HEAR the word “leader,” what immediately comes to mind?
Maybe you think of someone with a title, such as CEO, president, prime minister, or admiral. Maybe you think of some famous public figure, such as a celebrity actor or singer, start-up founder, or pro athlete. Maybe you think of someone from the history books who led a revolution, conquest, or world-changing movement. Or maybe you think of someone who created a breakthrough invention, won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize, wrote a best-selling novel or Grammy-winning song. It's rather common to see these kinds of responses. They are reinforced every time you read one of those lists of the “50 Greatest Leaders of the Year.” In fact, if you take a look at one of the most well-known lists, you'll see that 100 percent of the so-called “greatest leaders” fall into these categories.1 It's true for young leaders as well. In a list of young global leaders prepared by the World Economic Forum, 85 percent of the young leaders held the title of a senior executive, founder, or government official.2 The majority of “leaders” who make these lists and are featured in the popular press are people with titles and at the apex of their organizations.
It's not that these individuals aren't leaders. They are. It's just that they are not the only leaders on the planet. In fact, they aren't even the majority of leaders. We've collected data from millions of people around the world and we can report, without a doubt, that there are leaders everywhere. There are leaders in every profession, discipline, and field, in every type of organization and industry, every religion, and every country; you find them from young to old, male, female, and gender non-conforming, across every ethnic and cultural category. Leaders are not just found at the top of organizations; they abound at all levels, including the middle, as well as on the front lines. There are leaders outside of formal organizations, too, in neighborhoods, community associations, clubs, sports teams, and families.
You could have a title like manager, director, or vice president. You could have people who report to you directly, but these would not necessarily make you a leader. Titles are granted, but being a leader is something that you earn, and you earn it not by your place in the organization but by how you behave. And through your behavior, you earn recognition as a leader in the eyes of those around you, and in the relationships you have with them. Indeed, it's much more likely that you are a leader who is a parent, coach, teacher, frontline worker, project manager, volunteer, community activist, or concerned citizen. You could also be a leader who is an individual contributor, professional, volunteer, analyst, consultant, representative, administrator, engineer, or scientist. You don't have to be at the top to lead; you can lead from any position or place.
So let's get something straight right from the start. Leadership is not a hierarchical level. It is not a title or a rank. It is not a position of power or a place of privilege. When you look up the word leadership in the dictionary it does not start with an uppercase L. It starts with a lowercase l, and lead, leader, and leadership literally derive from the word meaning “to go” or “to guide.” That's what leadership is all about: going places and guiding others.
From whom do people seek this kind of guidance and direction? We decided to find out.
Leadership Is a Relationship
In a global study involving over 35,000 people, we asked them to think about the individuals in their lives who were their role models for leadership.3 We provided a number of categories from which their leadership role model might come. Take a look at the list in Table 1.1. From which category is the one person whom you would choose as your leadership role model?
Whom did you select? When thinking back over their lives and selecting their most important leadership role models, respondents overwhelmingly nominated a family member more often than anyone else. Next most important were a teacher or coach and an immediate supervisor. Those under 25 years of age (Gen Z) had these ranked second and third, while Millennials (Gen Y and Gen X; ages 25 to 55) and Boomers (56 and older) had them ranked in the reverse order. For those in the workplace, their teachers and coaches are their immediate supervisors. Another 6 percent indicated a co-worker or colleague. Altogether these four categories accounted for more than three-quarters of all responses. Eight percent indicated “none/not sure,” which meant that only 16 percent of all responses were in the categories of business leader, community leader, political leader, religious leader, actor or entertainer, and professional athlete. This pattern is relatively stable across genders, ethnic groups, educational levels, industries, professions, and even hierarchical levels.
TABLE 1.1 Leadership Role Models
| Actor or Entertainer |
| Business Leader |
| Coach |
| Community Leader |
| Co-Worker/Colleagues |
| Family Members |
| Immediate Supervisor |
| Religious Leader |
| Political Leader |
| Professional Athlete |
| Teacher |
| None/Not sure |
The data clearly shows that the people selected are individuals respondents are closest to. They are not the people in the news, on TV, or in social media. They're the ones with whom people have had the most frequent contact. In other words, leadership role models are local. While famous folks may occupy the headlines, those with whom you have more personal contact are most likely to become your role models and have more influence over how you lead and how you develop as a leader. And make no mistake about it, the same realization applies to you. You very well could be the leadership role model for those closest to you—more than could someone on that so-called list of the world's best leaders.
These results have extremely important implications. Parents, teachers, and coaches are the individuals who are setting the leadership example for young people. It's not hip-hop artists, movie stars, professional athletes, or others making news on social media who inspire them about leadership. And if you are a parent, a teacher, or volunteer coach, you are the one they are most likely going to look to for the example of how a leader responds to competitive situations, handles crises, deals with loss, or resolves ethical dilemmas. It's not someone else. It's you.
The findings also reveal that if you're in a work organization, you are more likely to find role models among your colleagues on your immediate team than at the pinnacle of the organization or somewhere on the outside. If you are now a supervisor or manager, you may already be someone's role model. You are more likely than any other person in the organization to influence their desire to stay or leave, the trajectory of their careers, their ethical behavior, their ability to perform at their best, their drive to wow customers, and their motivation to share and serve the organization's vision and values.
There's no escape. To some, you are or could be their role model for leading. Those individuals could be colleagues on your team, they could be peers in another part of your workplace, they could be kids on the youth athletic team or club you coach after work, they could be people from your community who are working with you as a volunteer, or it could be your son or daughter, spouse or partner, at home.
A question for you to consider: If you are potentially a role model for someone, wouldn't you want to be the best role model you can be? It's your choice.