This is a guest blog post by Pat Sweet, P. Eng.
Leadership, for most of us, seems to be one of those “you know it when you see it” kind of things. It’s hard to describe, but easy to notice. We’ve all worked for great leaders, and we’ve all worked for crummy leaders. What is it about some leaders that makes you want to help them do whatever it is they’re trying to accomplish?
Throughout history, people have attempted to define leadership succinctly. There are plenty of quotable quotes out there that help shed light on what leadership is. Academics have created models to describe leaders, their behaviors, and the effects of those leaders on the people they lead.
But, with all these ideas, opinions, data, and models, it’s easy to get lost. It’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. It’s also easy to get confused when one person’s quote or model seems to contradict another’s. All the information becomes noise and we’re left with the same question we started with: what is leadership anyway?
To me, leadership can be summed up in what I call the fundamental equation of leadership. I call it this because it makes me feel like I’m brilliant, which I’m not, so just let me roll with this, OK? [Read more…] about The Fundamental Equation of Leadership for Engineers
