How would you define leadership?
On the face value of the question, it looks very simple to everyone, however ...
What do you think leadership means to you? How would you define it?
I was part of a discussion with the new joiners to talk about the leadership and one of the question I asked them was the above.
On the face value of the question, it looks very simple to everyone, however what surprised me and probably others was that everyone took a pause and thought for a moment before answering the questions.
Few interesting answers that came out of the discussion were,
– Leadership is all about getting things done on time within budget & costs
– Leadership means helping your team grow
– Its about people management
– Its about how you handle issues and the pressure cooker situations
– Leadership is how you motivate people to do their jobs
– Leadership is about managing the work and team
– Leadership is controlling the behaviour and emotions of self and influencing in others
– Leadership is all about setting the rules and helping the followers follow them!
and the answer I gave was “Leadership is all about taking risks and making key decisions that help you grow your team”.
However, after the session is now complete, I would redefine leadership as,
Leadership is not a science, its an art. Its an art on how you understand the mindset of individuals as well as groups, connect with people of various styles and patterns and still form a successful team and achieve a common goal of growth & success. However, none of the above is possible, without yourself making a conscious effort to understand yourself, your own emotions and learn to control and channelize them to create positive energy around.
Leadership is demonstrated by various people and they have unique style of executing leadership within the group.