Everyone is talking about leadership these days. A look at recent new headlines: “Leadership transition in the White House”, “Armenians feel betrayed by their leadership”, “European Union leadership decided about the transmission of COVID vaccines”, “Leadership today does not look like Martin Luther King.”
But what does leadership actually mean? Is leadership a position or a role? Does it mean a specific individual? Or is leadership an activity? Does it mean influencing others? Is leadership something that can be learned – or is it something one is born with?
What becomes apparent is that the term “leadership” is used in a myriad of ways and is not clearly defined. This is not only true of colloquial or journalistic use, but also in academia. Academic researchers do not agree on what leadership is. They offer several, at times contradictory, definitions.
I want to shed some light into this leadership jungle with this series of blogposts – hopefully – offer a clear definition of what leadership truly is.
This blogpost series consists of three parts:
1. Part one is about authority, which is often mistaken for leadership.
2. In part two, I present a new way of thinking about leadership - leadership as an activity.
3. Part three explores how everyone (including you!) can lead.
Personally, I find it very enlightening and helpful to think about leadership (and authority) in this way – and I hope you do, too!
Full disclosure: These ideas are not mine. They originate in Ronald Heifetz’s research about leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, where I was one of his students.