Defining leadership

This article is part of the Contemporary leadership series

Mention the word leadership in a classroom or in conversation in a suitably convivial bar and people always become hard-boiled, demanding a definition of what you mean by leadership.

Mention marketing or strategy or the meaning of life and they are less demanding. But, with leadership, definitions are required.

Stuart Crainer is editor of the award-winning magazine Business Strategy Review and co-founder of the Thinkers50. According to Personnel Today he is one of the most influential people in British people management.

His book credits include The Management Century and a biography of the management guru Tom Peters. His work with Des Dearlove in business thought leadership led Management Today to describe them as “market makers par excellence.” Stuart is an adjunct professor at IE Business School.