Google the word, “leadership”. How many hits did you get?

507,000,000 was my number. That’s a lot of hits. It is also a lot of thinking and theories on the topic.

Maybe too many.

When I facilitate leadership programs (including corporate and co-curricular programs at universities for both undergraduate and postgraduate students) very few people are clear about their approach to leadership. While folk are able to list books and thoughts on the topic, most people haven’t worked out what guides their approach to leadership.

For example, what is your approach to leadership? What theories do you do your best to apply? What models underpin your approach because you find them useful? What quotes do you find helpful?

How are you consciously putting these theories and models into practice?

The challenge with so much thinking on the topic of leadership is that it has become confusing. For this reason I strongly recommend that you take charge and develop your own approach to leadership.
If quotes, theories and models work for you, then use them. Keep using them until you discover something more useful, and then replace them. This approach, of course suggests that you should never stop assessing and re-assessing your approach to leadership. Or even more simply, never stop learning.

What is your approach to leadership? How would you describe it to someone else?