What is Leadership?

According to W.C.H. Prentice, "Leadership is the discipline of exerting special influence within a group in order to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfill the group's real needs." In other words, a leader takes responsibility for a group that he is part of and persuades members that his plan of action or ideas are going to meet the needs that particular group.

Article in Best of HBR from 1961 "Understanding Leadership" Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. A great leader is one who can do so day after day, and year after year, in a variety of circumstances.

Two basic lessons a leader must learn to succeed 1) People are complex 2) People are different

Description:
The would-be analyst of leadership usually studies popularity, power, showmanship, or wisdom in long-range planning. But none of these qualities is the essence of leadership. Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants--a human and social achievement that stems from the leader's understanding of his or her fellow workers and the relationship of their individual goals to the group's aim. To be successful, leaders must learn two basic lessons: People are complex, and people are different. Human beings respond not only to the traditional carrot and stick but also to many desires and emotions. For example, someone may find satisfaction in solving intellectual problems but may never be given the opportunity to explore how that satisfaction can be applied to business. In this article, first published in HBR's September-October 1961 issue, W.C.H. Prentice argues that by responding to individual patterns, the leader can create genuinely intrinsic interest in the work. Ideally, Prentice says, managerial dominions should be small enough that every supervisor can know those who report to him or her as human beings. Prentice calls for democratic leadership that, without creating anarchy, gives employees opportunities to learn and grow. This concept, along with his rejection of the notion that leadership is the exercise of power or the possession of extraordinary analytical skill, foreshadows the work of more recent authors such as Abraham Zaleznik and Daniel Goleman, who have fundamentally changed the way we look at leadership.