Leadership is more than a titular responsibility or a symbolic stance. Especially in today’s business and society, leaders are also “doers” - they manage and execute as well as lead teams and organizations. As a leader, you must recognize and remember your responsibilities - and exercise authority where necessary.

Leaders have many responsibilities, and these can vary based on the circumstances. A military leader may have different responsibilities than an organizational leader. But all together, leadership involves several basic responsibilities that you must recognize and put into practice every day.

First, a leader is responsible for direction. You must declare a direction and paint a picture of the future for the organization. Give them an idea of what the future will look like. But more than this, you may have to establish a direction that involves change. For example, in 2005, Brenda Barnes became CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation. At the time, Sara Lee not only included food but also clothing. When Brenda Barnes took the reins, she declared that the company’s focus would revolve around the food business, while the clothing side was sold. This was a change, but it was also a strategic move that set a direction - a direction that would put Sara Lee back into focus as a foods company.

Leadership responsibility also involves creating excitement about the direction that’s been set. Many companies, such as Microsoft, brought back the “pep rally” idea to allow the leader to generate excitement about the organization and its new direction. As a leader, you’ve got to show your passion for the change you’re advocating - and ensure that the passion is contagious. It could be in the form of rallies, written communications, video or web conferencing, or even recorded video or audio. Creating excitement is not only about passion, but it’s also about imparting knowledge to the organization. Whatever medium you choose, you’ll be able to share your vision of the future, talk about how the organization plans to get there, and even allow people to ask questions.

As a leader, you must provide resources, perhaps one of the most important leadership responsibilities. You’ve set a direction by declaring the future, you’re generating excitement around the change, and now it’s time to begin execution. Some leaders believe that their responsibility ends here, but it definitely does not. When you set about to make a change, discover if adequate resources exist - these could be human resources, technical resources, or functional resources. If you know that the change is going to require 10% more capacity in a certain area, find out if the existing staff is able to handle it - if not, part of generating excitement can be the announcement that you’ll be adding new positions. Consider training needs for both functional positions and managers - and provide what’s needed. At the same time, you must be willing to listen along the way to determine if the organization is asking for further resources. Providing resources can also involve moving obstacles - and you have to decide which obstacles to remove yourself and which ones to leave for the organization. Some obstacles may be learning experiences while some may just be stumbling blocks. Commit to providing resources both at the beginning of change and as it progresses.

Another leadership responsibility is coaching. You must prepare other leaders to take on responsibilities within their individual organizations. When change is about to occur, it is your responsibility to determine what strengths and opportunities are present within your leadership team and begin to coach those behaviors and attitudes. As the entire organization moves forward, everyone will have to take on additional leadership in the guise of managing change, maintaining focus, creating excitement, and maintaining motivation. Make sure your leadership team is ready by committing to coaching them.

One of the final leadership responsibilities stems from coaching - you also have to be prepared to teach leadership. There are many schools of thought on leadership - is it a natural characteristic or can it be taught? The most common belief is that certain people do have the capability to be leaders, but they must be taught how to use those capabilities effectively. Make leadership training a part of your organization: bring up talented leaders to eventually replace the ones who are already there.

But with leadership responsibility comes the duty to exercise authority where it’s necessary. Many of your authorities as a leader come from managing the execution of the organization’s direction. You must be prepared to assign responsibilities - in times of change, people may not be willing to step up and accept new duties or changed duties. It is your authority that will assign these duties, for the best of the organization and the individuals. Along with assigning duty, you must describe the outcomes of change. You’ve already set a general direction, but there may be a need to define specific outcomes as they relate to various groups.

In addition to assignment and outcomes, you must be prepared to exercise authority over timelines and efforts. First, you should be able to look at timelines and determine if they are realistic, overstated, or appropriate for the organization and its growth. There may be times when you have to step in and manage the timelines, as well. In relation to managing timelines, another leadership responsibility is the coordination of efforts. While your organization is moving forward, you may attempt to remove boundaries and increase communication among individual units, but until that’s happening on its own you must be able to coordinate the effort of the units. You’ve got to make sure that no one is duplicating efforts or slowing things down.

One of the final authorities of leadership is taking action. If an individual or unit fails more than twice, you must be ready to recognize when to make a change - without negative criticism. Sometimes the responsibilities of leadership may cause you to look at an individual who does not share the organization’s vision and values and decide when there’s a “dead end road”. These can be unpopular decisions, but your responsibility as a leader forces you to exercise authority at the same time.

As you see, leadership is about responsibility as well as authority. Knowing both is important, but being able to balance the two areas for the good of the organization and all of its individuals is the key factor.