Two Kinds of Leaders

My experience and observation is that there are two kinds of leadership: Institutional Leadership and Influential Leadership. The first happens when someone is given a type of role or position within an institution; they're the boss. The second kind of leadership happens apart from any position or role by people who have a giftedness, expertise, or character that is noted by others and followed.

If you have an institutional leadership position that requires you to appoint other leaders, make sure you never appoint someone to a position of leadership who has not proven themselves to be an influencer already. The type of person who sits around waiting for a position so they can lead is not the person you want in a position of authority. People who think leadership is about position are dangerous leaders because they inevitably equate leadership with power.

The best institutional leaders are ones who are already leading by influence. When you give them an institutional role, their leadership doesn't change except in scope. Those are the kinds of people you want in roles of authority.