Leadership: Action That Inspires

A Definition of Leadership

These days the word leadership has become loaded with many meanings, explanations, and imagery across various media.

But in its essence - leadership simply means to lead.

The roots of the word lead emerge from an Old English word laeden which means “to go first, to guide”.

Therefore - leadership is closely tied to:

There is an inherent sense of adventure - in “going first”.

But an even more important aspect of this is that - the direction and action of the leader - encourage others to follow suit.

Therefore in its elemental form: Leadership is action that inspires further action in others.

While leadership at its core is about taking action and inspiring others to do the same - let’s take a step back.

Why does anyone take action?

In day to day life, we see two types of actions:

Usually - you are asking because you’re not sure what needs doing.

Or maybe you don’t want to put in the work necessary to settle on a direction.

Getting more certainty often demands more action!

If you’re low on energy or tired - you’re unlikely to make demands on yourself to get clarity or conviction.

So those lacking conviction or those unwilling to act by themselves to acquire conviction are usually the ones asking.

Hidden under the questions like the above - we see that there’s no conviction, only a low-effort desire to find out what needs doing.

However, the ones who lead aren’t asking these sorts of questions.

Instead - they are doing the following:

They’re experimenting and figuring things out to build personal conviction.
Once they have conviction - they are making proposals to others.
They may seek inputs, suggestions, or support from others - but they are in action, moving the agenda forward.

In short, future leaders are working to acquire conviction and then propose:

“We must do X to solve Y. I will start with doing a part of X. Do you have any suggestions on my proposal? Would you like to join me in this effort?”

Look at the amount of extra effort needed to make a proposal:

So what does it take to lead?

One must continuously study the field and situation.

And one must take action to validate one’s ideas and develop conviction.

The conviction must then be used to fuel a compelling proposal.

Finally, the proposal must be refined with the inputs from others…

And this will lead to a group acting together.

But it all starts with an individual’s desire and willingness to act first.