Effective leadership: can it be measured?

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

Published: 14th of july 2014

What went to my mind once I saw this is the idea shared by Erika Andersen (2012), a contributing blogger at Forbes Magazine. In her discussions, she made known that in the modern business world, people still measure effective leadership success by the level of money amassed or the level of power they have over others (competing brands as well). However, such people are ignorant of the main purpose of leadership. This is because leadership is all about positive change. Change not in your own power but change in the lives of people around you. A good leader is one who understand what people needs and does whatever is necessary to meet such needs (in some cases involving individual sacrifices).

Successful leadership happens organically when the focus of a leader is on the real impact of his or her actions. As such, if the focus of leaders is on supporting the success of their enterprise, and such leaders judge themselves honestly by the extent of how they are able to catalyze such success – the people in that organization will be loyal to such leader and say “I’ am with you – Let’s go.” This is the true measure of effective leadership and as such, it can be said that it is possible to measure effective leadership.

Reference

Erika Andersen (2012), “The Real Measure of Leadership Success.” Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/02/01/the-real-measure-of-leadership-success/ [Accessed on: 9^th of July, 2014].