Leadership

ALL THE ESTIMATED 1,750 English-language or English-translated books, book chapters, journal articles, and websites reviewed from 2015 to 2021 for this study, which were thought capable of presenting a definition of leadership, organizational leadership, or political leadership, are not included within the references list of this book. However, an exception was made in the case of some dictionaries that were researched and included in the bibliography.

Quotes of definitions and contexts by author, publisher, or person quoted or interviewed; the dates of original publication, such as Adolf Hitler, whose original work of volume 1 was published in 1925 in German and translated into English (Murphy 1939); the interpretations of the definitional and contextual quotes; and the categorizations of the definitional quotes based on the interpretations were acquired.

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THE EARLIEST AUTHORITATIVE definitions of leadership were published in some dictionaries before those published in scholarly leadership in the earliest English and American dictionaries researched and analyzed contained the words follow, follower, following, and followership, in addition to the words lead, leader, leading, and leadership.

As would be expected from words published many years ago, some of the words spelled in both English and American dictionaries were not spelled the same as those words exist now in the English language. For example, what was interpreted as the word modification was spelled

differently in the definition of the word state in Webster and Goodrich (1847/1848) than the word is spelled currently in dictionaries today.

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THE AIM OF this study was to produce a definition of leadership agreeable to the general public, scholars, practitioners, and others by accepting and interpreting the what of leadership within definitions of leadership stated in publications of scholars, organizational managers in business, government and nonprofits, politicians, consultants, popular-dictionary authors, editors, publishers, and others, and by classifying the publications’ definitions within categories of interpretation of what the publications stated leadership is (see the appendix, Table 1).

Three-hundred eighty-one popular-dictionary and nondictionary publications containing definitions met inclusion criteria and were classified.

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THE GOAL OF this study was to develop a definition of leadership applicable to anyone—whether animal or human; owner, executive, manager, supervisor, subordinate, contractor, volunteer, customer, member of any organization, or a person independent of an organization; a politician or voter in any political nation, state, or locality; a parent or child; or a lover or friend in any social environment—that might prove beneficial to any reader. The goal of this study was to produce a definition of leadership with which most people would agree anywhere and at any time—a commonly accepted, context-free definition.

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Animals, people, and organizations follow to accomplish the goals of the animals, people, and organizations that are following. Animals, people, and organizations lead if another is following. To follow is to emulate or express agreement with another’s words, action, or representation.

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To lead is to be emulated or agreed with by another. Leading is being emulated by or agreed with by another. A follower is one that is emulating or ex pressing agreement with another’s action, words, or representation. A leader is one that is being emulated or agreed with by another.

Followership is a state of emulation of or agreement with another’s action, words, or representation. A state is the existence of something at some time. Leadership is a state of being emulated or agreed with by another.

A state exists at a point in time. There are many states of being. A relationship is a state of connection. A state of leadership exists at a point in time. A state of leadership can exist for seconds, whereas leading is occurring in the present, or a state of leadership can exist over time while leading is not occurring. A state of leadership is transitory. A state of leadership can cease to exist in one or more seconds when the one that is following or is in a state of followership has decided to terminate the state.

Followers determine leadership with their behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Nonfollowers define leadership based upon their beliefs of what leadership is whether they believe it is behavior, ability, an effect, a position, or a state. Although followers may be less conscious of their emulating of or state of emulation of another, followers are more likely to know whether or not they are agreeing with or believing in another as opposed to merely complying with another for the purpose of survival at a lower level of existence. Followers are the best definers of leadership with their behavior, thoughts, and feelings as opposed to nonfollowers, who are defining leadership in their own best interests, whatever those interests are.

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Agreement is the minimum of leading, being a leader, or leadership. Many definitions, approaches, models, and theories of leadership state how to lead. Complexity is the problem with including the interrogatives of how, why, when, and where within definitions of follow, lead, and their suffixes. People are too dissimilar. The path-goal theory of House (1996) includes fifty-five potential actions of those defined as leading in the accomplishment of leadership. The ways people can and will respond to each one of the fifty-five different stimuli must number in the hundreds if not thousands.

Agreement is achieved by learning the personal values and goals of each one of the people whom one desires to lead. Learning the personal values and goals of people takes time. Everyone is different to whichever degree.

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Sometimes one is powerless to help another accomplish a goal, but that too should be communicated by the manager. Power is what another fears or wants. The power to acquire and maintain followership can be great if a manager helps another accomplish what he or she wants either consciously or unconsciously.

Agreement is the minimum, but belief is the gold standard. If one believes another is doing all he or she can to facilitate one’s goal accomplishment, the likelihood of leadership and followership is greatest.