Leadership is an observable fact of followership, not a title.

observation — attributed to Ben Erwin

Erwin uses the word constantly inside his company and defines it entirely outside the org chart: the credibility that comes from soft skills, storytelling, authenticity, trust, and building something people believe in that is bigger than themselves. He locates the origin of this instinct in his own childhood as the oldest of four boys, describing the job of getting four different personalities to meet shared expectations as his first management role, formed long before any formal title existed. The observation is that leadership instincts are typically set before anyone's first direct report, in rooms that never appear on a resume.

For understanding where a leader's actual management instincts were formed, as distinct from where they were credentialed.

followership, leadership, early-formation, credibility