With the innumerable number of coaches, gurus and plethora of consultants in the leadership industry we can often lose sight of what leadership truly means.

At one of my first meetings with a new mentee we sat at a table for a scrumptious meal in an upmarket restaurant when she posed a question to me: “What is leadership?” I was ready for this. I had been waiting. With a smug smile on my face I pulled out my phone to read my latest definition.  After all I pretty much have been ‘doing’ leadership for over twenty years, I should know, or so I thought, right? I proceeded to say

“Leadership is about working certain paradigms and principles through your unique personality into a passion that changes the world around you.”

As much as the definition is a work in progress I still expected a round of applause, well at least a flutter of enthusiasm. The bemused look on my mentee’s face followed by the same initial question, “Yeah, but what is leadership?” made me gulp on my succulent mushroom. The smug smile now wiped clean off my face. I almost bit my tongue at the expense of blurting out, “have I just wasted my saliva!”  However, her question brought about some introspection leading to a more relatable definition.  I eventually muttered:

“Leadership is the art of harnessing human resources towards a common vision”.

Through that humbling encounter and others, I have more recently discovered that those I coach and mentor want to know what leadership is in its simplest form.  We often talk about leadership as though it were some sort of algorithm or algebraic equation, we explain it in fuzzy and complex language befuddling our audiences while we stand hands akimbo. Everything about our posture oozes, “Now wasn’t that impressive.” The reality is the only person we truly impressed was ourselves.

In short, no one wants these ivory tower definitions; they want what works in the business world. As entrepreneurs and budding leaders they want what enthuses them. They need plain interactions that make it easy to maximise their own potential. They need simplicity, the simple use of language that often eludes those of us with multiple degrees.

We are predisposed to think that we are still writing for our professors and we all too readily get into our leadership jargons whilst thumbing our noses up at those who dare to challenge our exclusive language and complex powerpoint presentations.

The truth is there is a world waiting for your education and valuable experience. However, for their and maybe our own sake can we strive to simplify things?

Leadership is not enacted in complex definitions, paradigms or frameworks; they only serve to enhance it.  Leadership is actually taking the time to model skills before those who desire to grow in their own development. Those who want to learn about leadership want experience, they want relatability and simplicity. They want to know that you who coach or mentor them have walked the path that you are taking them along. Those of us who coach or mentor need to learn to keep it simple!

To do that successfully we need to forget who or where we are today and remember that we were once wet behind the ears (novices). Then, and only then, can we adequately impact and impart leadership principles into the lives of those we are privileged to mentor.

Now that’s true leadership!