Ben Martin made a very brief post a while ago about becoming a leader by simply being yourself. It sparked an interesting comment thread, in which I make several points. The bulk of my part of the discussion was distinguishing between emulating people you see as good leaders and internalizing leadership qualities you admire. There’s nothing particularly wrong with copying others’ behavior, but I do agree with Ben that at the core of the development of individual leadership capabilities is self-knowledge and self-development, so if that new behavior doesn’t get down to who you are, then it won’t impact your leadership capabilities as much as you think.

But in the middle of all that, David Gammel made a great point that deserves more attention:

The biggest challenge I faced when I had staff leadership roles was transitioning from seat-of-the-pant leadership to more intentional leadership.

If you want to implement lasting change you have to be leading with intent, which is a subtle change. Seat of the pants got me through many short term challenges quite well but was lacking for the long term stuff.

I still go back to Peter Senge’s definition of leadership: the capacity in the human community to shape its future. You can’t play your role in shaping the future (at least not effectively) without clear intention.