Leadership for non-leaders

In my last post, I wrote about how good decision making leads to achievable goals. One of the hashtags was ‘personal leadership’. I chose it because it requires personal leadership to challenge, commit and decide for oneself.

That same week I had to give a presentation on leadership. Easy, I thought, I know what leadership is. After four aborted tries I realised I was skirting around the actual subject. I somehow just couldn’t nail it.

And then I thought - what does this concept of leadership actually mean? To me and in general.

So I googled ‘great leaders’ and the names below came up; i.e. people that are or seem to be recognised as leaders (the list is not comprehensive, nor in any specific order): Alexander, the Great, Joan d’Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Albert Einstein, Ranjit Singh, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Kamala Harris, Scott Morrison, Jacinta Arden, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Martin Luther King, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Mao Zedong, Napoleon, Winston Churchill.

I checked with friends and colleagues and the consensus was - some are debatable, others not so much. Some have stood the test of time, others are more recent.

What struck me was that they come from all walks of life - politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, social advocates, male, female, old, young, rich, poor, etc. There was nothing in their ‘background’ to distinguish or designate them as leaders. And yet, their names mean something to most of us. They seem almost universally to be recognised as leaders.

Here are the questions then - do they consider themselves leaders? And if yes, why? And if not, why not? What do you think? Why are they on the list of ‘great leaders’ and what makes them leaders? Or not.

Looking forward to your comments below.