social evolution | K.W. Wrede

Leadership… no one seems to be able to agree on a common definition.

A great example of this is in recent posting by Brittney Helmrich from the Business News Daily. In the article, “30 Ways to Define Leadership”, Helmrich quotes the definitions of leadership by 30 business executives. Each definition is sensible and stands well on its own. The comments are intelligent and well informed. In a professional or classroom situation everyone would agree all of the quotes are good, if not enlightened.

But in the context of all the quotes, each definition is different. In some cases, the difference is subtle… a simple difference in word selection. In other cases, the quotes address completely different aspects of leadership: vision, empowerment, motivation, emotional intelligence, taking responsibility, empathy, influence, inspiration, to name a few. All are great concepts.

Who really knows?

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There is no guarantee that leadership will make a company successful, but I can almost guarantee a company will fail without it.

I had a surprising conversation with an HR director in a European branch office of a US company about leadership and its role in the company.

This person was a very experience executive, I’d estimate 10-15 years of work experience and responsible for HR policy and recruiting. After the usual background exchange I asked about the biggest leadership challenges the company faced. Were there issues of recruitment or development or mentoring?

The HR director looked at me and said that there were no problems, we don’t use leadership in this company.

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