Is Leadership leadership?
Which of these people are Leaders, and which ones are leaders?
Refer to the infographic above.
I present you with eight personalities. I am sure you will be able to match face to name, name to face.
You have a quiz for the 7th Leadership Note of 2025.
The question is posed in the heading above.
Whether you have been immersed in Influential Leadership or not, you should do much better than any current AI tool!
I asked four different so-called AI-powered assistants to name leaders, great leaders, leaders in 2025… a range of leadership-related questions.
The answers were predictable, as I suspected. The root of AI processing is looking into ‘big data’ to give back what exists, no value added, no smart filtering. We get back what the multitudes have put in.
Do you recall Leadership Note # 4/25? It deals with GiGo versus TiSo. Refresh your memory at Make decisions worth sticking to
Yep, these smart AI tools simply give back what exists, they cannot think, reason or innovate.
When I asked one of the AI assistants who it thinks is the most prominent leader in 2025, it was categorical that it has no opinions, it merely reflects what we humans say and write.
Let us for a moment leave out the nuances of leadership (the activity) and leader (the person).
I bet you can do better than AI.
Match the personalities I offer in the infographic with the two categories of Leader vs. leader.
The Leaders are…
The leaders are…
The Influential Leadership Lesson
Lessons in Leadership are countless—I offer four fundamental ones:
- Definitions count: Influential Leadership is obsessed with defining what we deal with, what we mean and most importantly what Leadership is (and is not). It starts with the PURPOSE of leadership, as discussed last week (LN 06/25). A Leader is not a leader is not a leader…
- Outcomes count: Leadership can only have productive outcomes. Leadership (Leaders) change things for the better, for themselves and others. It is simply ignorant and disingenuous to imagine that a Leader could produce monstruous outcomes. But, not for AI! The response I got from AI is, “Yes, a person can still be considered a leader even if they produce terrible outcomes.” No, never!
- Leadership – moment by moment: Influential Leaders are as good as their last Leadership practice. In other words, because Leadership is not a personality, position or title, it must be practiced at each Leadership Moment again and again and again. We are only Leaders at each successful Leadership outcome. (Question: How does this affect the list of personalities’ categorisation?)
- Being able to audit and measure counts: One of the powerful tools that the Influential Leadership System offers us is the capability to assess whether a person’s intention, behaviour and outcomes are consistent with Influential Leadership. Unlike legacy leadership and AI, we know the difference between Leadership and leadership.
In next week’s Note I will offer an analysis of the eighth personalities and why some are Leaders and others not.
When you are bombarded with references to ‘leadership’ and ‘leaders’, turn to the Influential Leadership System to filter out the noise—you will know who is.
If you have not yet been on the Influential Leadership journey, you are invited to join the movement. It will be a pleasure to have you on board.
Regards,
Colin @ Karoo
Influential Leaders Know!
Leadership Note # 0725 | 17.02.25
e: colind@karoo.world
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