Volumes and volumes have been written about leadership. You can search online and purchase any number of books about how to lead effectively, how to improve as a leader, you can pick up a historical account of how the best leaders have led, and there is never any shortage of books that will help you define what a leader is and determine if you are one.

While I’ve read my share of leadership books, wading through all of that can simply be exhausting. When it comes to determining if someone is a leader or not I prefer to start with a simple question:

What kind of affect do they have on the people and the organization around them?

• How do they make people on the team feel?
• Do people want to be around them?
• Do they improve the performance of the team?
• Are people inspired by being around them?
• Do people naturally follow them?
• Do they produce results?
• Can they persuade others to adopt their ideas?
• Can they move the organization towards the objective?

Sometimes the best way to determine if someone has a leadership gift is to take a step away from all of the leadership science offered up in most books and simply observe if they’re actually leading. That’s what leaders do.