plan, measure, monitor, coordinate, solve, hire, fire, and so many other things. Typically, managers manage things. Leaders lead people.

So what is leadership?

Kevin defines leadership as follows:

Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.

He goes on to point out the following key elements of this definition:

• Leadership stems from social influence, not authority or power
• Leadership requires others, and that implies they don’t need to be “direct reports”
• No mention of personality traits, attributes, or even a title; there are many styles, many paths, to effective leadership
• It includes a goal, not influence with no intended outcome
• Lastly, what makes this definition so different from many of the academic definitions out there is the inclusion of “maximizes the efforts”

I truly enjoyed this article as it expanded my view of leadership. Now, I will leave you with 20 of my favorable leadership quotes to encourage you as a Leader.

Quote # 1

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” — Ronald Reagan

Quote # 2

“To add value to others, one must first value others.” — John Maxwell

Quote # 3

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” — Douglas MacArthur

Quote # 4

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams

Quote # 5

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote # 6

“Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share pain.” — Max Depree

Quote # 7

“The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.” — Bill Taylor

Quote # 8

“A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.” — Jim Rohn

Quote # 9

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” — Harvey S. Firestone

Quote # 10

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” — Warren G. Bennis

Quote # 11

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” — John C. Maxwell

Quote # 12

“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” — Peter F. Drucker

Quote # 13

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill

Quote # 14

“Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” — John Zenger

Quote # 15

“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

Quote # 16

“The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quote # 17

“Leadership is an action, not a position.” — Donald McGannon

Quote # 18

“Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” — George S. Patton Jr.

Quote # 19

“A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.” — Leroy Eimes

Quote # 20

“Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” — Seth Godin

Final Thoughts

Leadership is about social influence.

It involves others.

And it maximizes effort towards a goal.

I hope you found this definition of leadership insightful as I did. And I hope you’re encouraged by these great quotes on leadership.

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