The only requirement for a leader is that someone is following him or her.
For all the books, articles, and papers that have been written about leadership, for all the fees that have been paid to attend leadership training, and for all the executive initiatives that have been launched to develop cultures of leadership, there is no getting around this fundamental and anarchic trait of leadership. People may be required to follow managers, but people choose to follow leaders.
Someone who wants to become a leader soon comes to the terrifying realization that no authority from above can make them a leader. An executive directive may allow them the opportunity to attempt to lead. (But an executive directive fosters resentment if the prospective followers feel they are being coerced.) Leadership can never be mandated, created, awarded. or assigned—it can only be earned from those who are willing to follow.
There are reprehensible ways for leaders to attract a following: spreading popular lies, advocating irresponsible visions, exploiting personal attractiveness, fragmenting groups, rallying the crew against a common ogre, and the list goes on. One sobering thought for every leader is we each have used these shameful techniques at times, sometimes accidentally, sometimes to a slight degree that we hoped wouldn’t matter, and sometimes when we were desperate. Our followers will discover when we have used such manipulative tactics, whether sooner or later, and after their discovery they will reconsider and judge all that we have done. It is an easy decision for a follower to rescind the title of “leader” they awarded us.
Instead, we as good leaders must appeal to our followers based on the vision we consistently share and on the values we consistently demonstrate in everything we do, always respecting the trust that our followers have placed in us.