Leadership

What is Leadership?

Some of the definitions I found are: "A person who guides or directs a group", "An act or instance of leading", "someone who has followers" (Peter Drucker), "leadership is influence, nothing more-nothing less" (John C.Maxwell), "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal".

Today I watched some videos on leadership, and read a few articles on leadership, and thought about the ways I am a leader in my community and who the other leaders are and what their leadership styles are.

One of the videos I watched was called The Dancing Guy. It was a poor quality video, but the voice over talked about the fact that the first person who was dancing was not really the leader, although he was up in front of everyone dancing. The real leader was the first follower. After he got up and danced, then others began to join in - first in twos and threes, and then in groups.

I thought about this for a while and realized that it is true, in order to be a leader, one has to have followers. We may think we are a leader as we expound our theories to people, but if our mannerisms or style of "leadership" turns people off, we have no one to lead.

It does take courage to be the first to step out and try something new, but it may take more courage to get up and follow someone that everyone else thinks is a bit crazy.

Are you a leader? What is your leadership style? Who is following you?

Fran
Developing leadership skills in Toastmasters

District PRO - Toastmasters District 61