Ask yourself what the following examples of leadership have in common:

• Martin Luther King moved the Supreme Court to outlaw segregation on buses.

• You influenced your boss to adopt a new policy.

• The example of a customer service employee led her colleagues to follow suit.

• A front-line employee sold a new product idea to top management.

• Apple Computer influenced Microsoft to get into music distribution.

• Gandhi, though long dead, influenced present day activists to be non-violent.

• Tiger Woods led other golfers to raise their game.

• You convinced a colleague to adopt a better way of doing his work.

• You were the only one who didn’t complain about the latest changes at work.

• You kept going after a setback when others were ready to give up.

• You were the first among your colleagues to adopt a new technology.

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be much in common between you, Martin Luther King, Tiger Woods, Gandhi and Apple Computer. But, look a bit closer and you will see it. In all cases, someone showed the way for someone else. That’s all leadership is – showing the way, influencing others to follow, to do something different.

What else do these examples have in common? No one is the boss of those who were led. This is a critical point. We view people in charge of groups as our models of leadership, but this is really just a special case of leadership at best. I say ‘’at best’’ because it is possible to be in charge of others and just be a manager, hence not showing any leadership. If the group is working efficiently and does not need to change direction, then no leadership is shown or even necessary.

The bottom line here is that there is no way to unite all these diverse examples of leadership into a single model unless we define leadership simply as showing the way, pointing to a new direction. If we define leadership so that it implies taking charge of a group, then all of these examples are ruled out and we are then left with a very narrow concept of leadership.

There is yet more that these examples share. In all cases, the person or group showing leadership has nothing to do with helping to get anything done. It is only those who are led who take charge of implementing the suggested change in direction. This is important because leadership is conventionally conceived as taking people from A to B, of helping them achieve a goal. But we have to see the journey from A to B as a managerial undertaking if we are to restrict leadership to showing the way. And we must do this if we want to account for the full range of leadership instances. If you are in charge of people and you both promote a new direction and manage the implementation, then you are switching hats from leading to managing.

Notice also that none of these examples refers to influencing style. I have not talked about the need to be inspirational, emotionally intelligent or charismatic. That’s because there is simply no style that all leadership acts share. Leadership occurs when people willingly follow someone else’s lead. It doesn’t matter if leadership is by example, the making of a hard, factual case or an inspirational appeal. Influencing ability is important but how people are influenced should not be part of any definition of leadership.

Finally, in all cases, leadership is an occasional act, not a role, position or type of person. As an act, leadership is something anyone can show and it can shift from one person to another quickly. By changing our definition of leadership from what it takes to acquire and hold a dominant position in a group to one of an occasional act, we open the door for anyone to show leadership. The power that such leadership is based on has shifted from the ability to dominate others to the ability to offer a better idea. And it is not possible to monopolize good ideas. This is why you can show leadership; you have good ideas that can move others to change direction. Notice the switch from talking about how to be a leader to how to show leadership. This is a subtle but vital difference.

See http://www.leadersdirect.com for more information on this and related topics. Mitch McCrimmon’s latest book, Burn! 7 Leadership Myths in Ashes was published in 2006.