On the Meaning and Value of Leadership: Formulating a Social Reality as a Vision

I submit that leadership is the formation of a vision and persuading other people to adopt it. From this standpoint, leadership is distinct from management—the latter taking the vision as a given and going from there to formulate strategy and implement it as policies. In short, a vision is open to leaders to change but closed to managers, who must take a vision as a given.

Material from this essay has been incorporated into The Essence of Leadership: A Cross-Cultural Foundation, which is available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.