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Leadership

Before I get started, let me define leadership according to all the books and journals I have read. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive, coherent and run like a fine tuned engine. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as vision, beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills. Although your position in an organization as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority by virtue of the position to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader...it simply makes you the boss by the position. Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing or directing people around.
Leadership is said to be everything and nothing. It is everything because it can be found at all levels in organizations, not just at the top (Martens, 1987). Leadership is everything because it is infused in all that we do, it is not sacred. All individual behavior has leadership implications, some more than others. Because leadership is based on action, it emerges as a function of participation and interaction within the organization. Given this description, how can leadership be nothing? Leadership is nothing in the sense that it seems impossible to define completely. Decades of scientific study have yet to yield a single definition that fully captures the nature of leadership, much less articulate a definitive approach to developing it. Perhaps it is impossible to define leadership in words, but we agree that we know it when we see it.
Leaders must possess the qualities they are trying to incorporate into their team. For example, if you want members to be confident, have self-control, be disciplined, etc., then you must first possess all these traits. One of the most powerful things you can do is lead by...