Is leadership easy to define and what is “leadership”?
Definition 1: John C Maxwell : In the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell sums up his definition of leadership as “leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.” Perhaps a bit of an oversimplification you may think.
Definition 2: Peter Drucker : The forward to the Drucker Foundation’s “The Leader of the Future” sums up leadership : “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”
Definition 3: ‘Leadership is the art of motivating [I think they mean inspiring] a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. The leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He or she is the person in the group that possesses the combination of personality and skills that makes others want to follow his or her direction’.
ref:
sbinfocanada.about.com/od/leadership/g/leadership.htm
Definition 4: “In its essence, leadership in an organizational role involves (1) establishing a clear vision, (2) sharing (communicating) that vision with others so that they will follow willingly, (3) providing the information, knowledge, and methods to realize that vision, and (4) coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members or stakeholders. A leader comes to the forefront in case of crisis, and is able to think and act in creative ways in difficult situations. Unlike management, leadership flows from the core of a personality and cannot be taught, although it may be learnt and may be enhanced through coaching or mentoring.”
ref:
www.businessdictionary.com/definition/leadership.html
So you think you have what it takes to be a leader!
Just how good are your leadership skills… like to get a quick indication?
Here is a link to a free online leadership skills test: Leadership Skills Test
6 comments
Jason Wilton says:
June 24, 2009 at 3:29 pm (UTC 0)
I love the “leadership is influence” definition. It really cuts to the core of things. Sure, it doesn’t tell you much about what goes into effective, high-integrity leadership… But it does establish the bottom line right away!
Ahmed Al Awadi says:
May 18, 2010 at 8:11 am (UTC 0)
I would like to introduce myself to you, I’m Ahmed AL Awadi, a strategic researcher and working in my family business. I’m from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its nice to meet you
Yes it’s help you get and share the ideas on leadership.. I like it .. you can see how the leaders influences are important
Ahmed
Yousuf Alfarah says:
May 20, 2010 at 3:36 pm (UTC 0)
The test is good, but I guess you may add more questions that charaterize the leader in his relation to the team. any way I got 71 in the test.
rictownsend says:
May 21, 2010 at 1:35 am (UTC 0)
Well done on the test Yousuf Ric – http://www.orglearn.org
David Jobs says:
December 20, 2011 at 8:25 am (UTC 0)
The test is bad. I need the test can report
Relationship Skills, Business Communication Skills, Forecasting Skills, Decision Making Skills, Planning Skills, Goal Setting Skills
Listening Skills, Team Building Skills, Persuasion Skills, Employee Motivation Skills, People Handling Skills, Mentoring Skills
Who can give me it ?
rictownsend says:
December 21, 2011 at 3:21 am (UTC 0)
Can I suggest, if you are serious, your local university or business school is where you need to be Ric