The Future of Leadership       

For this next generation of leaders, it is important to understand what we mean by leadership today. First, though, let's identify what leadership is not.

·         Leadership is not derived from formal authority or a positional power as is so often misunderstood in organizational context--hence, the CEO of an organization is definitely a manager but not always a leader.

·         Leadership is not about influencing people to follow the routine directives of the organization.

Leadership attributes

Leadership is, in fact, the ability of a person (or a group of people) to empower other people to transcend their short-term goals to achieve their higher order intrinsic goals. This concept is explored in leadership literature as the theory of transformational leadership. According to this thoery, a leader

·         should have a strong vision that she practices in her life every day (idealized influence)

·         understands the intrinsic higher-order needs of his followers, and is able to motivate them to achieve those (inspirational motivation)

·         is able to stimulate and encourage creativity in her followers by challenging their assumptions and by taking risks on behalf of the followers (intellectual stimulation)

·         is able to attend to the needs of the followers and act as a mentor and coach to them (individualized considerations).

In order to exhibit the above dimensions, a leader would need the following five qualities:

A compelling vision. This could be a vision for taking the organization or society from its current state to an undefined future state. The important thing to note here is that not only must the leader be fully committed to this vision (living and breathing it at all times) but this should be a "desired" future state of the followers, as well.

Empathy. Deriving further from the above point, a leader would be able to translate her vision into a shared vision for all her followers only when she can empathize with their needs and desires.

Bias for action. Once a leader has identified the vision and lined up the followers for that vision, she now needs to move toward achieving it with a well-organized and thought-through set of actions and tactics using the strengths of the followers.

Coaching. As the team of leaders and followers executes their tactics to achieve the vision, the leader needs to constantly keep in touch with them to coach, mentor, and guide them toward their common goals. This could also be viewed as "action learning," where the followers are enabled to achieve their goals as a result of the learning and feedback they get from the leader.

Collaboration. The leader should be able to foster collaboration among followers such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The group is then able to accomplish the vision as a team of well-orchestrated individuals working with their shared passion toward a common goal. A successful leader should be able to demonstrate her collaborative skills in her dealings thus acting as a powerful role-model for all her followers--this is the most critical skill, and without it there is a danger of factionalism and loss of collective knowledge and skills of individuals.