Tom Peters published an article in the March 2001 issue of Fast Company: "Rule #3: Leadership is Confusing as Hell," a list of fifty rules of leadership. His rule #49 reads as follows:
"49. Leaders.? I left this one open: you tell me. What is the one key idea for leadership in whacked-out times that you would propose? You can go to TomPeters.com and contribute your idea there.What's the one-liner that captures the essence of leadership for you? What do you think leaders need to do to win in the next five years?"
Here was my response:
#49 Leaders and Leadership are two different ideas. And they go together. In business (and other places) the heroic individual (leader) exists as a part of a leadership system. This system contains what is unique to the individual leader and the shared space of the leaders of the enterprise: leadership. This is a dynamic, oozing, organic, messy pool of energy, talent and action that is continually shifting in eddies of change. The individual leader brings a lot. The collection of leaders brings even more.
Leadership builds on clarity of purpose to work collectively as a group around evolving purpose, as an organization around refining and realigning resources, as a team where appropriate to inspire changing results and as a vital enterprise in relation to stakeholders, internal and external to the business.
Leaders clarify and act on their commitments, develop and utilize their competencies as contributors, innovate as team players, and connect with stakeholders as enterprise entrepreneurs.
The Leadership System comprises both.