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Can you SHOW leadership without BEING a leader in a position of authority over people? MLK Jr showed leadership to the general public by promoting a change in attitude toward African Americans, not by getting things done through a team. You can show leadership by example to your work colleagues by demonstrating a smarter way of working. You can also coax new directions out of people by using engaging questions designed to stimulate people to think differently and to co-create better solutions.

See Three Kinds of Leadership for more on thinking differently about leadership. A major focus of this website is on Engaging Leadership A good place to start.

What's novel about this new way of thinking about leadership is that it does not entail occupying a role or being a certain type of person. My claim is that people in authority positions are managers. Leadership is not a role, it can only be SHOWN on an occasional basis.

Engaging leadership is a bit like participative or democratic leadership but much more proactive because it actively draws people out with the most engaging question there is: “What do you think?” This question has hundreds of variations. Engaging leaders can even propose their own ideas in the form of "What do you think?" questions such as: "How do you think X would work?"

This site covers how to be a more engaging leader but it also argues that leadership can be defined in a broader way than being an authority figure. How to think differently and more positively about management is also explored. Other topics include how to celebrate success and conduct more engaging performance appraisals. In addition, there is some material on how to build your confidence, how to feel more positive and feel more fortunate.