Leadership - My Definition

Leadership is the characteristics, skills, knowledge, traits, wisdom, experience, and practices and structures to bring multiple people together to reach a goal or mission.  

       I developed my definition of leadership through my experiences as a leader and a follower. You have to follow before you can lead was what I was told and it makes perfect sense. If one can not follow orders, then how can one give orders? I believe that being a leader and a follower I have understood both sides of the spectrum. This also has parts of other leaders I have seen, heard, or followed in my life. Anyone can be a leader but only a few choose the path.

       The concepts in class reinforced my definition because we spoke and learned about different theories that studied leaders and followers. The same components in my definition I saw in many of the theories which were backed up by case studies so i now know I have a good definition.     

       This definition is how I like to think about leaders. I hope they use their skills to reach the goals they set and I have used this definition in leading others. I use this definition as my basic thought when thinking about leadership.