Explaining my definition of Leadership

In my very first posting on this blog, I had defined leadership as “getting others to want to do and, therefore, do what you want done”.

The prospective leader should be clear in their mind about what they want done, that actually is the leader’s vision. This is leadership’s first pre-requisite and answers the question “leadership for what?”. Then the leader has to communicate the vision to their would-be followers or team members in such a way that not only it is well-understood by them all but they are also moved by it to make it their own vision, they “want to do” or achieve it. And since they themselves want to achieve it, they now own the vision and take all necessary action to achieve it. The leader in the meantime is not sitting on their haunches, they are with the followers or the team, keeping them together and focused on the vision. The leader also ensures continuous movement and makes course corrections as and when necessary. The leader and the followers, together, thus reach the ‘visioned’ position. Leadership is for a purpose, and leadership makes possible the journey from where you are to where you would like to be.