Who Can Exercise Leadership?
If we know where we are going, but are following somebody walking in front due to the chain of command protocol, would we consider that somebody as the "leader"? Alternatively, would the perceived fact that we are following somebody constitutes that somebody as a "leader"? Can we distinguish the difference between authority and leadership?
Exercise of pure authority happens when a person in office is empowered to command others and to enforce their obedience. Exercise of pure leadership happens when a person not in office has the ability to influence others to think and do things otherwise they would not think and do. Leadership manifests itself particularly during difficult times when very few persons (whether in office or not) would have the wisdom to suggest the right direction and guide others to follow through.
In any pluralistic societies, there are always persons exercising authority but not necessarily leadership. Conversely, persons exercising leadership may not be empowered to exercise authority. At the same time, there are also persons or groupings struggling to capture that authority or to influence the exercise of that authority.
Not only that people generally appeal to authority, they are also disciplined to obey, and thus exercise of pure authority is easy. On the other hand, exercise of pure leadership by anyone is hard as others are not bound to follow, but for the shared values and action plans. In my view, while the "leader" label is convenient to persons exercising authority, we must not be led to believe only such "leaders" can exercise leadership!