How do you define leadership?

Lead from the front, I would never have asked any of my Soldiers to do any task that I would not be willing to take on my self, and would set the example by showing them what was either required or what my desired result was wanted. That is what I pretty much continued throughout my career after I became the leader I was taught to be as I moved up the NCO ranks.

Bringing out the best in one, so that they can achieve their goals to become what they, were destined to be in the first place.

There are hundreds of books on leadership and countless definitions. My thoughts on leadership is do the right thing all the time and be the kind of leader that people want to follow. Lead from the front and be a good role model. I know that's very basic, but it's the little things that add up and if you do the small stuff properly each day, eventually you become that leader.

Someone who have knowledge and experience to lead anyone to the right direction.

A leader is someone who sacrifices themselves for the betterment of those who follow, not necessarily subordinate.

A leader will choose development over anger, selfless choices over him/herself.

Place your subordinates before yourself, teach your subordinates to take your position.

Leadership is understanding that your time is THEIR time. How they spend it, or waste it, is entirely up to the person they follow.

This one is tricky because so many pundits create a new word, copyright it, and then somehow it's supposed to be real. 7 Habits, Situational, what's your quadrant? etc. We tend to try and solidly define things with imperfect words. And that creates too many canned answers.

Let's flip it. Remember when it was I don't know what ponography is but I know it when I see it? We've seen leadership in E-1s to O-Whatevers. It what makes you do whatever it takes for success, as you buy into it. Most leaders have their detractors simply because they don't buy into their style or method.

So whatever mix and match of positives and negatives in a leader that gets most all the fish swimming the same direction is the result. There's no magic blueprint here. The descriptors tend to be ingredients that increase the likelihood of successful leadership, but are no guarantee. We've seen incredible leaders who pancake because wrong place, time, and problem. Take a look at Winston Churchill post WW-2. It would have been interesting to watch the show if Patton survived to make a three ring circus with Mac and Truman.

An individual, inside the formal chain of command or informally within the organization, who validates the mission by his level of credibility.

Good to see you Pete.

Wisdom in my mind is the ability to constantly learn not only from one's own mistakes and experiences, but also through observing and noting the mistakes and experiences of others. I believe that leadership can only be effective with wisdom. In other words, a leader is someone who constantly takes the experiences and lessons learned from their own decisions, the good decisions of others, and the bad decisions of others, and uses that knowledge to figure out how best to get the job done. Most importantly, leading is about allowing those below and above to become leaders and better leaders by both leading with empowerment and following with reverence as well as one can. The most effective people at any profession are those who go by the maxim "anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time around," and this is done by giving above and beyond the minimum effort needed to barely accomplish the mission: Leaders should always strive to outdo themselves.

Leadership is motivating others to accomplish the mission.

BG Pete,

I am retired from active duty 18 years ago this year, and no longer a military leader. I am going to take this on at a different level based on chemistry.

The way I define leadership would be dependent on where I am at, who are my people if any, and the situation. Like in military leadership, it is motivation with a sense of urgency. Leadership is chemistry. This type of chemistry activated by certain natural phenomena on a personal and professional manner; military chemistry is both good, bad, and can be ugly.

Good military chemistry is when people listen, and they are inspired and actively take part in something worth living and dying for. It is how leaders enable and empower, through their influence and persuasion their people to follow them to hell and back. Well planned and executed mission. Good day at the office.

On the flip side...We all heard of toxic leadership, well am here to say that's high risk chemistry. When all else fails...the probability of failure is greater but somehow it is the human spirit that is the defining element of success. And Lady Luck. The gamble paid off and now for some well needed medication.

As humans we cannot measure the human spirit, but we can come close to its predictability.

Ugly chemistry is post-mortem. This is when the leadership action has been taken and it aint pretty. The mission was accomplished but it was an eew. Bad day at the office. Tomorrow is another day.