How Do You Define Leadership?
Over the last several weeks, I have been thinking a lot about the meaning of leadership – and I am sure I am not alone, with the Presidential election and the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. For me, the topic has also been particularly timely because I have been assisting my 8th Grade son with his homework for his Leadership class at school. And this month I was honored to accept the WBE Leadership Award from WBEC-East (our local WBENC affiliate) for my work in the women’s entrepreneurial community. So what does it mean to be a leader? How do you determine if someone is a “good” leader? Is a good leader necessarily a good person? Are good leaders always effective leaders? I wish I could take credit for thinking of these nuances and distinctions, but despite the dozens of articles I have read, diagnostic tests I have taken, and classes I have participated in – let alone the numerous leadership roles I have had – I think I’ve learned the most about meaning of leadership from my son in the last few weeks. Here’s why.
In my son’s Leadership class, his teacher has defined leadership as follows: “leadership is the art of influencing people to accomplish an organizational goal.” Implicit in the teacher’s definition are other qualities, such as humility, service to others, integrity, strong communication skills, compassion, empathy and respect. These are the qualities that are the focus of the class, as the goal is to teach the students how to be leaders who have and demonstrate these qualities in their leadership. A worthy goal to be sure.
However, neither I nor my son agree completely with this definition. My son has a narrow definition of leadership, which he defines solely as “the ability to get others to follow you without coercion.” He also sees leadership as one method of obtaining (and wielding) power. He distinguishes two other aspects of his teacher’s definition – first, with regard to outcomes, i.e., accomplishing an organizational goal, my son believes that is the result of being an effective leader. In other words, that using leadership (aka power), you create change, achieve a goal etc. And, I must say I think he has a point. Think about many systems in which there is a leader that has attained his or her position because they have amassed a lot of followers (certain elected officials might fall into this category). Does that mean they are able to be effective and achieve their goals or make change? Nope. Not necessarily. Depending on the system in question, there are other skills required, like vision, diplomacy, strategy, tactical skills, the list goes on and on. In many (and perhaps most) leadership rolls, if you can’t do the old “play well with others” – even others who are not your followers – you can’t get anything done.
My son also took issue with the notion that leaders inherently are good people and have a strong moral code. As to this aspect, I 100% agree, and I am sure you do too. For, like it or not, dictatorships, criminal gangs, and even some otherwise law abiding organizations all have leaders – people who are in charge of the organization, influence others and get them to follow them – but those leaders are anything but moral. Or, in a more nuanced way, they may follow a certain moral code, but not necessarily one that is the same as yours. And, of course, as my son noted, just being a good moral leader does not make you an effective one.
So I supposed you might conclude that my son would support a broad definition of leadership that includes all three of these qualities – an ability to influence others to follow you without coercion, being a moral/good person, and being effective. He would, in theory, but he also believes that such beneficent effective rulers are unicorns – they don’t really exist. Again, he has a point. No matter how good, how moral we are, as humans it is impossible to be perfect in all areas. And so even some of our best, most treasured leaders are flawed. For me, the latest example of that is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom I greatly admired. Yet, she was not perfect, as the startling lack of racial diversity in her clerks shows. This serves as a reminder that not only are all leaders imperfect, but also all leaders (me included) can always do better.
And so, what’s my definition of leadership? I am not sure I have one at this point. But perhaps that is what’s important. That I am asking that question, that I am constantly thinking about it, and that my definition is constantly evolving. And that I am willing to keep an open mind and learn, even from my thirteen-year old son. What do you think it means to be a leader?
