35 Examples of Leadership

John Spacey, August 05, 2021

Leadership is the practice of getting groups to act as one. This requires no formal authority and is distinct from management whereby an individual has specific authority to direct people and control resources. As such, anyone can demonstrate leadership in any group context. The following are common examples of leadership situations followed by more detailed examples.

Championing Change	Conferences & Workshops
Consulting	Contributing to Projects
Contributing to a Family Business	Customer Service
Facilitating Meetings	Founding a Band
Group Assignments at School	Group Study Sessions
Hobbies that Involve Teamwork	Improving Processes
Improving Work Culture	Internships
Leading an Aspect of a Project (e.g. Design)	Managing People
Managing Projects	Managing a Business Function
Operating a Small Business	Organizing Events
Part-time Jobs	Political Organizations
Protests	Public Speaking
Running Meetings	School Activities
Social Groups	Solving Problems
Sponsoring Projects	Sports Teams
Starting a Small Business	Student Government
Student Organizations	Teamwork
Volunteering

Detailed Examples

A front desk clerk at a hotel who champions a change to check in practices that improves customer satisfaction.

A developer who leads a problem solving exercise at a developer's conference.

An engineer who leads a design charrette to produce a product prototype.

A consultant who leads a push to encrypt customer data in a database as a basic security measure.

A family member who pushes for improvements to the services offered by a family-owned restaurant.

A project contributor who leads by clearing issues that involve multiple stakeholders.

A team member who facilitates a conversation to resolve internal conflict in their team.

A student who takes the lead to divide work and collaborate on a group assignment.

An IT Manager who leads an initiative to automate time consuming IT maintenance work across a large organization.

A student who organizes group study sessions before a difficult exam.

An employee who gets approval to organize lunch and learn sessions to promote knowledge sharing across teams.

A senior member of a sports team who helps the coach run practices by leading several activities.

A cosplayer who organizes a small local cosplay event.

An employee who champions improvements to working conditions with management.

A student who leads the production of a school yearbook.

A marketing manager who sponsors a project to build a dashboard that provides visibility into return on advertising spend by business unit, product and campaign.

An employee at a fast food restaurant who leads an initiative to improve practices on the night shift to avoid wasting food.