Leadership is a relational process through which purposeful and ethical engagement of personal energy and influence results in desirable change that benefits self and others.

Leadership and self leadership are both about human relationships and the power of social intelligence. Relationships between and among leaders, managers, followers, team members, partners, co-workers, constituents, stakeholders, supporters,  etc.  It’s about people knowing and caring about people. People knowing, communicating, collaborating and cooperating with each other. People working together toward positive, productive and common goals. People asking for and receiving help and assistance. People giving feedback, support and encouragement.

Process is knowing what needs to happen, how it will happen and when it will happen. It’s about who will decide, plan, execute, evaluate and monitor. Process involves most everything related to the means and the ends (eg. goals, roles, procedures and interactions).

A relational process happens when people work together to get things done. This is true whether the outcomes are tied to individual or group goals. Think about it, though also a solitary process, what we accomplish as individuals (self leadership) is almost always a process that is dependent on the wisdom, knowledge and support received from others.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Unified Definition of Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.