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LEADERSHIP AND INFLUENCE | THE LEADER

LEADERSHIP AND INFLUENCE | THE LEADER

In the leadership cycle, there are four stages, which are the followers, disciples, collaborators, and leaders. These four stages are progressive as the individual who enters into the cycle must be transformed by the leaders from stage 1 to 4. In the previous essays I explained the dynamics of influence as the leader seeks to transform the persons he or she is leading, starting from the follower up to the collaborator. Today, I shall begin a discourse on the last stage which is the leader.

The significant marker or indicator of the collaborator is the discovery of leadership purpose and design, as I have explained in the previous essays. The implication is that without the discovery of purpose and design the individual would not progress from being a collaborator to another stage, the leader, which forms the focus of this essay. If the collaborator did not discover the authentic purpose for the leadership, he or she is bound to synthesize one in order to transit to the next stage – this is beginning of the problems of leadership in the long run. Now, if the above is true, then I can define a leader as one who has discovered his/her purpose and design, equipped in the direction of leadership by another leader, and ready to take him/herself as well as others in direction of actualizing the intended result.

By the above definition, it is important to establish that the leader is armed with the necessary tools to navigate his/her path, which is derived from an effective following of the leader who just transformed him or her. Put in other words, according to John C. Maxwell, the leader knows the way because of having followed another leader, goes the way because of having come to the discovery of leadership purpose and design, and shows the way because of the having people following him/her in order to transform and transit them into becoming better leaders too.

Leaders are leaders because they know why they act the way they do and have channeled their energies into actualizing the leadership purpose by forming alliance with other leaders and also are deliberately transforming others who follow them to become much better than they are. Here is the deal; you cannot be called a leader by that standard if first you have not discovered your design and purpose. Second, you cannot be called a leader if you do not know the people you are supposed to lead by virtue of what you are capable of doing and the reason why you are capable of doing that.

In the true sense of it, it is not the position that makes a leader, rather it is the leader who by taking responsibility can be said to have defined a position by his/her actions. Put in other words, you are not a leader because you are occupying a leadership position, rather you are a leader because you have been armed with the necessary tools needed to navigate and bring to bear the necessary results.

In the next essay, I shall be discussing the various classifications of leaders based on their designs and purposes.

Elvis C. Umez
Leadership Consultant
School of Leadership Development (SOLD)
IDB Consult

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