What Makes A Leader?

Over the years, I've seen a lot of people who couldn't properly define 'leadership' and a great deal more who confuse leadership with management. Believe it or not, I’ve even come across more than a few who staunchly insist that these two disciplines are one and the same.

WARNING: If you've been on some kind of leadership development program and think that this makes you a leader and that being a leader is a strong part of your identity, prepare to get your knickers in a twist.

There are tens of thousands of books and articles which have been written, supposedly about leadership, but they almost always talk about management instead. How did this confusion come to exist and why does it persist? This is the first of two posts where I will answer that question.

Leaders Vs. Managers

Before answering explaining what a leader is, let's establish the difference between leaders and managers:

A leader says “I have a dream”

A manager says “I have a plan”

If you keep that in mind the next time you read an article which claims to be about leadership, you’ll soon notice whether or not the author understands the subject about which they’re writing. It’s especially useful for HR professionals tasked with organising leadership development as it can help them to avoid spending their training budget on the wrong type of training.

What is a leader?

This is where people usually begin to list various ‘must-have’ characteristics that they want to see in a ‘good’ leader. While empathy and humility may be admirable qualities, there have been numerous people throughout history who have been successful leaders without possessing either. Clearly, something is missing and a better definition is needed, so here it is:

A leader is one who champions a vision and cultivates followers around that vision

A person who says “I have a dream” is championing a vision. The don’t need to be the one who came up with the vision in the first place; it may have been someone else who took care of that. All that matters is that whatever is communicated would give people a reason to follow with their hearts.

It's worth pointing out that the definition above remains valid whether the vision is to do good or to do harm. Thinking of a recent example of someone who became a leader championing a bad vision should be easy enough to accomplish with almost no thought. The act of cultivating followers is critical, because without followers, there can be no leaders.

Congratulations, you now know more than almost every leadership guru out there! I’ll wrap things up in my next post by explaining what leadership is.