Leadership is the action of leading a group of people. It can also be seen as a role and skill or set of skills. A good leader is someone who is honest, has empathy, inspires people, is a great communicator, enables people, has good decision making skills, takes accountability, has passion for their work, leads by example, etcetera. Leadership is also associated with coaching, mentoring, and teaching.
Have you got any examples?
A good experience that I had with a leader was when I had a challenge at one point in my career. The leader spent time coaching me and mentoring me, helping me to reach my own solution to my challenge. They were empathetic with my situation, and I could easily see they really cared about helping me and were open and honest with their opinions.
What's the value of leadership?
Having a strong leader can be so impactful to you doing the best job you can. A strong leader will boost morale, create a safe space for learning and growing, encourage mistakes for people to learn from, and will coach and mentor you through any challenges you face, supporting you to solve your own problems. Being a strong leader can also be hugely rewarding too, Be it in supporting people in their career, mentoring someone in the community to help them grow as a tester, or in helping your team with a strategic direction, it'll be rewarding for your own morale and for your own career growth too.
What are the pitfalls?
It's still fairly common for leadership to be confused with management. Leadership is different from management. Anyone can be a leader at any point in time. Many managers are not leaders. They don't possess the leadership skills that they should have. I'm a believer that managers should be people who have leadership skills, but often, this isn't the case.
