#TipForTuesday – What is Leadership?

I’m assuming I got this from Scott somewhere along the way, but I found a deck of “cards” in my desk called Developing the Leader Within You. The cards are part of a leadership training course by John Maxwell.
Each card has a single word on it, describing the characteristics of different types of leaders.  We’ll be bringing back our #TipForTuesday posts utilizing these cards, calling it “What is Leadership?”
Stay tuned on the second Tuesday of each month, I’ll randomly select 3-4 cards and share some thoughts on the characteristics selected.
Today’s chosen words are:

• Authority – possessing power over decisions, people, assets
• Competence – possessing the skill, knowledge and ability to effectively perform
• Quality – a standard of excellence

Clearly an effective leader demonstrates a level of competency for tasks at hand and expects a high-level of quality for the work, not only personally but for those around him/her.  Authority, to me, comes when the other two qualities are present.  Sure, you can have the power, but I believe you have to earn it by showing your team that you are willing and able to do what it takes.