The Essence of Effective Leadership

It is commonly and wisely stated that the most important element of leadership is to have followers. True enough. But every bit as important is action. There are not many situations where effective leadership occurs without action. After all, to lead is to lead somewhere. Prerequisite to action is the all-important call to action.These calls are framed by well chosen and spoken words.

So there you have it. I have distilled years of study on leadership to a simple sentence. The essence of leadership is to motivate followers to action with words. Oh, but this is so much easier said than done. For evidence, look no further than our last two Presidents.

No one will argue that George W. lacked bias for action. With rare exception, he was the embodiment of action driven by ideology and ethic. He pushed his political agenda with the same vigor that he tackled brush clearing on his ranch in Crawford. Words, however, were not his strong suit. His inarticulate manner of speaking was not up to the task of setting the stage for his actions, leaving his underlying motivation subject to the interpretation of others. Never a good thing for a leader.

Then there is Barack Obama. A veritable master of the spoken word. Arguably the most articulate President since FDR. He sets the stage for action with stirring speech and inspiring rhetoric, audaciously raising our hopes. Then we get the same old, same old political morass and dysfunctionality. So just as we get excited to be lead, we go absolutely nowhere.

To all of the current leaders out there and those who aspire to such, let these men be a cautionary tale. Know that to lead others begins with finding the right words to help them imagine what they can not on their own. To enable them to see possibilities. Then to orchestrate a series of actions that make the possibilities a reality, course-correcting as situations require, all while keeping the vision alive.