The True Definition of Leadership

Leadership never goes out of fashion. Management fads and fancies come and go, but the reality of leadership cannot change. The fate of businesses is determined in large measure by the actions and inactions, for good or ill, of those in charge of the enterprise. Not surprisingly, many writers have sought to explain and expound the nature and essence of effective leadership, so that its lessons can be studied, learned and imitated.

The catch is that no two leaders are exactly alike, and neither are their leadership styles or actions. Take two men who probably rank as the greatest business leaders of their eras (and certainly as the richest) - John D Rockefeller I of Standard Oil and Bill Gates of Microsoft. There's little in common here save enormous ambition and a ruthless (to put it mildly) attitude to competition. Whether someone wants to perform web design Kent or run their own business, you can't teach these behaviours at business school.

All the same, in 2004, the Harvard Business Review devoted a whole issue to leadership, testimony to our ongoing fascination with the subject. Yet the contributors couldn't escape the fact that executive leadership is hard to define, elusive to grasp. It's like being in love: you just know when you've got it - and when you haven't. It isn't simply management, but without good leadership managers will find it difficult to succeed no matter what they do whether its ent surgery or accounts kent. They have to know “who's in charge here?” Just as important, they must know where the leader is leading.

Authority and purpose (abundant in both Rockefeller and Gates) are the two pillars on which all leaders build. If the authority is weak or wobbly, or the purpose is ill-defined and wavering, effective leadership is lost. That truth, however, doesn't take you very far, especially in the 21st century. For a start, who is the leader? Businesses have become much more complex, whether its performing web design in bath or sell photography accessories in the UK, and it's not realistic to expect one man or woman to lead every aspect of this complexity, or one leadership style to fit all cases.