While it would be almost impossible to come up with a definitive, all encompassing definition for the word 'leader,' after years of research and numerous studies on such matter have outline some of the distinguishing characteristics of a leader. Leaders are individuals who, by their actions, facilitate the movement of a group of people (termed followers) toward a common goal. By this definition we see that an essential characistis of any leader, is an ability to use ones influence to guide the actions of one's followers.
The leader's job is to provide vision and inspiration, which in turn provide direction to their followers. In order to properly understand leadership we must first distinguish it from management. While the roles of a leader may somewhat overlap, to assume a manager is necessarily a leader, or vise versa, would be a mistake. But before we can differentiate between a leader and manager, we must first detail traits inherent in most leaders.
English: SK Leaders' Program Leadership Training, ...
English: Some APEX teen leaders were invited to a ...
Leadership of Fiat Group over TimeFollowers are, in essence, what makes a leader. But what determines who becomes the leader and who follows? As mentioned earlier, in order for a leader to be considered a leader, he or she must first possess the ability to gain a followership. A number of traits seem to regularly appear that differentiate leaders from the crowd. These traits include ambition and energy, the desire to lead, self-confidence, determination, decisiveness, and intelligence. In addition to those characteristics, there is strong evidence that indicates that people who are high self-monitors are more likely to emerge as leaders than those who are low-self monitors. The correlation between high self-monitoring practices and leadership is most likely related to one's charismatic abilities. People who are highly adjustable in their behavior in different situations will use their abilities to gain a strong following among diverse peoples.