What Is Powerful Leadership and How It Has Changed Over the Years
How do you define powerful leadership? Ask twenty different women and you’re likely to get twenty different answers. Why? Because they each have their own experiences with leaders. They may be in a “leadership” position, or they may be on a team where they have a leader. The leaders we have in our lives and our own personal experience as leaders changes how we define the term.
The Old School Definition of Leadership:
The dictionary definition of leadership is: “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.”
Not very helpful, right?
The synonyms offer a bit more insight but they’re still not that helpful. They include:
- Control
- Manage
- Direct
To be fair, these are the words that you’ll often hear when you ask someone to define leadership. These words generally come up if the person you’re asking has worked with what I’d call “old school” leaders. Old school leaders are more likely to delegate and berate rather instead of actually leading.
You’ve probably had a boss or a manager that believed they were a terrific leader when all they really did was frustrate, blame, and annoy their team. Yeah, you know you have. Everyone has had at least one bad manager.
If you look up the word “lead” in the dictionary, you can start to make progress. You’ll see the words:
- Guide
- Induce
- Prompt
- Move
- Persuade
- Influence
These give us a lot more information to work with. They help bridge the gap between the old school “do as I tell you” type of leadership style and a more modern definition.
Today’s Powerful Leadership:
Imagine sitting down at a conference table with someone who has tremendous energy. They have a direction they want to go in, a general plan, and tons of passion and enthusiasm. Their enthusiam and goals are contagious.
And not only are they positive and inspiring, they know their strengths and how to use them to empower the team. In addition, they want to know your strengths and how you can add value to the team.
You see, today’s leader needs to be able to put ego aside and focus on how the entire team can succeed and thrive.
The following words describe today’s powerful leaders:
- Inspirational
- Motivational
- Passionate
- Good listeners
- Enthusiastic
- Supportive
- Positive
- Anabolic
Now imagine yourself sitting down at your kitchen table with your friends or family as a leader. You can see it, can’t you? Leadership is how you interact with everyone, including yourself. And when those interactions are positive, productive, uplifting, and supportive, they enhance everything in your personal and professional life.
Today’s leadership embraces the energy leadership process. A process that develops a personally effective style of leadership which positively influences and changes not only yourself, but also those with whom you work and interact. The concept of leadership has changed and evolved. It’s time to embrace the new direction and leverage it to enhance your life.
