The Measure of a Leader

August 12th, 2010 by Donor By Design Team

One of the more fascinating discussions at the 2010 Global Leadership Summit was with Terri Kelly – CEO of WL Gore and Associates. You may know them as the creators of Gore-tex among other things.

Since its founding, WL Gore and Associates has had a very loose and flexible leadership structure. Task forces and special teams take priority over departments or divisions. No one is ever given an assignment, instead they must choose to accept it. Most interestingly, leadership is defined by followership. The resources asssigned to any one project directly correlate to the ability of the project’s creator to convince others that his or her idea is worthwhile.

Your peers choose you as a leader simply because they choose to work with you and believe that your idea is a good one. The role of leader is earned each day. Kelly herself was chosen to be CEO by her fellow employees.

If leadership is measured by followership, how do you rank as a leader?

For more insights from the Global Leadership Summit,

watch our short video summary of the event.