Who is a Leader

A common picture of a leader is the person sitting at the head of the table. Title, office, authority. Strip away the title and most of what we call leadership disappears with it. That picture is convenient, but it gets the idea backward. Leadership is not the chair. Leadership is the ability that put someone in the chair in the first place, and that ability shows up in people who never sit at the head of any table at all.

A working definition

A widely used short definition is direct enough to start with:

A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.

Three components have to be present.

1. Influence. Not authority, not coercion, not bribery. The leader moves others’ behaviour. The how is open: it might be example, words, vision, a question at the right moment.
2. A group. Leadership only exists among people. A person alone in a room can plan, decide, and act, but cannot lead because no one is being led.
3. A goal. Influence without a destination is charm. A leader is moving the group somewhere.

A person who has all three is leading, whatever her job title says. A person who has only the title leads in the same way that a person who owns a guitar plays music.

The 3P mnemonic

A useful way to remember the definition is the three Ps: Person, People, Purpose.

Person

The first P forces a question: is leadership a position of office, or is it an ability that the person carries?

The standard answer is: it is the ability. Leadership is not what the door of the office says. It is what the person does in front of others.

A leader is one who goes first and leads by example, so that others are motivated to follow him.

This means leadership is portable. The same person, placed in a new group, will start leading there too. A person who only led because of a title will not.

People

A leader leads other people. This sounds obvious until you remember the number of bosses who issue instructions to subordinates without ever actually leading them. Leadership requires followers, and followers are not automatic. Followers choose the leader. A boss has subordinates by employment contract; a leader has followers by their decision.

Purpose

A leader has a goal. A leader without a goal is a coach without a game.

To be a leader, a person must have a deep-rooted commitment to the goal that he will strive to achieve it even if nobody follows him.

The commitment matters because it is what survives early discouragement. New leaders are constantly told their goal is impossible, naive, badly timed, or not their business. A leader who can articulate the goal clearly to herself, and who keeps working towards it even when the group is unconvinced, is the one who eventually pulls the group along.

Why the 3P framing matters in education

Schools are full of people with titles and few people leading. The principal, the deputy, the head of department, the senior teacher: titles say leadership; behaviour often says administration.

The 3P framing gives a school a way to ask harder questions of itself. Take each person with a title and check:

1. Person. Does she lead by example? Would she still pursue this goal if her title were removed?
2. People. Do colleagues actually follow her decisions, or do they wait for the principal?
3. Purpose. Can she state, in one sentence, what she is trying to move the group towards?

A school where the answers to all three are clear has real leadership at every level. A school where the answers are mostly “she has the title” has only structure.

Leadership outside the org chart

The 3P definition also explains a familiar pattern: the senior teacher who has no formal title but is the person every younger colleague goes to for advice. She has people; she has purpose; she does not have the chair. Effective school heads recognise this informal leadership and work with it instead of around it.

The reverse is also true. A school can have a head of department who is technically the leader but is not followed by anyone, while the actual leadership lives elsewhere. Pretending the chart is the reality is one of the more common mistakes a principal can make.

Flashcard

What are the three Ps of leadership, and why does each matter?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Person, People, Purpose.

1. Person. Leadership is an ability the person carries, not a chair she sits in. Strip the title and the ability remains.

2. People. A leader leads other people. Followers choose to follow; they are not assigned by an organisation chart.

3. Purpose. A leader has a goal. Influence with no destination is just charm. Commitment to the purpose is what survives early discouragement.

Together they say: leadership is what a person does, with others, towards something.

What this definition rules out

Naming what leadership is not is as useful as naming what it is.

1. A title alone does not make someone a leader. A new deputy head with no influence is not yet leading; she is occupying a chair.
2. Authority alone does not make someone a leader. A teacher who controls students by threats is using authority, not leadership.
3. Charisma alone does not make someone a leader. A speaker who entertains a staff meeting but moves no decisions has not led.
4. Working alone does not make someone a leader. An excellent solo performer can be a model, but until others follow, there is no leadership happening.

The 3P definition is restrictive in a useful way. It separates the everyday managers who keep schools running from the rarer people who actually move them somewhere.