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Comment by claar | Hacker News Reader

Also a great read along these lines is "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" by John Maxwell, which I'm close to finishing currently.

Maxwell claims that leadership is influence, not authority. When I became a co-founder, I thought that made me a leader. But as PG's excellent post and Maxwell affirm, leadership is quite distinct from positional authority -- and is much more difficult to attain.

Speaking directly to this post, I found that rating myself against Maxwell's "21 laws" was a sobering and likely accurate gauge of my leadership ability.

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Years ago we had a board meeting, me being a youngish co-founder. We were talking about founder titles. I remember forever Esther Dyson as an investor and board member telling me then, that the titles do not mean much. You can be a great leader inside your company without any titles or official role - this is what you should aspire for. And you can be a CEO/CXO/VP without being a leader at all.

Variation of the same sentiment: ask a difficult question and see who everyone in the room looks towards for an answer. That person is the leader.

Higher title = ensure that people will listen to you for the first minute when you address the audience and/or ensure they'll come at all.

Higher title = better pay

It also has some drawbacks but that's a different topic.

If you have leadership skills, you can help lead your company, even from a low-end job title. However, it can take years to build up respect from management in that position.

If you have a high title, you get a level of respect immediately (whether you deserve it or not). It goes a lot quicker.

I think it's a bit more nuanced. If you have a high title, you get people's attention immediately, but it takes time to earn their respect, and the two are quite different.

Sure, but attention may be a prerequisite to respect. How can gain respect if others don't know who you are or what you are contributing?

Having the official authority to do something can just make things a lot faster. People may agree with you, but will want to check with their manager first anyway. If you have title authority, then they don't need to 'check with their manager' or equivalent.

That was something that really bugged me about this essay. It says it's for "leaders", but it's really addressed to CxOs. I was hoping to get some useful insight into becoming a better informal leader, but there was very little applicable.

I think that the attributes mentioned also scale down to fit any leadership role.

That said, it's really kind of "well, yeah, of course". Generally if you have integrity, vision, and the trust of the people you work with (or who work for you), you're going to be perceived as a leader among that group of people.

> Maxwell claims that leadership is influence, not authority.

When you're setting the raises, bonuses, and assignments, authority is (very blunt) influence. I've seen many coworkers do obviously dumb things because the boss wanted them to do it that way. They shrug their shoulders and say, "I just work here". It's not obedience out of respect or loyalty.

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