Yesterday the person who taught me the best lessons about leadership jumped into a Ft. Lauderdale canal and helped pull a woman to safety as her car sunk into the water.
For eight years I 'apprenticed' under his lead. He taught me that leadership is about caring about people first, saying the hard thing when no one else will, and never stopping short when reaching for the things that are right, good and true.
Jacob Morgan, a self-proclaimed future of work guru, compared asking someone to describe leadership as being the same as asking someone to describe air. It just is.
Try it. Try defining leadership. (I mean really do it. Like, right now, write down your definition in a few sentences).
Morgan asked 140 CEOs for their definitions and (surprise) every one was different. We can't ever assume we all operate from the same definition of such an important term.
But, we absolutely know leadership when we see it.
Like yesterday.
Leadership isn't limited to an office, a school, a team, or a home.
And, to me, leadership will always be caring about people first, saying the hard thing when no one else will, and never stopping short when reaching for the things that are right, good and true.
And, while it's not always life and death -- sometimes it is.
And, when that car drove off the road, that driver had to be glad there was a leader nearby.