What is leadership? Well, it has a knack for being elusive because there are so many styles of leadership, which convolute a leader's role. So, before you continue reading this blog, I better define what leadership is.

Leadership is simply influencing others, and the scope of that influence ranges from people's assumptions, values, personalities, and emotions...to their perceptions, attitudes, motivation, and so on. But in an organizational environment – essentially, when you're at work – I'm talking about influencing other people's behaviors. Their actions. What they do, and how they do it.

The study and application of knowledge about how people behave at work, is called Organizational Behavior. Now, why do I bring this up? Well, because Organizational Behavior and leadership are connected. When you understand how people behave, you are better prepared to influence their behavior. Consequently, both Organizational Behavior and leadership draw on several of the same disciplines, many of which this course embodies. For example, personality and motivation draw on psychology; teamwork, on sociology; decision making, on economics; persuasion and power draw on political science; and stress draws on the medical sciences.

So, I assume that you, as a leader, want to influence other people's behavior. That's probably why you're here. Well, keep on reading.