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Mike Myatt has a first-rate post at the N2Growth blog, titled, "Definition of Leadership." It's a masterpiece. Please take the time to read the whole thing.

Mike starts out where many of us and many writers do. He starts by considering great leadership as a list of traits.

If you've ever seen lists like that, you know that they're utopian. No leader in this or any other lifetime will be able to measure up.

This is where Mike does something rare. He pushes aside that pile of traits and crafts his own definition of leadership.  Here's what he came up with.

"Leadership is the professed desire and commitment to serve others by subordinating personal interests to the needs of those being led through effectively demonstrating the experience, wisdom and discernment necessary to leverage trust and influence to cause the right things, to happen for the right reasons, at the right times."

What Mike demonstrates is that creating a definition of leadership can be a powerful tool for figuring out exactly what you mean by "leadership." It's a great exercise.

To get you started, he also shares the ways that several other people have defined leadership. Check out his list, as well as one I posted about a year ago.

Use those definitions and lists of traits and anything else you need to develop your own leadership definition. Give it the time it needs. Since it's your personal definition you can change it until you get it right.

Boss's Bottom Line

Creating your own definition of leadership is a great way to clarify your own beliefs. Your definition can also be a test for everything you do.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.