Leadership

Everyone wants to be a leader, until its time to do leadership $h!t.

I see posts everyday about leadership. Servant leadership, be a great leader blah blah blah. What few of these are addressing is actual things inside of leadership. Yes, leadership comes in different forms but some things are constant. What many think of as leadership is really leading, like leading a race aka being out front.

What is leadership?

The US Army defines leadership as "the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization." The Marines define with “the influencing of people to work toward the accomplishment of a common objective." These two definitions bring out some points that are important to leadership. "Influencing people" requires people.

There are also four factors of leadership that also remain constant. Those are The Leader, the Led, the Situation and Communication. The leader will clearly communicate both the situation and the "mission" then provide the purpose, direction and motivation to the led. That brings us to communication. There are again four factors of communication, The transmitter, the message, the receiver, and feedback.

Regardless of leadership style, those are the things you have to be doing. If you are not doing those things, you are NOT leading. You may have the title and the pay, but by definition you are not.

These days, I am not a Leader. I have no people and my "Sphere of Influence" will large, is not direct reports. We don't have missions and we are not part of an organization. I do however make an attempt to provide purpose, direction and motivation to those that are paying attention to my content. Thus, I am showing leadership qualities, but again not leading by definition.

What I am trying to do those is lead as in trailblazing or being in first place. I am not 1st as I know I stand on the shoulders of giants, but as I carve my path, I am marking the trail and reporting back obstacles, potholes, and things to avoid.

The purpose of this article is to be honest with yourself. What are you really doing? Are you leading subordinates by definition or are you trailblazing? or are you saying words to the sky trying to remain relevant?

Each has its own rules and require honesty and integrity.