John Maxwell, an author I have enjoyed reading over the past 20 years, offers a method to analyze leaders in his latest book, Leadership Gold. Maxwell suggests that we can either analyze our personal leadership capabilities or those of others that we are close to by looking at 4 factors and asking 4 questions:

• 1- Are the people Following? Maxwell explains that if people are not following, then the leader is not leading. A leader making the right moves with the right motives solidifies the relationship between leaders and followers.

• 2- Are the people Changing? People are at their best when they are changing, but are unlikely to change unless an effective leader is present to help them facilitate the process.

• 3- Are the people Growing? The best leaders help people with more than their jobs; they help them with their lives. They help them grow as people, not just as workers. Growing people create growing organizations.

• 4- Are people Succeeding? The bottom line with leadership is always results. Maxwell says that leaders may impress others when they succeed, but they impact others when their followers succeed.
  

"Leadership is the lifting of a man's vision to higher sights, the raising of a man's performance to a higher standard, the building of a man's personality beyond it's normal limitations." Peter Druker 

Let me leave you with a final thought. Maxwell has always written in terms of Leaders and Followers. I am not here to argue over terms, but here's the way that I prefer to focus organizational leadership:

"LEADERS leading LEADERS."

 
I have found, as I have dealt with professional sports teams or top executives in business, that leaders are no longer looking for followers to follow them. They are looking for new leaders to take initiative, to communicate effectively and to rally the troops. In fact, leaders are looking for other leaders to shoulder the ever-growing load.