Recently, I came across an outstanding definition of leadership. Professor Homayoun Khamoosh of the George Washington University Business School defines leadership and a leader’s responsibility as follows:
Leadership is the ability to turn vision into reality. A leader’s first responsibility is to define reality, and the last responsibility is to say, “Thank you.” Between these two responsibilities, the leader serves. Before becoming a leader, one must achieve personal growth. After becoming a leader, one must foster others’ growth. One must be able to lead others to become leaders themselves.
So what does a leader lead? A vision. Vision serves as the leader’s navigation system. The great achievements of outstanding leaders always begin with visions, both large and small. Yet if a vision remains nothing more than a dream, its owner is merely a dreamer—not a leader. Leadership is the ability to turn that dream into reality. It combines personal qualities and technical skills such as perseverance, social intelligence, planning, communication, management, and delegation.
A person who lives entirely in reality but cannot dream beyond it is not a leader. But to realize a dream, a leader must fully understand reality. A true leader rejects both pessimistic despair and groundless optimism. Consider a surgeon operating on a patient: the surgeon pursues a vision of the patient’s healthy state, which transcends present reality. Yet the surgery itself must be grounded in the current condition. Without an accurate diagnosis, healing is impossible. Similarly, a leader’s first responsibility is to define reality. Organizations set their direction and move forward based on the reality that the leader defines.
A leader’s final responsibility is to say “thank you” to the members who have journeyed alongside them. No leader achieves anything alone. Even within a family, no one accomplishes goals entirely on their own. Without members’ cooperation, success is impossible. People do not cooperate with leaders they do not trust, and leaders earn trust through character, not just technique. Yet not every person of character becomes a leader. Leadership is the ability to guide people based on character. Once a leader secures cooperation and achieves the goal, they must sincerely thank everyone who contributed.
When a leader steps into the background, allowing members to celebrate and say, “We achieved this together,” they have reached the realm of true leadership. Such leaders do not rule others—they serve them. Khamoosh defines a leader as someone who consistently serves, from fulfilling the first responsibility of defining reality to completing the final responsibility of expressing gratitude.
What does it take to become a leader? Growth. A leader leads today based on yesterday’s growth. Without growth today, one cannot lead tomorrow. Those who stop growing unknowingly lose their leadership and fall behind.
What, then, defines a leader’s success? It is making others successful. Using people to achieve one’s own success is shallow leadership—and in reality, it doesn’t work. A few manipulations might succeed briefly, but if a leader continually exploits others, people notice. Members join organizations because a vision inspires them, but they leave when people disappoint them. Leaders who exploit others ultimately lose their followers. True leadership completes itself when it makes others successful. Without growth, success is impossible. Therefore, a leader’s true achievement lies in helping others grow.
I was genuinely impressed by how clearly, concisely, and accurately a business school professor captured the essence of leadership. The original text is even more succinct: “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”