Harnessing and sustaining energy: the science of good leadership

Also broadly accepted is the idea that leadership is situational. Context matters and leaders need to adapt themselves to the realities they face. A related concept is that great leaders emerge in challenging times.   

In addition, research and practice have established that leadership skills can be developed. It is not the case, however, as Vince Lombardi famously put it, that “leaders are made, they are not born”, but some degree of in-built endowment does appear to be necessary.  

Beyond those areas of agreement, however, definitions of leadership vary greatly. In his 1974 Handbook of Leadership, Ralph Stodgill noted that “there are almost as many different definitions … as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept.”  

At the risk of adding to the confusion, I developed the following definition and have explored it in senior executive programs at IMD with substantial success.  

This definition is inspired more by physics than psychology. In physics,…