As part of the Acronym blog‘s Leadership Inspiration month, I wanted to share some of my own reflections on leadership. I know the Acronym blog initially wanted to keep it focused on business leader-types, however, I think leadership is a fluid term with a different definition for each person.

So how do I define leadership? For a base, I looked the word up at Merriam Webster.com.

Leadership (noun)
1. the office or position of a leader
2. capacity to lead
3. the act or an instance of leading
4. leaders (the party leadership)

Now, I don’t know about you, but I was always taught to define a word without using other forms of that word. So, I moved to the trusty thesaurus.com, which defined “leadership” as guidance and gave me synonyms such as administration, authority, command, control, direction, domination, influence, management, power, skill, supremacy and sway.

Alright. I hope we can all agree that leadership goes beyond exercising your power and supremacy over others, and has a lot to do with inspiring others to be the best they can be, whether it’s on an athletic field or in an office or classroom.

I’ve had many people inspire me throughout my life … parents, coaches, teachers, professors, bosses. The common denominator among each person was passion.

The editorial adviser at my college newspaper was passionate about newspapers and working with young journalists, guiding them to produce one of the best student newspapers in the country. I’ve had a handful of teachers and professors who were so supremely passionate about young adults and children that they made me want to learn and excel even more than I already did (yeah, I may have been a bit of a “teacher’s pet” as a kid). My high school swim coach was able to combine three of his passions — working with young adults, sports and teaching — and as a result, became like a second father to many of us on the team.

To me, leading and managing are two very different things. Managing people can be learned; good leadership is a little more difficult to come by.

There’s an intangible quality to good leaders that inspires those who work around them (no matter where they fall in the “corporate ladder”) to be better, to do better and to aspire to better things. They motivate us through their own work, through their words and, most importantly, through their actions.

Gaining the confidence and self-awareness to make difficult decisions comes with time, but I don’t think having “leadership qualities” matters where you are in your career. You’re never too young to inspire others.

There are a lot of qualities that make someone a good leader (remain humble, be open to new ideas, ask tough questions), but without passion, you won’t be able to fool anyone into doing their best.

Who has inspired you most during your career?

Photo source