What is Leadership ?

Often times we tend to believe that leadership is meant only for those who occupy the top position in a hierarchy. Is this true ?
Can every one be a leader ?
Is leadership applicable for top management ?

Please go through the article to find answers for the questions on Leadership
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The biggest myth about leadership is that only people in formal positions, at the top of hierarchies should be called leaders. In fact, many thousands of people at lower levels in great companies provide leadership in their jobs, on task forces, initiating new ideas. The second biggest myth is that only an elite few have the potential to provide leadership .
True, very few of us will ever be leaders remotely like Mahathma Gandhi. But many of us can provide needed leadership in a modest, but important, way. One only has to look at team sports among schoolchildren. Do the math. Add up all the schools and all the team sports and estimate how many young people play some leadership role in the games. The number is staggering.
Imagine what would be the impact on this rapidly changing world if we all believed that leadership is more about a decision and less about birth, pedigree, or education? I think the impact would be huge. Every person and every employee would rise to a leadership role. If we believed, we would make it happen. When we do not believe, we do not look for leadership potential among the masses. We do not nurture that potential. We give only a few the opportunity and encouragement to try to lead.
India is far more important to the world than is generally acknowledged . As the world’s largest democracy, and the world’s second largest nation, India is enormously important to both the world economy and to all people who seek freedom from tyranny.
At the same time, without enough leadership to create and build organisations, an economy like India can’t keep producing enough jobs to make it function well and to keep a democracy stable. Leadership is not the only necessity for progress, but without enough, scarce resources are not sufficiently leveraged, economic growth cannot be sustained over long periods of time, and democratic institutions remain fragile - always vulnerable to tyranny and corruption.
With a possibility of leadership coming from hundreds of thousands of people, leadership coming from millions, in such a huge nation as India, will help start thousands of companies, grow thousands of existing companies, create millions of jobs, and build vibrant 21st century government organisations.
Under these circumstances, why shouldn’t the GDP grow at double digits year after year? Again, do the math. Doubledigit growth over the next 20 years would create an Indian economy of what size? An average income of what size? Wealth how much larger than today? The numbers are amazing . Definitely the time has arrived for every Indian to get on to a leaders hip role.
Source: ET