Almost everyone has a different definition or at least opinion of what Leadership looks like. The truth of the matter is they are all 100% right. Leadership is a personal opinion. As you survey your organization, each employee, customer, or any stakeholder for that matter will have an opinion about the level of leadership (or qualification) of its members or managers. In many cases, those opinions may vary. Even tyrants have advocates who would praise their leadership ability.

The next series of posts will cover topics on leadership. We’ll start here with recognizing conditions for leadership.  These conditions are both passive and active. Nonetheless, each can create a platform for the Leader to emerge and elevate his or her team’s level of performance. The word performance is critical to this analysis of leadership. It is the end point which a leader is ultimately judged upon.  For the purposes of this post, we’ll define performance as the distance traveled towards the completion of a goal.

Many of the great organizations seem to have a similar definition of leadership. By “Great” I mean they have a strong return on investment for their stakeholders. These stakeholders include employees, the community, clients and shareholders. In his book, Good To Great, author Jim Collins researched these great organizations and found that the leadership performed at a high level. He defined it as Level 5.

“Level 5 Executive Leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It is not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious- but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves”. (Collins, 21)

Collins provides us with an appropriate definition of leadership (or at least a stage of leadership) as a reference point for this blog series. With that in mind, we can explore the conditions that exist which will stimulate the emergence of the leader.

The Six Leadership Conditions are in many ways a call to action. The potential leader may be at bay or occupied in another leadership role until at least one of these conditions present themselves. Some of the conditions may coexist as well. The Six Leadership Conditions are as follows.

1. Adversity – This condition is when an obstacle prevents forward motion toward goal completion. As adversity presents itself the Leader will identify this as an opportunity and use her skill to navigate the team or organization to smoother currents.
2. Malaise – This condition is when members are comfortable in their condition and do little to change it. The Leader will recognize malaise as an adversary and quickly convert this condition into one of adversity or change.
3. Selection – This condition is when someone is chosen to lead despite the presence of another condition. Selection is often a by-product of assembly. The leader is chosen by motion or appointment during selection.
4. Assembly – This condition is when a group is formed. Often it is a natural ingredient as teams develop. Assembly draws out leadership by activating selection typically. Although any of the other conditions can also be activated by this.
5. Change – This condition is when an element that hadn’t existed in the present is introduced into the organization or team. Change could include technology, policy or any variable that disrupts normal currents within the organization or team. Change can also stimulate other conditions like Adversity and Selection.
6. Vision – This final condition is when direction emerges. Sometimes it is the successor of Malaise. As Vision is imposed or shared collectively by a group, other conditions may be initiated that stimulate Leadership.

As you’ve read, some of the conditions may coexist, while others may exist exclusively. Often a condition may be the stimulant for a stronger condition. Leadership may also shift as the conditions shift. That may happen based on the Leaders competence in handling the new condition or the followers perceptions of the Leader’s ability. Strong Leaders do possess a high level of competence to Lead in all the conditions. However, we cannot state that this is true of every Leader as some remain untested in certain conditions. In the next posts, we’ll review these conditions to give you a stronger understanding of each.

You can follow me on Twitter @TerrenceWing or @LiquidLearn