What does "leadership" mean to you?

Leaders inspire others by example.

You should get the best selling book ‘The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership’ By John C. Maxwell. That book completely re-defined what I considered leadership to be, and also got me to a level of financial wealth I couldn’t dream possible.

Just like the book, I think leadership its hard to sum up with just 1 thought. But I think one of the greatest in my life is to lead followers to multiply, and essentially create and raise more leaders. The ability to empower those beneath you to cause them to rise to the same level–I think–is an amazing feat.

I think there are two essential elements to leadership.

The first is initiative. A leader takes action at the opportune time, without waiting for others to go first. This requires faith in one’s own judgment, being willing to take reasonable risks, and being willing to accept the consequences of one’s actions.

The second element is an ability to work effectively with others. A good leader will know how to bring out the best qualities in his team, and how to direct and coordinate the particular talents of individuals so that the team functions as an efficient organism.

Harp already put it brilliantly. If I were to sum up leadership in a sentence, it’d be:
A leader inspires a following.

Well, lets not forget integrity, and not just the ability to inspire, but the ability to do that through confidence. Selflessness because after all, the quality of the people you lead and their actions is a reflection of yourself and representation of your skills as a leader. Also the ability to use some of these adjectives I just used intelligently and fluently, to give the perception that you know what your talking about, after all confidence can be faked.
Ha but really those are just qualities i suppose. But I feel like leadership is defined by qualities more so than action, because action is the easy part.

Leadership to me means a variety of things and having the ability to juggle a variety of things with a cool head and without making excuses makes you a decent leader.
Being a good leader means more than just setting the example, you have to raise the bar for yourself and realize that if you are leading then there is a team that is helping. The team can only be as strong as the leader. Perception is key, integrity is key, assessment is key. Willingness to accept all responsibility, guidance, respect and the ability to motivate are all key factors in leadership.

See: Ron Heifitz, Leadership Without Easy Answers. This is an analysis of leadership around especially difficul tasks.

Judgement
Justice
Dependability
Integrity
Decisiveness
Tact
Initiative
Enthusiasm
Bearing
Unselfishness
Courage
Knowledge
Loyalty
Endurance

I like this article about leadership
http://leadershipskillcenter.com/180art/leader-role.html
And the free Leadership Resource Pack
http://leadershipskillcenter.com/freeres/

It talks about how leadership is a role most of us will need to play at some time or other, even if we don’t think we’re a born leader.