What is Leadership?
Yes, I know. It’s been eight years since I wrote What Makes a Leader? and promised a follow-up post. Somewhere out there, a whole generation of “emerging leaders” has emerged, plateaued, and burned out in that time.
In the meantime, the leadership development industry has swollen to an estimated $366 billion a year, producing books, courses, retreats, and speakers without ever managing to agree on what leadership actually is.
I probably could have saved their customers a lot of money by publishing this sooner.
Back then, I made some people uncomfortable by pointing out that leadership and management are not the same thing. Most “leadership” content is really just management in a slightly nicer suit, backed by a Spotify playlist and a PowerPoint deck.
So now, at long last, let’s finish what I started.
What is leadership, really?
A Word About Words
The word leadership has two parts: leader (which we defined eight years ago) and the suffix -ship. That suffix is what causes all the confusion, because it can mean several different things depending on context.
For example:
- Rank (like lordship)
- Position (like partnership)
- Skill (like craftsmanship)
- Relationship (like friendship)
You can have a leadership rank, a leadership position, or all the leadership skills in the world and still not be a leader. None of those require anyone to follow you. You just need a job title, a certificate, or the ability to talk like someone who lives on LinkedIn.
But there is only one meaning of ship that actually requires the presence of a leader. That is when leadership is understood as a relationship.
And this is where things get clearer.
The Definition That Works
Leadership is the relationship between leaders and followers where the leaders are leaders to the followers.
That last part matters, because it makes the difference between leadership and followership. Here’s how they compare:
- Leadership is the relationship where the leaders are leaders to the followers.
- Followership is the relationship where the followers are following the leaders.
At first glance that might look like word play, but the distinction is real and necessary. You can have followers who are simply complying, conforming or copying, without recognising any authority or being moved by any vision. That is not leadership. That is sometimes just survival.
For leadership to exist, the leaders must actually be recognised as such by the people they are supposed to be leading. It is not about what the leader thinks of themselves, even if they post graphics with their own quotes really late at night. It is about what the relationship actually is.
Why This Matters
Once you see leadership as a relationship, not a rank or skill set, a few things change:
- You do not get to declare yourself a leader just because of your job title or becaue someone appointed you to a role.
- Reading books about leadership or sitting in on webinars will take years off your life.
- You may go back and unlike multiple posts that you now consider rage bait after reading this.
- The leadership industry can now shrink by a few hundred million dollars because I've solved their biggest probem for free.
You're only a leader while the relationship holds, and that relationship depends on whether others see you as a leader and respond accordingly. Leadership isn't something you own, but something you maintain.
If your followers stop seeing you as a leader, then leadership has ended, no matter how impressive your credentials are.
So the next time someone claims to be a leader, don't ask for their CV. Ask who is actually following them, and why.
That will tell you everything you need to know.
