Define Leadership - Practical Leadership Definition: What Does Leadership Really Mean?

How would you define leadership? Who is a leader?

Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence people to move in the direction he wants to achieve set objectives.

In organizations, leadership is about influencing employees to buy into the vision of the leader, motivating them to deploy all resources available at their disposal to achieve objectives set by the leader.

From this leadership definition it would appear that leadership is all about what the leader wants. This is not always the case.

It is true that the leader defines the business goals and objectives for the organization. These goals and objectives essentially defines the direction the organization is headed.

However, to achieve those defined goals, the leader must be able to sell his noble ideas to his followers and get their buy-in. Why?

The reason is obvious. The simple truth is . . . no matter how good a business concept or initiative is, the leader cannot execute it alone. He needs people to accomplish his 'wonderful' ideas.

Recognizing this, an effective leader uses the principles of management to influence his people to buy-in to his concepts and ideas, to run with those ideas as though it was theirs, and to accomplish the extraordinary.

The leadership definition above makes it obvious that some leaders will fail and others will succeed. And that is what we see in real life.

What accounts for the difference?

In simple terms . . . leadership styles.

When I define leadership above, I said it's about influencing people to get things done. Unfortunately, not everyone given the mantle of leadership succeeds at leading effectively because not everyone possess the leadership qualities required to get the desired results.

Consequently, leaders must of necessity be exposed to the right executive coaching programs to hone their leadership skills in the area of . . .