What is Leadership: Leadership is a universally observed phenomenon, difficult to define precisely due to its complexity.
It is a formal or informal process, contextually rooted, aiming to influence goals between leaders and followers or institutions. Leadership involves coordinating human and organisational resources towards a specific outcome to solve complex problems. It relies on the leader's traits and behaviours, observer inferences about these characteristics, and attributions regarding the results. Leadership is mainly legitimised through followers and is deeply influenced by the context in which it emerges.
Leading effectively is mainly about developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need.
What is Not Leadership: Leadership should be differentiated from power and management. Power is the means to influence others, characterised by the ability to enforce one's will, which is essential for leadership but not definitively.
Leadership is also distinct from management.
While management focuses on task-driven activities, stability, rationality, and fulfilling contractual obligations, leadership is purpose-driven and grounded in values, ideals, vision, symbols, and emotional exchanges. Leadership transcends management by aiming for outcomes that exceed expectations and is seen as necessary for exceptional results.