What one, single word best describes leadership?

In this episode, I report on feedback I received when I asked several people to respond to that question. Recently, I sent out an email message to a few hundred of my contacts, and I asked:

What one word, in your opinion, best describes the notion of leadership? In other words, if you had to boil down leadership into just one word, what would that be?

The responses were intriguing. Here are the first ones I received...and which are reported in this episode:

• integrity; but the more I think about it, the word should be servant -- Carol Anne McGuire, California
• vision -- Lucy Gray, Illinois
• courage, commitment, understanding, direction, shepherd -- Kristen Vassos, New Jersey (these are responses from members of her family)
• communication -- Gayle Berthiaume, Minnesota
• integrity, commitment -- Dr. Otto Benavides, California
• vision -- Joanna Seymour, Iowa
• heart-- Tami Brass, Minnesota
• creativity -- Jeff Hall, Virginia
• relationships -- Robert (Bob) Hudson, Illinois
• experimentation -- Patricia Conlan, New York City

Then, there was one more very special submission by Dr. Pat Horn, an Apple Distinguished Educator from Florida. Pat called the Think Like A Leader hotline (206/984-3136) and left an audio message. The crux of her submission is:

• vision, dedication, caring spirit, persistence ... but she summed up all this by saying a leader must be "a visionary who leads by doing."

I appreciate all the feedback that you sent in. Now, I am putting out a Call for Help on a few issues:

1. Book Reviews -- I promised you some reviews of books on leadership and related topics. A few of them have been included in previous episodes; however, I want to give you a great many more. In order to accomplish this, I need some of you to record a brief audio file in which you give a 1-2 minute synopsis of some book that has meant a great deal to you. Send your files to me at [email protected].
2. Your Most Admired Leader -- I need you to create a short audio file (30 seconds - 2 minutes) and tell me who your most admired leader is, and why. I would like to play some of these audio submissions on a future episode.
3. Music for Podcast -- Although I have been using music composed by Ted Scalzo in New York, I would like to get some more of you to send some music that I can use as bumpers/clips/jingles for the: opening; transitions; and closing. I know you are great musicians, so please send me your stuff and we'll highlight it on a future episode.

Please send your comments and questions to me via email or you can leave them here by clicking on the "comments" link below. Also, you may call the voice mail hotline at 206.984.3136.

I invite you to subscribe to this podcast via iTunes.

Until next time, Think Like A Leader!!