A leadership point of view: key principles

Purpose – This paper aims to understand what leadership is and how it occurs within organizations. Design/methodology/approach – Highlights four key principles which serve as a guiding template or frame of reference to help enhance managers' confidence and credibility and encourage strong leadership inside an organization. Findings – Followers choose our leaders – leaders do not choose their followers. This kind of relationship and connection between people goes beyond the transactional (i.e. managers and their direct reports) and into the realm of the transformational. Practical implications – The phenomenon we call leadership/followership is an episodic series of events intending significant change. So, to be clear, leadership does not reside in a person or even several persons; it resides in a dynamic and ever‐changing relationship among people. Originality/value – Creating leadership energy is an inside job, the stimulus for it comes from inside an individual. It can come from inside any individual of any type. This sits in opposition to the view that there is a universal list of character traits which determines who becomes a leader in any culture or any industry.