What is Leadership? Who is a Leader?

 

Dictionaries define leading as “guiding and directing in a course” and as “serving as a channel”. A leader is someone with commanding authority or influence. The various definitions of leadership share three common elements:
 

• First, leadership is a group phenomenon; there can be no leaders without follower. As sch, leadership always involves interpersonal influence or persuasion.
   

• Second, leadership is goal directed and action oriented; leaders play an active role in groups and organizations. They use influence to guide others through a certain course of action or toward the achievement of certain goals.
   

• Third, the presence of leaders assumes some form of hierarchy within a group. In some cases, hierarchy is formal and well defined, with the leader at the top; in other cases, it is informal and flexible.

 

Combining these three elements, we can define a leader as any person who influences individuals and groups within an organization, helps them establish goals and guides them toward achievement of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective. This broad and general definition includes those who have formal leadership titles and many who do not.