The Leadership Learning Path

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” –Lao Tzu

Welcome to the The Leadership Learning Path on Sources of Insight!

Master the leadership mindset, skillset, and toolset to become a better leader.

The goal of this leadership guided path is to help you become a better, more influential and visionary leader that can inspire and empower others to make great things happen.

This is the ultimate deep dive guide on how to become a better leader through effective leadership skills and essential leadership concepts. Learn and master the art and science of leadership by walking through pragmatic and time-tested leadership frameworks.

Think of this leadership guide as your virtual coach to help you learn, explore, and advance your leadership skills and knowledge at your own pace, anywhere, anytime.

What is Leadership

Here are how a few leaders have defined leadership:

“Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.” — John Maxwell
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” — Warren Bennis
“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” — Bill Gates

I think of leadership as influencing with a purpose. Otherwise, it’s just wandering with followers. And that’s why vision, mission and values play such a key role in any leadership effort.

Leadership isn’t a title or a position. That’s why somebody might be a good manager, but not necessarily be a great leader. As Peter Drucker put it:

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Some people argue over the distinction, but I’ve found it helpful in the real world. But maybe another helpful lens here is that some leaders are better at “run the business” and leading operations, while other leaders are better at “change the business” and leading change.

Leadership Defined

Here is perhaps a more robust way to define leadership by Kevin Kruse, CEO of LEADx.org:

“Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.”

And perhaps my favorite definition of leadership is y Rick Maguire of Futurity:

“Leadership is coordinating action to realize the future you care about.”

Really, this is about highlighting the idea of intentional leadership. So we can think of leadership as influencing with purpose and a goal. The goal is the vision or the end-in-mind, while purpose is WHY you do it.

Types of Leadership Styles

When learning leadership, it helps to have a general idea of some of the most common leadership styles and types:

Autocratic Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader makes decisions without input from the team. The leader decides.
Bureaucratic Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader makes decisions based on company and policies, even with input from the team.
Coach-Style Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader coaches the team by nurturing the individual strengths of each individual and using strategies to enable the team to work better together.
Democratic Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader makes decisions based on input from the team. The team decides.
Laissez-Faire Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader takes a hands-off approach and let’s the people do with little intervention.
Strategic Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader is guiding the way forward with strategy and foresight.
Transactional Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader rewards based on transactions and work performed.
Transformational Leadership: In this leadership style, the leader is driving change and transformation through strategy, direction, and empowerment.

Some styles work better than others based on the situation and the mix of people, so part of your leadership mastery will be developing your leadership flexibility.

The Situational Leadership Model

The Situational Leadership II Model was developed by Ken Blanchard, John Carlos, and Alan Randolph.

The big idea behind the Situational Leadership Model is to balance your level of direction and your level of support based on what an individual needs and what a task calls for.

Here is a visual of the situational leadership model:

Situational Leadership helps leaders avoid micro-managing and it helps them better balance their efforts around providing direction and providing support.

I’ve seen a lot of mismatches between employees and managers where the manager did not pay attention to what the individual needed or what the task called for.

They would have saved themselves, their employees, and their career if they had developed their self-awareness and applied the Situational Leadership II model.

The Situational Leadership model is especially helpful for distributed teams and to help create a culture of empowerment and support.