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A take on Leadership

Leadership has many forms.

The most important ones are not taught.

Leadership is the knack of eliciting another person's voluntary, discretionary effort -- the kind that money can't buy, the kind that enticements can't move, the kind that weaves everyone's errors and efforts into a well knit cloth called results.

It is not about power, money, or control although those can easily stand for it in the short term.

The key is that we are all learning to do this every day, unconsciously. It seems it would be harder if we try to do it consciously, without training for it. The best leaders do it for the longest time before we know they are one.

So, it seems we cannot recognize a leader when we see one.

She carries no authority except the effort she brings to the table.

True leaders disappear, over time, into the fabric of the institution they helped create. A leader who is unable to sunset out of one role is also incapable of stepping into to the next sunrise.

A leader is one who serves everyone,
and gives more than she takes
while leaving without a trace
after everyone else becomes
their very best
for having traveled with her.





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