38 Elements Of Leadership

John Spacey, December 20, 2017 updated on September 23, 2018

Leadership is the practice of getting groups of people moving in the same direction towards common goals. It is a social skill that can be done with or without formal authority. Leadership is based on foundations of influencing and motivating. It involves elements of strategy, decision making and management. The following are common elements of leadership.

Style

Leadership style is the basic approach of an organization, team or individual to setting direction and getting people to follow it.

Authoritarian	Leadership that relies solely on formal authority and a rigid system of command and control. This requires systems, process, rules, regulations and punishment for non-compliance.
Charismatic Authority	A leader who extends their influence beyond their authority with the force of their personality.
Paternalistic	A leader who views their team much like a family whereby they help members to grow and reach their potential. This can result in an extensive professional network of loyal allies over time.
Democratic	A leader who orchestrates social processes as opposed to dictating a direction.
Laissez-faire	A leader who gives individuals freedom to achieve a set of goals as they see fit. This suits creative processes. A laissez-faire leader serves as a role model or mentor and leads by example.
Transactional	Influencing and motivating with reward and punishment.
Narcissistic Leadership	A leader who is only concerned with themselves. For example, a leader who is willing to follow irrational strategies that damage an organization if it enhances their own position. Narcissistic leaders have poor relationships with almost everyone and are in a constant state of conflict. They gain influence by developing a reputation for being "tough."
Abundance Mentality	The opposite of narcissistic leadership. Leaders with an abundance mentality believe that most situations are win-win. For example, the belief that if a leader does what is good for the organization and their team they will reap rewards. Focuses on results over political battle. Tends to sideline people who are negative, dramatic or unproductive.

Strategy

Strategy is a plan for the future. If leaders get people moving in the same direction, strategy serves as the direction.

Strategic Drivers	Identifying the forces that shape strategy such as customers, competition, technology and regulations.
Strategic Planning	The process of developing a strategy.
Goals	Developing a set of goals.
Prioritization	Prioritizing strategies to recognize constraints such as time, budget and feasibility.
Risk	Identifying risks and considering probability and impact.
Objectives	Breaking strategies into a series of objectives and using these to divide work between teams and individuals.
Tactics	Taking advantage of fast moving situations to take quick wins. Tactics are essentially the flexible element of strategy that responds to realities that don't match your plan.

Influencing

Influencing is the process of selling goals, strategies, objectives, tactics, policies and actions to teams. Leadership often involves influencing beyond your formal authority. In other words, leadership is mostly about convincing people to follow as opposed to dictating commands.

Ethos	Convincing people using your credibility or authority.
Pathos	Appealing to emotions.
Logos	Appealing to logic and rational thought.
Storytelling	The art of making information interesting and memorable.
Message Framing	Crafting information to influence ideas, emotions and reactions. For example, a pitch for a business case designed to generate excitement and optimism in your audience.
Choice Architecture	Structuring choices to influence results.
Nudges	Using gentle suggestions to influence.
Call To Action	Directly requesting action with a concise command. For example, "give him a call tonight" or "get this fixed."
Anticipating Objections	Anticipating negative responses and working out how you will address them in advance.
Constructive Criticism	Finding a positive way to convey criticism.
Questions	Using questions as a tool of influence.
Political Capital	Building trust and goodwill in order to build up influence that can be spent when you need it.

Motivation

If you influence people to follow direction, they still require the motivation to do well. As such, motivating people is a basic function of leadership.

38 Elements Of Leadership

Style

Strategy

Execution

Leadership Skills

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