What Is Leadership?

I still remember the many charts comparing leadership and management that I came across a long time ago. You may have seen some of them.

Leadership is empowering people; management is controlling them. Leadership inspires people toward a vision; management is about fulfilling goals and tasks. Managers say ‘I,’ and Leaders say ‘We.’

I may not remember all these precisely, but you get the point. The bottom line was clear: leadership was portrayed as this ‘cool’ new thing that everyone should aspire to, management as the older, not-so-cool, a bit boring way to.. well.. manage things that need to get done.

What many of these charts were missing is that, ultimately, successful business leaders need to master both leadership and management. Both are necessary and needed to achieve the best possible outcomes. After all, yes, it is important to generate a vision, inspire, and empower. But it is also important to break the vision into manageable goals and priorities, pair inspiration with needed training and clear accountabilities, and complement empowerment with clear goals and individual responsibilities. It is only when visionary gets implemented and when aspirational becomes real that the full picture closes and inspiration reshapes reality through achievements and results. For this, both leadership and management need to work hand in hand.

But for me, this still doesn’t answer the key question: what is leadership?

I tried to look up a dictionary definition, but the ones I got were strangely circular and didn’t explain much. ‘The position or fact of being a leader’ (Cambridge), ‘The office or position of a leader’ (Merriam-Webster), or ‘Capacity or ability to lead’ (American Heritage Dictionary).

Mmm. Doesn’t really provide the answer I am looking for.

So, what is leadership?

To answer this question, let me take you back over 20 years into a remote place in Germany. This is where I first discovered the meaning of leadership, which truly made sense to me.

I was part of the largest student-led organizations in the world for six years during and after my university studies. This experience has strongly shaped me as a person as well as influenced the last 20 years of my life.

The organization was called AIESEC, and it’s been dedicated for nearly 80 years to world peace and the development of humankind’s potential. It is quite a remarkable organization, but that’s for another time.

The concept of leadership and its practice in everyday situations was one of the founding elements that made the existence of this organization possible.

Composed of mostly unpaid volunteers who changed in their roles every year, inspiration, commitment to a larger purpose and vision, and daily motivation towards achieving set goals was a foundational element of the organization’s success.

Although I learned a lot about leadership during my time in AIESEC, there was one specific moment when things clicked for me for the first time.

It was a leadership development conference taking place in a reconstructed castle standing on a hill in rural Germany. As the conference site was elevated, I remember sitting in silence during the breaks and looking over into the distance to see cars passing on a highway far below. We were physically and metaphorically removed from the busyness of ordinary life, which gave us time to think about leadership, our values, our dreams, visions, and aspirations. We worked in small facilitated groups throughout the conference, and I still remember some of the exercises to this day.

Towards the end of the conference, we were all squeezed into the main conference room to listen to an inspiring leadership speaker who had arrived the night before from the UK. His name was Derek Small, and he left an undeniable imprint on my life and, as I found out later, on the lives of thousands of young people from all around the world through his service to AIESEC over the years.

At one point in his talk, Derek showed us all a copy of a letter that was filled with slightly jagged writing, as if the author had some trouble putting the letters on paper. As we all listened with curiosity, Derek told us that the letter was written by a young African girl to her correspondence family in the UK via a program that was matching UK families with African children.

The letter was written for Christmas, and besides recounting some simple stories, it was full of gratitude towards her UK parents. At the end of the letter, the girl asked to be given a new pen as a present so that she can write more letters in the future. She was enjoying writing her letters so much that she wanted a new pen to ensure she could continue for another year.

But what Derek shared with us afterward shocked all of us to the core.

The reason why the writing was a bit strange was that the girl lived in a war-torn country, and she lost both her arms during an explosion. She wrote the whole letter with her feet.

Here she was, writing a letter with her feet, and although she had every reason to be angry and resentful towards life, the letter was full of gratitude and joy for being connected to her second family.

And as any child, she could have wished for many outrageous gifts for Christmas. But instead, she only wished for a new pen so she could continue writing more letters and continue corresponding with her new family in the UK.

I remember feeling sad for the girl and humbled by her attitude towards life.

Despite the difficulties she had already faced at such a young age, she seemed calm, humble, and full of gratitude towards life. I recall that my own concerns, troubles, and frustrations seemed suddenly irrelevant, even a bit inappropriate. I felt selfish and ungrateful compared to her.

Derek closed the talk with a powerful summary that made everything fall into place for me.

“You are here at this beautiful place in Germany and find yourself at a unique point in your life. You may not think of it this way, but you do belong to a privileged part of the human population. You are young, healthy, intelligent and have your material needs covered. You are studying at a university and you can afford to travel here for a week of personal inquiry around leadership and your place in the world. How many people in the world do you think can do that? You are lucky. Who can make the world better if not you? Compared to this girl, you have so much going for you in your life. Will you take the responsibility for using what you have to make the world better?”

By that point, I have spent the whole week learning about the concept of leadership, reflecting on my values, and dreaming up a vision for the next chapter of my life. I was inspired and full of energy about what the future holds.

Yet, this closing talk brought everything into perspective and invited me to turn theory into practice. Instead of seeing leadership as a concept, I now saw it as a way of life. The abstract suddenly became real. The experience invited me to not only talk about leadership but to start living it every day through my daily thoughts, decisions, and actions. To commit to walking my own leadership path, wherever it takes me.

I remember promising myself that I would dedicate the rest of my life to practicing leadership. To learn as much as I can and use what I have learned to make the world better. I didn’t know exactly how I would do it or what it would mean for my career and life more broadly. But I do remember that I made a firm decision - a decision to lead.

This decision has shaped everything I have done since that day. More than 20 years later, I have lived in 6 countries and traveled to over 50. I have worked on hundreds of projects and was part of multiple organizations and communities. I served in many leadership roles and worked with people from over 100 countries. I have trained, coached, and supported thousands of business leaders, entrepreneurs, consultants, coaches, and thought leaders.

Throughout all this, I remained fully committed to learning and practicing leadership, just as I decided over 20 years ago.

Back to our question. What is leadership?

Leadership is not a role, position, or set of skills. It can be these things as well, but primarily, leadership is an attitude and orientation towards life. It is an inner commitment to aspire to be the best version of yourself and to work towards making the world and the future better. The scope of your impact may vary, but the desire and commitment to lead remains the same.

Leadership is a source of inner strength and a daily stance towards life. No matter what happens and what we have to go through, leadership means we can find a way through it and bring our best selves to serve the world that so desperately needs it.

In addition to making the world better with our presence, words, and actions, leadership is also the continuous development of ourselves, our mindset, skills, and character. Leaders do not only make the world better than they found it, they also do it in a way that makes others want to follow them.

Here is my definition of leadership.

“Leaders improve the status quo while becoming role models for others for their character.”

Ultimately, true leadership is an expression of service and love for something beyond yourself. This is what makes leadership one of the noblest, most humbling, and most fulfilling pursuits on which one can embark.

Considering all the dramatic changes, disruptions and challenges our world is facing today, learning and practicing leadership is one of the most important investments we can all make to build a better future.

That is my answer. What is yours? What does leadership mean to you?

This article was originally featured at my website here. If you have any comments or questions, reach out to me on Linkedin.