Definition of leadership

What is your definition of leadership? We agree with John C Maxwell's definition of leadership when he says leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. Judith Germain believes that leadership is trusted influence. There is a subtle although important difference from Reputational Leadership

Leadership moves beyond the position defining the leader, to looking at the ability of the leader to influence others - both those who would consider themselves followers, and those outside that circle. Indirectly, it also builds in leadership character, since without maintaining integrity and trustworthiness, the capability to influence will disappear (the Teal Trust).


Judith Germain's Leadership dRive™ Model represents that establishing and leveraging reputation is a key component in this leadership model. All the leadership characteristics effect and are affected by it. She has always thought of leadership as trusted influence and the key to real leadership is to ensure that you wield that trust responsibly and you use the influence that your followers give you to achieve the organisations goals in a way that is transparent and has integrity. Reputation and credibility are essential traits for leadership.

It is this belief that drives us in the work that we do. Our work in developing leadership talent, concerns itself with how individuals (or potential leaders), gain and maintain influence.How reputation is leveraged and expertise demonstrated. Our expertise focuses on mavericks, and the ability of organisations to harness the creativity and tension they create. Organisations should encourage ther employees to demonstrate positive maverick traits, to challenge the status quo for the benefit of the company. In this area we do three main things:

a) we help senior executives manage their mavericks within companies

b) we enable the maverick to behave their way to success and discover their expertise

c) we support business owners in building their reputation and growing their business via advocacy and maintaining focus

In essence we help organisations and individuals to leverage reputation and demonstrate expertise.


To garner influence on a continuous basis, individuals need to have credibility, reputation, a high Social Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence quotient, flexibility and integrity. They need to understand and work through the Leadership dRive™ Model.

Developing leadership talent is a surprisingly complex concept. Our definition of leadership is - it's all about trusted influence, reputation and expertise.

“I always use Jude when I want an 'expert' opinion on current best practice with networking, social media or mavericks (Troublesome Talent®). An experienced business mentor who enables her clients to leverage reputation and demonstrate expertise, she has contributed to a number of high quality podcasts which I've published on my NLP Experts Forum. Her Troublesome Talent® interview has received over 2000 downloads, making it one of the sites most popular interviews. The NLP Experts Forum looks at success accross leadership, sales, networking, coaching and managing change. In addition Jude is a great leadership coach and mentor as well as a fully experienced HR professional. I'm delighted to recommend her.”Michael Beale

To find out more about the Leadership dRive™ Model or our leadership development courses contact us here