John Kotter author of “What Leaders Really Do” and more recently “A Sense of Urgency” provides the following definition of leadership from his book “Leading Change”.

“Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”

Leadership is about bringing about change and effective change requires vision, inspiration and effective communication. A vision that is so clear and compelling that people align to make it happen.

Today more than ever business and society requires leadership that brings about positive and productive change. The results of all this change? More change demands more leadership! Without leadership organisations are doomed to remain stuck in the past. Trapped by their past success. Bogged down by inertia.

The fundamental task of leadership is to bring about the right kind of change.

• What are the three critical changes that your leadership aims to bring about this year?

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Howard Gardner describes leadership as:

"… persons who, by word and/or personal example, markedly influence the behaviors, thoughts and feelings of a significant number of their fellow human beings."

Behaviour is critical to the practice of leadership. Talk is cheap. It’s great to define leadership values and principles. After all is said and done, it’s what’s done that counts! Leadership is displayed by the example we set. Leadership theory, models and frameworks don’t matter, unless they result in a change of behaviour.

• How effective is your leadership?
• Has your leadership positively influenced the behaviours of others?
• What changes do you need to make?

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Definition, Management, Behaviour, Behavior, Influence, Business

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"Leadership: The capacity and will to rally people to a common purpose together with the character that inspires confidence and trust" – Field Marshal Montgomery

This is an interesting definition of leadership by Field Marshal Montgomery, in the definition he highlights to key components for effective leadership:

• A Common Purpose: Leadership is about creating purpose and meaning that is shared by a group of people. Creating a vision is great first step, but unless the vision is shared by the people it’s, will not align action.
• Character that Inspires Confidence and Trust: Who you are as a leader is just as important as what you can do… your competence. Vision and purpose is necessary, but not sufficient, without a proven character people will not follow. Character is supported by core values and a leadership philosophy which inspires trust. People trust leaders who are honest, transparent, are accountable and have integrity. Character is the foundation of leadership, if you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message!

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Vision, Purpose, Definition, Character, Trust, Business, Management

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I have written in a previous posts on the differences between management and leadership and recently I can across an interesting article with an interesting take on the topic.

“Management can be taught. Leadership cannot be taught or learned, it must be earned.”

I like this perspective, it means that leadership is a choice, it’s the result of out attitudes, values, behaviours and our effectiveness. In a nutshell, it’s the results we achieve and how we go about achieving them.

“If one looks at management development literature, it is only over the last 15 – and particularly the last 10 – years that leadership is mentioned at all. Prior to that, leadership was mostly only assigned to historical political figures such as Napoleon, Churchill, Kennedy and so on. These were people who earned the title leader. Leader was never assigned to organisational supremos. Nor was it given to any manager. It seems that some writers, keen to establish what makes a great manager great, settled on the term leadership as a distinguishing factor. Then they tried to define it. Then we tried to measure it. Some of us even tried to teach it! And there our troubles began…… My contention is that one becomes a manager when one signs on for the job, be it head of the country, firm, school, department or first-line supervisor. One only becomes a leader when other people say so….. This definition of leadership, rather than focusing on the inputs, such as personal skills, characteristics, competencies, traits etc, focuses on the outputs. Managers are judged on their status as a leader in the eyes of their followers and stakeholders by what they do and achieve.”

In his research, Bob Selden, the author of “What To Do When You Become The Boss”, found the following four condition required to create the essence of leadership, these are the conditions required for others to follow, there needs to be:

• A shared understanding of the environment – ‘We know what we face‘
• A shared vision of where we are going – ‘We know what we have to do’
• A shared set of organisational values – ‘We are in this together‘
• A shared feeling of power – ‘We can do this‘

What I like about the above four conditions of leadership is that they are shared by the team and the organisation. This view is consistent with Peter Senge who describes leadership as:

“a capacity in the human community to shape its future.”

Although the leader makes a choice to create the conditions for leadership, once these conditions are in place, the community becomes empowered to take action towards the shared vision, the result is leadership.

“The wicked leader is he who people despise. The good leader is he who people revere. The great leader is he who the people say we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tsu

Considering this perspective on management and leadership and the results of your management over the past year. Take some time to ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you made the choice to lead?
• Have you established the four conditions for leadership in your team?
• If not, what actions can you take over the next few weeks to establish these conditions in your team?

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An interesting post from Tony Mayo, a Lecturer in the Organizational Behavior unit and the Director of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School who has spent the past five years, with Nitin Nohria studying great business leadership in the United States. In their research they sought to answer the question…

“What makes a leader great? Is greatness defined by financial performance, the capacity to innovate or implement, or the ability to set a strategic vision that galvanizes a group of followers?”

In their research they asked over 7,000 executives to define greatness in business by selecting from the following list or providing their own definition.:

• Ability to set a strategic vision
• Ability to be an innovator or pioneer
• Impact on the way an industry has evolved or functions
• Impact on society
• Financial performance
• Development of others

Their responses looked like this:

How would you define great leadership? Leave your comments below…..

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