Ok I am a leadership nut. I'm constantly looking to become a better more mindful leader. I recently started working on a new leadership series with one of my mentors Mr. Brian Ross. The series will air on my web show #StartupsUnedited.

When I asked Brian what leadership was he said "Leadership is being a good example for people armed with the knowledge that he who has the most flexibility has the most influence."

I became so obsessed by the topic of leadership these days that I set out to understand what leadership meant to others.

I sent texts and emails to 36 of my friends, family and business associates asking them to answer one question:

"WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?"

Below were their answers:

Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks Owner and Shark Tank Host says "Having a vision for success that everyone takes ownership of.Jorge A Soto, Entrepreneur, Organizational Psychologist (most importantly my dad) says"Leadership requires the ability to take the initiative to get things done."
Sabrina Soto, HGTV Host (and my cousin) says "Leadership is teaching your network and colleagues to learn from every situation -- positive or negative."Gokul Rajaram, Head of Caviar at Square says leaders "Create a compelling vision of the future"Ken Krogue, Founder at InsideSales.com says "Leadership is the single most powerful variable in a successful sales campaign. Great leaders combine strategy, tactics, motivation, and vision. Leaders are shepherds, managers are sheep herders.

Aaron Ross, Author and CEO at Predictable Revenue says "Leadership is tuning out all the freaking noise to listen to yourself and feel out what's most important, needs to be done, or just plain right -- even when others think you're crazy. If you are not called crazy once in a while, you're managing, not leading."Lori Richardson, President at ScoreMoreSales says "Leadership is serving others through action and through examples - for mutual gain and extreme accomplishment."Vince Thompson, First sales leader at Facebook says "Leading one to a better place than they started while serving them in the process."Mikita Mikado, CEO at PandaDoc says "Leadership is the art of making people believe, act, and follow."

Pouyan Salehi, Founder and CEO at PersistIQ says "Leadership is about setting a vision and communicating that vision in a way to inspire others to be their best achieving the common goal.Richard Harris, Sales Expert and Consultant at Harris Consulting says "The ability to reach and exceed their own self-imposed limitations."
Phu Tran, Director of Publisher Sales at Twitter says "Leadership is when you can successfully help a group to be better than they were before, but via an approach that the group not only supports but also has a comprehensive understanding of."

Ralph Barsi, VP of Sales Development at ServiceNow says "Leadership is enabling other to accomplish their goals."Bridget Gleason, VP of Sales at SumoLogic says "Leadership is inspiring greatness in other people. 😊 "
Ilya Semin, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Datanyze says "Ability to motivate your team to work together towards the same goal."Trish Bertuzzi, President at The Bridge Group says "Leadership is when you don't have to ask your team to get motivated because you are what motivates them."Ben Sardella, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Datanyze says "Leadership is the ability to get the most out of people by inspiring them to want to give you their best."

Matt Bellows, Founder and CEO at Yesware says "Leadership is inspiring others to reach their full potential."Roberto Soto, Retired Media Executive and Professor (and my uncle) at DoseofNews says "A consensus coach who motivates over-performance "
Manny Medina, Founder and CEO at Outreach.io says "The ability to helps others do what they did not think was possible. Surpass what they thought their potential was."Halit Berisha, Senior SaaS Sales Leader based in NYC says "Leadership is helping people reach their full potential to achieve a common goal."

Jeremy Cotter, Former Facebook Executive and Founder at Fitness Express "Leadership is making decisions and following through on them even when those choices may not be popular at the time."Kyle Porter, Founder and CEO at SalesLoft says " Leadership is serving others through influence and love to accomplish more than they believed possible".
Sean Kester, Head of Product and Founding Member at SalesLoft says "Leadership is selfless actions of empowering others to be better versions of themselves ."Tami Mcqueen, Founding Marketer at SalesLoft says "Leadership is creating an environment for your team and providing the resources that will empower them to perform at a level they never thought was possible."Daniel Barber, ToutApp Sales Leader and Advisor at Node.io "Finding something worth working for and being able to inspire people to follow you..."Aslam Najeebdeen, Founder and CEO at Frontcube says "A consensus coach who motivates over-performance "
Carly Hamill, Early MoPub and current VP of Sales West Coast at AppBoy says "Leadership is looking out for the whole rather than just yourself and creating confidence in extreme talents that you've identified without judgement."

Chris Bennett, CEO of Soldsie says "Executing actions to get people to follow you."
Steve Richard, Co-founder and CRO at ExecVision like to think of this quote when thinking of leadership "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader -- John Quincy"Falon Fatemi, Founder and CEO at Node says "I would like to respond with this quote from Ghandi: it's being the change you wish to see in the world."Saad Shahzad, Head of Sales at Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll) says "Leadership is about helping your team prioritize and execute. There are always a million things to do at a startup. How you spend your time as a leader can mean the difference between success and failure"

Mark Roberge, First business hire and current CRO at HubSpot says "Leadership is about setting a bold vision and inspiring people to want to pursue it"."
Max Altschuler, Founder and CEO at Sales Hacker Media says "Good leadership is getting the most out of people and making them so good that they don't need you anymore."Olga Steidl, Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Veteran says "It is not being afraid of your own unique style of management."Julio D Hernandez, Co-founder at Renew Energy says "leadership is taking action that is in line with your beliefs in spite of fear, insecurities and others opinion."Bryan Atwood, Co-founder of MoPub (acquired by Twitter in 2013) says "One aspect of good leadership is providing guidance so that each person can set clear, measurable goals that improve the organization and their career growth."Tomasz Tunguz, Venture Capitalist at Redpoint says "Great leadership begins with great compassion."

WHAT WAS THE COMMON THEME?

LISTEN UP --:

it's not about you, it's about them. Your team, your employees; others.