After over 25 years of coaching thousands of successful nonprofit executives, the primary definition of leadership that CSL's President Dr. Anthony Silard has arrived at is ‘Leadership is the capacity to develop and sustain multiple key relationships toward a common purpose.’

In other words, leaders mobile a group of people toward common objectives. Put simply, they build relationships toward common goals. Leaders do through others. They get others to do what they want them to do while feeling that they want to do it.

A leader is like a captain of a ship, guiding passengers on a journey toward a collective destination. Leadership is not for everyone: If you do not wish to work with a group of people and guide them toward common goals, then, you do not need to learn about leadership.

Thought of in this way, leaders are purveyors of social connection. They develop compassionate, meaningful, sustainable relationships with others and facilitate a process through which others develop such relationships with each other.

Leadership is not a person or a position (such as CEO or Executive Director), but a process that anyone can employ who would like to encourage others toward collective goals. We can practice leadership in both our personal and professional lives. Parenting, in fact, is the rawest form of leadership.

An old definition of leadership is ‘A leader is someone who has followers.’ Anthony redefines leadership with his principle that ‘A leader is someone who empowers other leaders.’ We at CSL believe a true leader is not surrounded by followers, but by other leaders.